"The Addams Family" Ends Chicago Runs; Heads for Broadway in Four Weeks

"They're ooky and they're spooky" and they're leaving Chicago's Oriental Theater in four weeks to open on the Great White Way, Broadway. All indications that the play based on the television series "The Addams Family," based on the book by frequent Woody Allen collaborator Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, with Music and Lyrics by Andrew Lippa, will be the smash hit of the season this year.

Nathan Lane is Gomez Addams, with Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia Addams. One of the finest voices in the ensemble belongs to Krysta Rodriguez as Wednesday Addams, a part associated with Christina Ricci previously. Uncle Fester has a great role and is played by Kevin Chamberlin. As I walked away from the play, two jaded playgoers were discussing how the play might have been "different" if Lane had played Uncle Fester, instead of Gomez. (They were also accusing him of "phoning it in," but methinks they were being a bit harsh.) Also in the cast is Adam Riegler as Pugsley Addams, Zachary James as Lurch and Jackie Hoffman as Grandma.

The basic plot is that Wednesday has turned 18, the age of consent, and she has a "normal" boyfriend, who must pass muster with the Addams Family at a special dinner where they will play "the game." "The game" is basically telling something you've never revealed before...sort of an undiluted "Truth & Consequences."

Wednesday just wants her weird family to act "normal" for one night. (There's even a song entitled "One Normal Night"). Lucas Beineke (Wesley Taylor) and his father Mal (Terrence Mann) and his mother Alice (Carolee Carmello) are to be put to the test by the Addams Family traditions.

Nathan Lane gets to deliver lines with panache, saying things like, "Oh, what a night. Makes a man feel bad to be alive!" He does so with his normal flair.

A sub-plot develops around aging and its effects on us all. "We're born, our children are torn from us, we lead a life of unmitigated suffering and then we die," says Morticia to Gomez in one scene. His response? "I love it when you talk sexy." Morticia also notes that, "What's normal for the spider is a calamity for the fly." Morticia, realizing that Wednesday is perched on the edge of young womanhood, doubts her own image of herself. She asks Gomez, who is standing across the room, "Am I old?" To which he responds, "Not from here." There are musings like, "What if all the good times are already behind me." To which the answer is, "That's life, Kid. You lose the things you lose."

The young lovers are a good match, except that Lucas is from Ohio and, as he says, "I can be impulsive. I just need to think about it first."

But Morticia agonizes over her fading charms with lines like, "I used to be the star, Now I see how things are. Maybe second banana, passing stage, But, by God, it's hard to age." She's got that right. Another line asks whether one should "Cling to the past or welcome the new?" and adds, "Second banana to my children now.

One philosophical bit of wisdom suggests, "May there come a night when you learn to love the flaws as much as the easy things."

The songs are good, the sets are fine, Nathan Lane is in Nathan Lane form and Bebe Neuwirth looks ravishing, (although her voice is probably the weakest of all the singers).

In short, yes, it will be a hot ticket for Broadway in New York City this fall, so my $105 matinee seat doesn't look like it was too over-priced after all.