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"Addams Family" Musical: People Come to See 'Em--They Really Are a Scream
Filed under: On the Spot Tagged: art, Ben Bass, cartoons, Charles Addams, music, musicals, plays, theater
Emily Gordon writes:
Our friend Ben Bass, who most recently reviewed some very cartoony characters at the Chicago Humanities Festival, reports that the new musical The Addams Family officially opened onstage tonight. The Chicagoans are an hour earlier, so naturally they got to see it first. Bass writes:The Addams Family is a new musical starring two-time Tony winners Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth, now running in an eight-week Chicago tryout en route to Broadway. Officially opens Wednesday but previews are underway. My Flavorpill preview is here. I also attended the show’s opening press conference last spring, where I got the skinny on Charles Addams and his macabre characters’ New Yorker magazine pedigree. Read about it here.I recommend that you follow his links. They’re excellent and not a bit scary, and they are free of boiling oil, a surfeit of heir, grave-playing children, and manic moustaches. Here’s what Gothamist reported when the show was first announced. They link to a photo of the Addams family (lowercase f) house that likely inspired the artist’s spookatorium.
Meanwhile, this is a very funny Addams-related cartoon-creation story by our friend Carolita Johnson, a.k.a. Newyorkette. And I smiled when I happened on this little collection of contemporary cartoons, by Mark Parisi, full of playful twists on the positively ooky family.
Related on Emdashes: I reviewed the most recent Charles Addams biography; Ben critiqued the redesigned Cartoon Bank and wrote up the 2009 and 2008 and 2007 New Yorker Festivals.
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Hello! We're a small band of media enthusiasts, culture addicts, and journalists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, formerly a New Yorker fan site, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, politics, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
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Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.
The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.
Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Writing on theater: reviews (for Time Out Chicago; imperfect but workable search results)
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
- Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)
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Comments
Charles Addams had a house in The Hamptons and was active in ARF (Animal Rescue Fund), a private outfit that, as its name implies, rescues animals and finds homes for them (many a cat in my household owes its soft life to ARF). Every year Addams would draw one of his inimitable cartoons for ARF’s fundraising letter.
P.S. I always thought the haunted house of the cartoons was based on a house on Main Street in Sag Harbor called the Napier House. But I’m sure everyone has a local house they’re sure is the one. —G.S.
I can confirm what Gert said, as I heard the same story last night straight from the horse’s mouth. Well, not from Mr. Addams himself, as he was unavailable, but from H. Kevin Miserocchi, the director of the Tee and Charles Addams Foundation. At the cocktail party after the musical’s opening night performance, Kevin told my friends and me about Charles Addams’ having helped ARF over the years. His then-girlfriend was a big animal lover and got him involved in the cause. Their Hamptons house is now headquarters for the Addams Foundation, which you can learn about at addamsfoundation.org.