Tag Archive for: musical

The Many Versions of the Addams Family

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by Paula Gail Benson

Mural with Charles Addams from: The Addams Family Secret | The New Yorker

According to Wikipedia, Charles Samuel Addams (January 7, 1912-September 29, 1988) made a career as a cartoonist, first for his high school yearbook, then as a free-lancer for The New Yorker as well as a stint creating animated training films for the Army during World War II. He had a macabre outlook, was drawn to a Presbyterian Cemetery as a child, and, as inspiration for the Addams home, explored mansions in the town where he grew up (one of which he was accused of breaking and entering) and buildings at the colleges he attended.

From the 1964-66 ABC TV series

The cartoon characters with which he is most often identified remained nameless in the New Yorker until they became the basis of a situation comedy, The Addams Family, a television program filmed in black-and-white that initially aired from 1964-66. John Astin played the effusive Gomez Addams who passionately adored his beloved wife Morticia (Carolyn Jones), always moving incrementally in a black, tight-fitting, V-necked gown. Their butler, the deep-voiced, tall, and intimidating Lurch (Ted Cassidy) was originally written to be mute, but when Cassidy ad-libbed “You rang?”, the phrase was immediately adopted as the character’s signature line. Bald Uncle Fester (Jackie Coogan) was identified as Morticia’s uncle and Grandmama Addams (Blossom Rock) as Gomez’ mother. Pugsley (Ken Weatherwax) and Wednesday (Lisa Loring) were the two children. Charles Addams originally wanted to call Pugsley “Pubert,” but that name was rejected as being too sexual. Later, in the film Addams Family Values, the new baby and third child was called Pubert.

Several animated and live action series featured the family in the 1970s and 1990s. One of the animated series had Jodie Foster voicing Pugsley. In 2022, Netflix presented Wednesday, a supernatural coming of age series that had a teen aged Wednesday Addams solving a murder at her school.

From Barry Sonnenfeld’s The Addams Family movie (1991)

A number of films, both live action and animated, have focused on the family’s adventures. In 1991 and 1993, Barry Sonnenfeld directed The Addams Family and Addams Family Values. (Barry Sonnenfeld also appeared in Addams Family Values, as the father of Joel Glicker, Wednesday’s boyfriend at Camp Chippewa.) Raul Julia played Gomez Addams with Anjelica Huston as Morticia. Christopher Lloyd is Fester, who was identified as Gomez’ brother. Morticia referred to Grandmama (Judith Malina in the first film and Carol Kane in the second) as her mother (with a mention in the first film that Gomez’ parents were dead). Interestingly, in the Broadway musical, The Addams Family (2010), when Morticia said Grandmama was Gomez and Fester’s mother, Gomez (played by Nathan Lane) was surprised, saying he thought she was Morticia’s mother. Morticia (played by Bebe Neuwirth) later admitted that Grandmama might not be a member of the family. (Note, Nathan Lane appeared in the movie Addams Family Values, as a beleaguered police officer listening to Gomez demand an investigation of Debbie Jellinsky (played by Joan Cusack), who married Fester and established their home in the suburbs.)

Poster for Broadway musical The Addams Family

In the Sonnenfeld films, while Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) might be older, Wednesday (Christina Ricci) definitely showed greater malevolent initiative. In The Addams Family, when a Girl Scout (Mercedes McNab) asked if their lemonade was made with real lemons, Wednesday inquired if her cookies were made with real Girl Scouts. McNab returned in the role of Amanda Buckman in Addams Family Values, a camper who ridiculed and later was tormented by Wednesday and Joel Glicker (played by David Krumholtz, who went on to star in the TV show Numb3rs).

For the 2010 Broadway musical, The Addams Family, Wednesday (Krysta Rodriguez) is the older of the two siblings, pleading with her parents for “One Normal Night” for the family to meet her boyfriend (Wesley Taylor) and his parents (Terence Mann and Carolee Carmello).

The Penn State Library now displays a mural painted by Charles Addams for a Hamptons hotel. The mural was donated to the college when the hotel property changed hands. Entitled “An Addams Family Holiday,” it features the group at the beach, enjoying the waves that other vacationers are fleeing. Meanwhile, Lurch and Grandmama prepare a picnic lunch of bats and a mixed drink made with poison. All very appropriate for a Halloween celebration!

