A new musical opened on Broadway the other night — The Addams Family starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth. Some of the press releases assert it is based not so much on the classic television show as on the legendary cartoons Charles Addams drew for The New Yorker. That sounds like snobbery — "Oh, no! It isn't based on a TV series. It's based on something more cultural." — and also it's a fib. The musical is all about Gomez and Morticia and Lurch and Uncle Fester…characters who were named and developed from drawings for the TV show. The TV theme is even used in the stage version and most of the reviews say it gets the biggest reaction of the evening.
Most of the reviews also say it isn't a very good show. Ben Brantley in the New York Times called it "a genuinely ghastly musical." There was a time when if the Times said that about your show, you immediately posted the closing notice and looked for a job in some non-theatrical line of work. That power has considerably diminished but the near-unanimity of reviewers may have the same impact. Then again, it is a popular property and it does have Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth. I kinda hope it stays open at least until my next trip to New York, whenever that is. I'd like to see for myself how it is.