The Addams Family Down Under
Director Jerry Zaks and several cast members of the macabre family’s musical spoke to Neil Litchfield prior to its Australian Premiere in March 2013.
The invention of American cartoonist Charles Addams (1912 – 1988), The Addams Family was originally created as a series of 150 single panel cartoons, first published by The New Yorker in 1938.
The cartoons inspired a popular black and white TV show in the 1960s, later a series of movies and in 2010 The Addams Family debuted on Broadway as a musical starring Nathan Lane.
The premise for the musical comedy is a mixed relationship. Wednesday Addams now has a “normal” boyfriend, Lucas, a shocking development for Gomez and Morticia. It turns the Addams house upside down when they host a dinner for the young man and his parents, the Beineke Family.
The Addams Familyran for a year and a half on Broadway from April 2010 and later had a successful US National Tour.
But it has undergone significant changes since its original season, as legendary Broadway director Jerry Zaks (pictured right) explained.
“When we started to anticipate the (US) national tour, we - the writers, the producers, the choreographer and myself – agreed that it could be better. We did as much as we could up until opening night on Broadway, and then the bell rang and the work was done, but doing the national tour gave us an opportunity to revisit the show.
“We did a bunch of things to make it better. I thought it was important that Morticia and Gomez have a real conflict, a real issue, that threatened their marriage, and on Broadway they didn’t really have a conflict. As a result, the two lead characters were observers to what was going on around them. We came up with the notion that their honesty with each other has been the bedrock of their relationship; they have always told each other the truth. Why is this night different from all others? Because on this day Gomez breaks that vow, because he loves his daughter and can’t say no to her.”
“That was the springboard into a better show. So we did that in terms of the book, and the composer, at my urging, jettisoned three or four numbers, which just weren’t good enough. He replaced them with songs that were significantly better for the show that opened on the national tour, and that’s the one we’re doing here.”
“I’d like to think that this (Australian) production has the potential to be the best version of the show to date.”
While the Australian version of the show reproduces the touring production, Jerry Zaks made it clear that the Australian cast members had significant space to make the characters their own.
“I have no investment in them recreating anyone else’s version of these roles. They’re all gifted, talented and so unique. There is a rhythm to this show and I like to think of myself as the conductor of the whole thing – the script, the music – everything is orchestrated. So as long as everything any one person is doing doesn’t violate that, then I say go ahead.
“In the case of Morticia and Gomez, I just want to believe that they love and are devoted to each other and that they are parents. Their strangeness is not what I’m interested in. I’m interested in their believability and humanity. I swear, it’s got to be grounded in reality, and it’s got to be life and death. ”
“I think acting in musical comedy has got a bad rap, as somehow less than dramatic acting. I think nonsense! I hope that when we’re done, the acting in this musical comedy will be as believable and compelling, because there isn’t anyone in this company who can’t do what they need to do to bring this show to life. And that makes me happy.”
John Waters (pictured left) plays Gomez Addams. I asked him about the expectations he’d face playing such an iconic pop culture role.
“I think in creating any role, whether somebody’s done it before, or whether there are many examples of people in that role, you just bring yourself into it in some way that’s going to be different. There are two basic templates for Gomez Addams, and they’re John Astin from the TV series and Raúl Juliáfrom the movies.
“What Raúl brought to it was the more Hispanic nature, and that’s written into this piece. I’m a Spanish speaker, and I like to play that up, so I tell stories about my great ancestor Capitán General Redondo Ventana Laguna Don José Cuervo. I always think of other examples of Latin men like that, particularly Desi Arnaz, the Cuban bandleader in I Love Lucy. He was always the big, expansive Latin man.
“But the (other) thing about Gomez’s character is that he’s an eternal optimist. Mayhem can be raining down upon him, and he’s going to think of a way out. That informs the way that I approach the characterization. You have to remember that as the person who is playing Gomez Addams, it’s not my job to think about him as being bizarre or funny, or to think of the black is white, white is black weird reversal thing that the Addams Family does. He’s normal and you play it with that strong belief in what Gomez Addams believes in.
“Gomez invents himself on the spot, every second of every day. When he tells a story about his ancestors, you start to think, is that true, or did he just make it up. That question is never really answered, because the moment you start to think about it he’s moved on to something else.
“I love that optimism, and the constant reinvention. ”
Fans of the TV series remember regular bemused ‘normal’ visitors to the Addams house – the truant officer, a spy, burglars, a private detective, the newlyweds who move in next door.
That was also the first thing that struck Tony Harvey, who plays a ‘normal’ character - Mal Beineke.
“There were always those characters who spent the episode going I’m not exactly sure what’s going on, kind of soldiering on bravely, as does Mal in this production. I think the idea is that he’s taking it all in until the moment when he says, ‘I can no longer hold my tongue.’ It’s an interesting exercise to play that. To react, but not react to what you’re seeing. It’s great fun.
“A great note I was given was don’t physically react to anything you see. There’s a lot of weirdness going on. The moment you’ve physically reacted to it you’ve given away your strong façade – just let it sink in – less is more.
“Very cleverly within the plot, it’s our son who has fallen in love with their daughter, so there’s a very legitimate reason for the Beinekesto be arriving. It’s not like, sorry, we broke down outside, can we use your phone.
“Mal’s put a very big barrier up; it’s his coping mechanism. He used to be a far easier, more freewheeling person, but the pressure of life has turned him into something a bit more rigid, who processes what he sees, but doesn’t demonstrate his reaction to it. It’s become his way of coping.
“There’s a happy ending for the Bieneke family, but it’s a lovely journey. He sort of winds up where he was many years ago. He says, I told jokes and played guitar. I used to sleep until noon. What happened to that person? That’s where he’s trying to get back to, and where he winds up at.”
Ensemble members Samantha Riley and Zoë Komazec (reading magazine, left) are among the extended Addams Family members who emerge from the family vault in the show’s opening number.
“The ensemble are classed as The Ancestors, so we’re part of the Addams Family, but we’re dead and long gone,” Samantha explained. “We’re all characters from different time periods, so we have a complete back story which we can explore. We do things all together, but we have our own little quirks.
“I play a flight attendant from the 1940s. … I do a lot of actions with my hands, like the way flight attendants point to the exits, and I use that in the dancing. … She’s a very ladylike character, but there’s a little quirk because she’s an Addams Family flight attendant, which means she may not be as nice as she seems. She’s very nice to your face, but she may be slipping things into your drink.”
“I play an Indian ancestor,” Zoë Komazec explained, “so I have a feather on my head and tassles everywhere over my costume. I have certain characteristics, like my arm movements have to be very strong and angular as I’m dancing, but I found the choreography very challenging - in the way that you need to have a really strong centre … so lots of running on the treadmill and singing at the same time is what I’ve been doing at the gym.
“Because I’m such a family person, being involved in The Addams Family is really close to my characteristics as a person. I really connect well to the fact that we all work together, and we are all a family, and there is nothing that’s going to bring the Addams Family down. What’s interesting in the show is that there is a little twist because there is something that’s breaking the family up, and being an ancestor, we have the ability to bring the family back together.”
The Addams Family had its Australian Premiere at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre on March 23 (previews from March 10).
This article was originally published in the March / April 2013 edition of Stage Whispers. News has now broken that the musical will close in June, and will not tour beyond Sydney.
Images: Lightbox Photography except March / April cover and Samantha Riley and Zoë Komazec reading the magazine.
More Reading
Opening Number - When You're an Addams.
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