It was a great day. My great-niece/godchild, Danielle, is visiting from Jersey this week and today was my turn to entertain her. She'd never been to Times Square, so I thought it would be fun to take her there, to see the effect of standing at the "crossroads of the world" in the eyes of a girl a month shy of her 13th birthday. To my surprise, she took it all in stride, even when I laid the big surprise on her. As we approached the "Tickets" area, where prices of the unsold seats of the day's performances are cut in half, I asked if she would like to see a show. She looked at the computerized chart and picked
The Addams Family. I was so happy she didn't choose
Mamma Mia or
Phantom of the Opera, which I saw and hated on DVD. Of course, the chart gave no inkling of the cost. I was hoping it would be in the range of $50 per. My mindset was 15 years behind the times, the last visit I had from my friends Judy and Jim and their kids, parents now themselves, who were in town from Michigan. We saw
Les Miserables. The price for
The Addams Family was $71 each plus tax. I was stunned. The price of her second and third choices,
Mary Poppins and
Catch Me If You Can were not any more reasonable, so I decided to play the good uncle, and
The Addams Family it was. Fortunately it was great fun. The book by Roger Elice and Marshall Brickman was filled with laughs. Brickman collaborated on several Woody Allen screenplays:
Sleeper,
Annie Hall (Academy Award),
Manhattan, and
Manhattan Melodrama. Andrew Lippa wrote both the music and lyrics and, while none of the songs will ever likely become a standard, all were very entertaining. Roger Rees, who has a long list of great theater credits, was terrific as Gomez. America's sweetheart, Brooke Shields, played Morticia ably, wisely staying within her range. I'm always amazed at how competently some non-singers can sing. Of course, she was blown away by the real singers in the cast, but she did not embarrass herself. I will always root for Shields, who has been with us since she was a little girl and who seems like such a nice person. The real star of the show was Brad Oscar as Uncle Fester, at times reminding me of Gilbert Gottfried. A close second was Jackie Hoffman as Grandma. She had the best line. When Pugsley complained about her obscure literary references, she said something like: "You'd be all right if you stopped the damn texting and picked up a book once in a while." The parents in the audience cheered. Also fantastic was Rachel Potter in her Broadway debut as Wednesday. What a powerful voice. Of course, the musicianship, sets, costumes and effects were first rate, as is to be expected of the Great White Way. I guess the talent works best in the cold. The AC in the Lunt-Fontane was cranked to the max. Even Danielle, who lives in the coldest house I've ever been in, slipped her arms beneath her T-shirt.
How lucky we are to live in a world that offers light-hearted fare like
The Addams Family as well as gut-wrenching work like Arthur Miller's
Death of a Salesman. I bet you didn't know that Gomez took Morticia to see that great play on their first date - and that they laughed all the way through it! That wonderful tidbit came early in the show. I was won over immediately. There were some adult references along the way, but I'm sure Danielle has seen bluer stuff on cable. I didn't know what to say about them, so I played dumb. Not a stretch, some might say.
Okay - vacation's over - back to work.
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