BTW, did you know that Charles Addams received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America?

Mural from: The Addams Family Secret | The New Yorker

Finding Neverland: the Musical

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by Paula Gail Benson


This
summer, while I was in Boston for a business meeting, I had the wonderful opportunity
to attend the opening night performance for the national tour of Finding Neverland at the Boston Opera House. Based on a successful
book and movie, this musical tells the story of how author J.M. Barrie
developed the story of Peter Pan after meeting the sons of Sylvia Llewelyn
Davies. Although the fictionalized story does not strictly follow the facts
found on Wikipedia or in Andrew Birkin’s J.M.
Barrie and the Lost Boys: the Real Story Behind Peter Pan or Piers Dudgeon’s
Neverland: J.M. Barrie, the DuMauriers,
and the Dark Side of Peter Pan (which has been reviewed as being a little
too dark and not as factually reliable), the exploration of how an author found
his character (and vice versa) is a fascinating view of the creative process.
Diane Paulus
Seeing
this particular production had many advantages. The show already played
Broadway and some of the company had been affiliated with that production. In
particular, Diane Paulus, the Artistic Director of the American Repertory
Theatre (ART) at Harvard University, had directed the musical from the time it was
being developed at ART through its Broadway run. She also directed this
national tour company, and had worked with the creators to incorporate
suggestions for improving the plotline and making the story more immediate for
the audience. The result was a really captivating performance that allowed the
audience’s recollections of the boy who wouldn’t grow up to add another
dimension to the story.
Billy Harrigan Tighe
As
the musical begins, stoic Scotsman J.M. Barrie, a successful London playwright,
is concerned that his plays are all the same and wondering what his next work
should be. His American producer, Charles Frohman, urges him not to worry and finish
the next show. His wife Mary, a former actress now enjoying life in society due
to her relationship with Barrie, also encourages him to continue with the status
quo. But, Barrie meets four boys and their widowed mother, Sylvia Llewelyn
Davies, in the park. After playing with the boys and relearning the joys of
indulging his imagination, he faces triple crises of his wife leaving him for a
nobleman, his producer demanding a new play, and Davies’ mother insisting that
he cut off his relationship with her family.
Christine Dwyer
From
the inner turmoil Barrie experiences, a villain emerges. His first name is
James (after Barrie’s own first name and because, as the character informs
Barrie, he is his alter ego) and his second name is Hook, for the appendage that
takes place of a lost arm as well as the concept necessary to develop a story.
As the first act concludes, Barrie’s imagination has taken the games from the
park, added a dark presence consumed by the press of a ticking clock inside a
crocodile that swallowed the missing arm, and created a pirate adventure that
will become the story of Peter Pan. In the finale, Barrie becomes “Stronger” as
his mind builds the images of the pirate ship (that the audience sees grow from
a park bench) and has Barrie standing on the edge of the plank as the curtain
falls.
Karen Murphy
In
the second act, Barrie convinces his dubious producer and cast to put on his
new work. Gradually, they warm to the project as Barrie discovers that Sylvia
is ill. On opening night, Peter Davies is chosen to accompany Barrie to the
theatre, but then the whole company returns to the nursery to give a private
performance for the Davies family. In the end, Sylvia dies and Barrie with her
mother collaborate to raise the boys.
John Davidson
Following
the Boston performance, our audience enjoyed an onstage interview with the main
actors and director Diane Paulus. Billy Harrigan Tighe, who had worked with
Paulus in Pippin on Broadway played
J.M. Barrie. Christine Dwyer, who had grown up near Boston, took on the role of
Sylvia and was delighted to have so many people she knew coming to see the
production. Veteran actress Karen Murphy played Mrs. DuMaurier, the strict
matriarch who warms to Barrie’s charm, and well-known actor, singer, and TV
personality John Davidson was featured as producer Frohman and alter ego Hook.
In characterizing his work with the production, Davidson spoke eloquently about
how each performance became a contract between the audience members and cast
where all brought their impressions of Peter Pan into the mix.

The musical speaks to
writers seeking to create as well as readers who remember a unique literary creation.
Here’s the website where you can see if it is coming to a theatre near you: http://findingneverlandthemusical.com/tour/.
If it is, please go see it. You will thoroughly enjoy it.

