Chris Jones
Chicago Tribune
10/29/08
They’re creepy, kooky, spooky and ooky, and, more important, they’ve definitely settled on Chicago.
The new musical known as “The Addams Family”—long expected to have its pre-Broadway tryout in Chicago—announced firm dates Wednesday. The world-premiere engagement of the show, which features a book by the “Jersey Boys” team of Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice plus music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, will begin performances Nov. 13, 2009, and likely play through Jan. 10, 2010, at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago (currently the home of “Wicked”). The official Chicago opening for “The Addams Family” will be in early December 2009.
The show is expected on Broadway in spring 2010, at a theater yet to be announced.
Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch (“Shockheaded Peter”) will direct and design.
Casting hasn’t been announced, but the workshop productions have included Nathan Lane as Gomez and Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia; the producers are hoping both will sign on the dotted line.
“The Addams Family” (which is based on the original Charles Addams sketches and cartoons as distinct from the TV show and movies) is a project of the Chicago-based producing company Elephant Eye Theatrical.
“Chicago has instructive and enthusiastic audiences,” said lead producer (and Chicago resident) Stuart Oken. “Given our roots in the Chicago theater community, this was the only place we ever imagined doing our first production.”
