THE ADDAMS FAMILY: More Mediocre Than Macabre

Book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice; music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa; based on characters created by Charles Addams; set and costume design, Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott; lighting design, Natasha Katz; sound design, ACME Sound Partners; puppetry, Basil Twist; hair design, Tom Watson; make-up design, Angelina Avallone; special effects, Gregory Meeh; orchestrations, Larry Hochman; music director, Valerie Gebert; choreography, Sergio Trujillo; original direction, Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch; entire production under the supervision of Jerry Zaks

Cast:
Gomez Addams, Douglas Sills; Morticia Addams, Sara Gettelfinger; Uncle Fester, Blake Hammond; Grandma, Pippa Pearthree; Wednesday Addams, Cortney Wolfson; Pugsley Addams, Patrick D. Kennedy; Lurch, Tom Corbeil; Mal Beineke, Martin Vidnovic; Alice Beineke, Crista Moore; Lucas Beineke, Brian Justin Crum; the Addams Ancestors: Ted Ely, Karla Puno Garcia, Steve Geary, Patrick Oliver Jones, Lizzie Klemperer, Christy Morton, Rebecca Riker, Roland Rusinek, Geo Seery, Samantha Shafer

Performances:
Now through February 19, Citi Performing Arts Center Shubert Theatre, 270 Tremont Street, Boston. Tickets available at the Box Office, by calling 866-348-9738, or online at www.citicenter.org.

Creepy and kooky, mysterious and spooky, altogether ooky? Well, not so much in the national tour of The Addams Family musical currently haunting the Shubert Theatre in Boston courtesy of Broadway in Boston. This innocuous theme park reduction of Charles Addams’ famously quirky and darkly disquieting cartoon family works very hard to be all things to all people, but in so doing, it manages to be very little to no one in particular.

The hodgepodge score by Andrew Lippa and misguided book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice turn The Addams Family into nothing more than an old-fashioned (and rather bland) feel-good family musical with a storyline as twee as any Ozzie and Harriet sitcom from the 1950s. In this version, supposedly new and improved over the Broadway production which ended in December, Dear demented Wednesday (Cortney Wolfson) is all grown up now and very much in love – with a squeaky-clean all-American boyfriend named Lucas Beineke (Brian Justin Crum) whom she met while hunting in Central Park. As soon as you can say “duh duh duh dum snap snap,” they are engaged and want their families to meet.

Jan Nargi is owner and creative director of JMN Publications, a marketing and public relations firm based in Boston, Mass. She provides consultation, communications, and writing services to clients in the health care, entertainment, financial, retail, manufacturing, non-profit, and sports industries. As a freelance writer, Jan has had hundreds of articles published in business and high-tech magazines. Theatrically, she has reviewed, written, directed, acted, produced, sung, danced, managed publicity, pounded nails, and designed lighting and sets. Jan has even acted in the occasional B-movie, playing a zombie, a psycho shrink, and a clueless news reporter. You may visit her on the web at www.jmnpublications.com.

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