The New Cinderella

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by Paula Gail Benson


Are
you familiar with the new Cinderella? I mean the Rodgers and Hammerstein
musical that played on Broadway from 2013 to 2015 and now is touring around the
country? If you haven’t had the opportunity and get the chance, please go see
it, particularly if you were enchanted by its television predecessors, the
first with Julie Andrews (1957), then Lesley Anne Warren (1965), and Brandy
(1997). Here’s the website for the touring schedule: http://cinderellaonbroadway.com/tour/
 
Just
be forewarned: this is not your traditional Cinderella story. This is a new empowered
Cinderella, who helps to bring out the leadership capabilities in the man she
comes to love. If you think I’m kidding, take a look at the cover for the
Broadway original cast album, which also is the national touring company’s
poster. It doesn’t feature a beautiful girl in a pumpkin carriage, or with a
glamorous Fairy Godmother, or even with a handsome Prince. Instead, it shows a
large glass slipper and inside the glass slipper is the image of a girl holding
a glass slipper looking up at a crescent moon. One poster also has the log
line: “glass slippers are so back.”
So
what’s the history of this phenomenon? It was actually written as a television
musical with Julie Andrews as Cinderella. According to Wikipedia, the original
production had to fit into a 90-minute time slot with six commercials, so Oscar
Hammerstein wrote it in six short acts, which he said took seven months.
I
remember seeing the Lesley Anne Warren version and being captivated by the
songs: “In My Own Little Corner,” where Cinderella explains how she deals with
a harsh world through her imagination; “Impossible,” in which the Fairy Godmother
sets the magic in motion; “Ten Minutes Ago,” with Cinderella and her Prince
realizing their instant attraction while waltzing; “The Step-Sisters’ Lament,” gleefully
demonstrating the pangs of jealousy (“With very little trouble/I could break
her little arm”); “Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful,” has the Prince contemplating
his doubt upon Cinderella’s disappearance; and “A Lovely Night,” shows
Cinderella relishing the upper hand as she describes a ball she couldn’t
possibly have attended (“I do not know these things are so/I only can suppose”).
While
the first two television versions followed the traditional story, the third had
Cinderella running away from home after particularly cruel treatment by her
step-mother. The Broadway and touring company version begins with the Prince
(now called Topher instead of Christopher) battling a dragon and heading home from
school to take over his princely duties. A trusted mentor has been handling the
kingdom’s business pending Topher’s return and hopes to continue to do so by
making Topher a puppet ruler. Meanwhile, a revolutionary character, Jean–Michel, is standing up for the rights of the common people, while ineptly romancing
one of the step-sisters. When the mentor seeks to distract Topher’s attention
by having a ball to find a bride, the more familiar part of the story begins,
with certain distinctions. One difference is that the Fairy Godmother is a
local “crazy” woman, to whom Cinderella has been kind. Another little twist is
that the first act ends with Cinderella losing her slipper on the stairway,
then going back to retrieve it before Topher can get it, making all of us
wonder what the second act may have in store. Never fear. There’s another event
at the palace, where Cinderella introduces Topher to Jean–Michel and the common
people, then leaves behind her slipper before vanishing.
In
each television and stage version, the names of the step-sisters changed:
Portia and Joy (1957), Prunella and Esmerelda (1965), Calliope and Minerva
(1997), and Charlotte and Gabrielle (2013 on Broadway). I may be wrong, but the
mystery writer in me noticed that Douglas Carter Beane, who wrote the new book
for the Broadway version lists a daughter Gabby in the credits, so I’m guessing
that may be the reason for the name Gabrielle as well as a change in character
so that Gabrielle becomes Cinderella’s confidant instead of her adversary.
After
we saw the stage production, John W. Henry, my theater buddy, who remembered
well having produced a local production of the original show, asked me what
story had been incorporated into the new version. I had to think about this
question a while, but I finally decided that it was a reverse of the Beauty and
the Beast plotline, where, instead of having to fight off the angry villagers,
Cinderella gets Topher to champion their cause.

I enjoyed this
version because when teaching short story writing, I have often used the
Cinderella model to show structure. The problem is that if you stick with the
traditional tale, Cinderella has things happen to her and never takes a
proactive role. I encourage my students not to let that happen with a
protagonist. I’m glad that the people behind this new production took my
advice!