Chicago Ford Center/Oriental Theatre
I really enjoyed this production starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth from start to finish. The play opens with a wonderful group number celebrating daughter Wednesday’s transition from child to woman, in which her pigtails are ceremoniously removed and she is welcomed into the long history of the family tree. Her mother, Morticia, sensuously played by Bebe Neuwirth, reminds her of their hopelessly romantic family creed, which is what Wednesday must find in a mate, “Passionate and true, forever- even after death!”
The whole show centers on wonderful feminist themes of sexual and romantic awakening and reawakening for the various characters, especially the women. Mrs. Alice Beineke played by Carolee Carmello, mother of Wednesday's (Krysta Rodriguez) new and scarily “normal” beau, has an absolutely show stopping number during “Double Jeopardy” wherein she realizes the love has gone completely out of her marriage. It is mournfully and masterfully sung and the audience responded in kind with long thunderous applause.
Some of the new musicals don’t have any songs that really stand alone and stick in your mind but the song” Let’s Not Talk About Anything but Love” which expresses Gomez’ eternal fixation on romance has a wonderful feel and lyrics reminiscent of classic Cole Porter.
There lots of genuine laughs courtesy of the accomplished Nathan Lane, and Grandmama played by Jackie Hoffman who consistently does excellent, very funny character work. She has a great line where she admits she smokes marijuana in the attic, but claims it’s medicinal - she has gingivitis! Jackie says about the role, “I’m from an Orthodox Jewish home in Queens, and my first contact with the Addams Family was from paging through The New Yorker and finding those cartoons. They were just so weird and dark and smart and very funny. I think of Grandmama as having a thick European accent, maybe a bit senile, and always mixing some sort of potion. My costume? I’m kind of like some ancient hippie from Woodstock who wears a crazy poncho and cool granny glasses. And I can tell you, I use everything I ever learned from working at Second City in this part.”
One specific thing I was eagerly awaiting though which never materialized was a real dance number for Bebe Neuwirth, who played Morticia with beauty and sexy charm. I realize most musicals now are choreographed with the future touring company and long run in mind wherein the major dance moves are reserved for the chorus of dancers only in order to save wear and tear on the leads, but Bebe, also one of my favorite Jewish actresses, is well known as an accomplished dancer and still has the legs to prove it. When she finally rips the constrictive Morticia dress and Nathan exclaims in surprise, “You have legs!” I got ready for her showstopper, but alas it was just more of the very safe, simple easy dance moves watered down for her and Nathan and the chorus to sort of walk through.
The mostly older crowd of critics and fans at the Chicago World Premiere dug The Addams Family too, as was evidenced by their enthusiastic clapping along with the Addams family theme, na na na na- clap clap, at the end of the show. It made us all feel like a kid again, kids who came from our own crazy but loveable Addams families and lived to tell the tale!
