Addams Family, The review
Barry Sonnenfeld, who made the film in 1991 (and which not incidentally has collected a huge cash box in USD 192 million vs. USD 30 million spent on production), would have been pleased with this approach. It, too, was a lively and interesting. The heroes in this musical are not like ones in the movie, and this is its distinctive zest. Playing on Broadway for one and a half years, this musical is not exhausted, and even got a spin-off in a tour to other cities in August of 2011. And still on play, so many years after!
From film, this musical differs, above all, with bright and sincere staging. It concludes a lot of family values and vivid jokes, from which the public laughed now and then. Rare minute passes without having to bring a fair amount of humor. What to say of Grandma joke that when she was at Woodstock of 1969 and saw John Lennon, who turned to her and said that he had no inspiration, nor any muse comes to him. And she answered him: “You don’t need it all, all you need is love”. The reaction of the hall had to be seen! It was very emotional joke and went very well. As many others of them. And with such jokes the performance is full. We see that those who have done this show like The Addams Family with all their heart and tried to show not the sullen mood, which abounds in the film or computer games, but something close to each family across the globe – spiritual warmth.
The plot is pretty simple, but it incorporates a carousel of gags and unusual behavior of non-standard characters that fill every second and minute of stage time. Wednesday, the daughter of the family, is in love with a boy from a simple average family, Lucas, and want to marry him. But the two families yet resist it, because they are from very different worlds. They are fundamentally other from each other literally in everything, beginning from food and style of clothing, and ending with the ability to communicate with the world of the dead.
In this staging, all imbued with the love that has different forms: from the love of tortures (as brother Pugsley), to the love of anima, that is, the Nature and its manifestations – the Moon, for example (the love of Uncle Fester to this astro object). From the word “anima”, by the way, the concept of animagician or animag takes its sources (from Harry Potter) – ability to turn or to cause a turn into a creature of Nature ("anima"). And this is a basis of word "animal" – the one belonging to Nature.
The key character, no doubt, is Gomez by Douglas Sills. He is both a strong leader and tries to follow the wishes and feelings of his family, which should be brought together every day, so they would continue remaining so.
Someone also may dislike the clothes of Morticia with very low-cut in front. Some detracts from the quietly monitoring of plot developments, despite the recognition that the dress is sitting on her body brilliantly, as if glued with the help of something sticky or adhesive. Although, in our opinion, such a variant of clothes just reflects the best the spirit of the character – as her clothes were fit in the film and cartoons. So she could hardly move. The same as here.
The overall impression of this musical – it was very heart-opened, nice, sincere and funny.
Last Update:April, 06th 2016
Addams Family, The Lyrics
- Addams Family Theme
- Overture
- When You're An Addams
- Pulled
- Where Did We Go Wrong
- One Normal Night
- Morticia
- What If
- Full Disclosure
- Waiting
- Full Disclosure - Part 2
- Just Around The Corner
- The Moon And Me
- Happy/Sad
- Crazier Than You
- Let's Not Talk About Anything Else But Love
- Let's Not Talk About Anything Else But Love (Reprise)
- In The Arms
- Live Before We Die
- Tango De Amor
- Move Toward The Darkness