REVIEW ROUNDUP: The Addams Family at Chicago’s Oriental Theatre

Broadway In Chicago’s pre-Broadway world premiere presentation of The Addams Family, a new musical based on the bizarre family of characters created by legendary cartoonist Charles Addams, opened Wednesday, December 9 at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts’ Oriental Theater. The production continues in Chicago through January 10, and will play Broadway’s Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, with previews beginning March 4, in anticipation of an April 8 opening.

The musical stars Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth as Gomez and Morticia Adams. It also features Terrence Mann and Carolee Carmello as Mal and Alice Beineke, a couple who come to dinner at the family’s residence, Kevin Chamberlin (Uncle Fester), Jackie Hoffman (Grandmama), Zachary James (Lurch), Adam Riegler (Pugsley), Krysta Rodriguez (Wednesday), and Wesley Taylor (Lucas Beineke).

The production features direction and design by Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch, book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, and choreography by Sergio Trujillo.

The show and its two stars have gotten a mixed, but decidedly positive, reception from critics in Chicago.

Among the reviews are:

Variety
Review: The Addams Family
“…the show is theatrical comfort food, providing value for the consumer dollar. Slickly and grandly designed, completely accessible, consistently amusing and in its own way a genuine tribute to old-fashioned Broadway musical entertainment, this tuner loves the use of a spotlight, shining it generously on gifted stars Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth.”

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“Is the show overcrammed and underfocused? Yup — the chorus, for example, makes sense for two of the numbers, but then just seems to hang there in the shadows. And it’s easy to miss a bit more edgy, existential perversity. But despite plenty of zingers about torture instruments and death, these characters are as sentimental as such macabre figures could get.”

Daily Herald
‘Addams Family’ snappy but not flawless
“Lane slips into the role of the endearing eccentric as easily as Gomez might slip into a silk smoking jacket, and wears it as well as the lissome Neuwirth wears Morticia’s neckline-plunging, body-hugging gown.”

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“Yet all of that considerable talent can’t entirely make up for some of [the] musical’s shortcomings, including flimsy characters and a surfeit of subplots, which should be addressed for the musical to live up to its potential. Considering the family’s impressive pedigree, a bit of trimming and some tweaking should do the trick.”

Time Out Chicago
Review: The Addams Family
“The largely admirable new musical based on cartoonist Charles Addams’s creations has a lot going for it, most notably director-designers McDermott and Crouch’s intimate understanding of Addams’s aesthetic and a cast to die for.”

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“…the show [has] a truly ensemble feel, which may lead some to feel that above-the-title stars Lane and Neuwirth are underused. Neuwirth probably is, saddled with a clunker of a plotline about Morticia feeling old, but Lane amps up his every scene.”

Chicago Tribune
‘The Addams Family’ at Oriental Theatre: In need of more ‘Family’ time
“The show is hijacked by Addams behaving weirdly (i.e. normally) and characters who aren’t part of the family.”

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“The whole show needs to be funnier and more visually spontaneous. There is integrity and originality aplenty. And bonafide beloved characters. Now bring on the torture and the cruelty to animals.”

Chicago Sun-Times
Lunatic ‘Addams Family’ is fabulously functional on stage
“Yet who could possibly have guessed that this family of instantly identifiable characters would achieve its most ideal realization in a full-fledged Broadway musical? But so it is in “The Addams Family,” which received its winningly lunatic world premiere Wednesday night at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre.”

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“Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice have penned the book, and it’s to their credit that you hardly notice it. The cleverest lines are in Andrew Lippa’s songs, whose melodies are pastiches of tangos and fandangos, vaudeville numbers, patter songs, a killer torch number and more.”

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“…Gomez (Nathan Lane, who gives this wealthy, flamboyant Spaniard a third dimension of grace, subtlety, panache and true heart), and Morticia (Bebe Neuwirth, a sort of marvelous mermaid of the dark side).”

Chicago Pride
‘The Addams Family’ Is Happy/Sad
“Nathan Lane is sensational […] His comic timing is pin point and has a stage personality that is unmatched by any actor working today. Bebe Neuwirth is also perfectly cast and if the rewrites would allow, has the ability to be the quintessential Morticia.”

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“What is missing is that we never get to know or enjoy the Addams’. Only those who are familiar with the television show or the two movies will have a grasp of what the actors are trying to do. The audience is left to feed off those past character incarnations to understand what is happening with the musical.”

Northwest Indiana
‘Addams Family’ a batty good time
“It ain’t Shakespeare, but it’s a devilishly good time. …Nathan Lane gives the genial, tango-loving Gomez a sexy Latin twist and Bebe Neuwirth fleshes out the chilly Morticia with human insecurities.”

For further information, visit www.broadwayinchicago.com.