The touring musical production begins its six-day run on Tuesday.
The case of the touring musical version of "The Addams Family."Da-da-da-dum, snap snap.
From the beginning sounds of the classic television theme written by the late Hollywood composer Vic Mizzy, audiences at the Bushnell Performing Arts Center this week can rest assured they’re about to enter the familiar dark, yet welcoming home of Gomez and Morticia Addams when the revamped national tour of Broadway’s “The Addams Family” brings all its delightful creepiness to Hartford.
“It’s always disappointing when critics aren’t as happy with the show as you might be,” said Douglas Sills, who portrays patriarch Gomez in the national touring show, referring to the original Broadway play’s tepid reviews.
After some major retooling – which producers didn’t have an opportunity to do between tryouts in Chicago and the play’s opening on Broadway – the touring show, which opens for six days on Tuesday, is receiving more favorable reviews. Song were scrapped and new ones were written by Andrew Lippa and “Jersey Boys” authors Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice made major revision to their book.
“It’s a great triumph for the creative team to be able to rework the show to something that is so much stronger. I like the creative team, and I think what ultimately led me to participate in the tour was the fact that they wanted to go back to the drawing board. And, I knew there would be considerable opportunity for new input and that is what every actor enjoys doing,” said Sills, who was nominated for a Tony Award for his role as “The Scarlet Pimpernel” on Broadway.
“The Addams Family” features an original story and it’s
every father’s nightmare. Wednesday Addams, the ultimate princess of darkness, has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family – a man her parents have never met. And, if that weren’t upsetting enough, she confides in her father and begs him not to tell her mother. Now, Gomez Addams must do something he’s never done before – keep a secret from his beloved wife, Morticia. Everything will change for the whole family on the fateful night they host a dinner for Wednesday’s “normal” boyfriend and his parents.
And, in addition to Wednesday, Gomez and Morticia, the rest of the gang is back, too, including Pugsley, Lurch, Thing, Cousin Itt, Grandma, and Uncle Fester, as well as some new characters, too.
In a prolific career spanning six decades, Charles Addams created several thousand cartoons, sketches and drawings, many of which were published in The New Yorker. But it was his creation of characters that came to be known as The Addams Family that brought Addams his greatest acclaim. With a unique style that combined the twisted, macabre and just plain weird with charm, wit and enchantment, Addams’ drawings have entertained millions worldwide and served as the inspiration for multiple television series and motion pictures.
“The Addams Family,” filmed in black and white, made its television debut in the fall of 1964 – starring the incomparable cast of John Astin, Carolyn Jones, Jackie Coogan and Ted Cassidy – and ran for two seasons. It returned to the small screen with a new cast in 1998 on the Fox Family Channel and ran for one year. It has also been the subject of two Saturday morning cartoons, and two major motion pictures in the 1990s, “The Addams Family” and “Addams Family Values” starring Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston as Gomez and Morticia.
At age 51, Sills said “The Addams Family” was “certainly something I looked at in reruns.”
“I remember as a kid coming home from school and watching ‘The Little Rascals,’ ‘The Three Stooges,’ ‘Dark Shadows,’ and ‘The Addams Family’ while sitting in front of the television set with my dish of Cocoa Krispies. And, I remember seeing that masking tape on the floor placed there by my mother to be sure I was sitting behind it because of the fear of radiation back then coming from the television set,” laughed Sills.
The award-winning actor said he relishes his role as Gomez.
“If you can’t enjoy playing Gomez, then you’re in the wrong business ... there’s so many things to enjoy about him. He’ s a peculiar guy to the average person, but he’s so happy in life and feels as though he has struck gold in meeting Morticia. He has a gorgeous wife who loves him, a beautiful house in Central Park, money, and family around him,” said Sills.
“And, I think between playing opposite a wonderful cast and having some strong story lines with high stakes, that this a dream role,” he added.
Sills said he brings his own interpretation of Gomez to the stage and didn’t go back to research the character on television and the big screen.
“I did have memories of John Astin standing on his head and doing yoga on the television show, which was something exotic at the time, as well as crashing his trains. So, I certainly remember the wonderful joie de vivre carried in the role. While I didn’t see the movie, I have recollections of the trailers ... of seeing Raul Julia and what the classically-trained actor brought to the role, and it spoke to me very well. And, I love the fact that so many interesting actors have played the role of Gomez from Nathan Lane, the foremost musical comedy actor in theater, to Roger Rees,” said Sills.
“So, I’m enjoying myself and haven’t had any trouble finding my own way and not doing an impression of others,” he added.