TORONTO – Several esteemed stars have played the macabre married couple in “The Addams Family” musical on Broadway, first Bebe Neuwirth and Nathan Lane, and now Brooke Shields and Roger Rees.
But that doesn’t faze the lead actors in the touring production, who note their version now playing in Toronto is far different from the one in New York and allows them to make their own pioneering mark on death-loving duo Morticia and Gomez Addams.
“One of the reasons why I decided to take the job was that they wanted to make a lot of changes and that interests me, to sort of get in on the ground floor where things are being created rather than just take over a role,” said Tony Award-nominated actor Douglas Sills, 51, who plays Gomez in the touring show.
“You get to discover it, you get to find it. It’s like an archaeological dig as opposed to putting on someone else’s costume, particularly someone as illustrious as Nathan Lane or as Roger Rees. That’s a no-win. Who wants to step into those shoes, right?”
“It really was as though we were building it from the ground up,” noted Tony nominee Sara Gettelfinger, 34, who plays Morticia in the tour.
“I was able to see Bebe Neuwirth perform the role and she’s incredible in everything she does, but it was really exciting to be able to use my own instrument and my own take on it and make a new mould for what it is that I do.”
The touring musical comedy – which Dancap Productions is running at the Toronto Centre for the Arts through Nov. 27 – is based on cartoonist Charles Addams’ oddball characters who first came to life in TV and film.
With a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice (“Jersey Boys”), and music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, the show debuted to tepid reviews as a tryout run in Chicago before opening on Broadway in April 2010.
Sills said the creative team, which also includes Toronto-raised choreographer Sergio Trujillo, made “cataclysmic changes” to the production in Chicago. But they didn’t have enough time to craft it into exactly what they wanted before it hit Broadway, where it got two Tony nominations last year and is set to close on Dec. 31.
With this touring production, they’ve added a major plot point, new scenes and changed some of the songs and choreography.
Now the show is “much sturdier and more interesting, both to act in and to watch,” said Sills, who calls this incarnation “‘True Blood’ meets ‘All in the Family.'”
“This is the version that will be published,” said the Detroit native, noting Disney is now revamping some of its musicals that have been in New York, so “Broadway is not the ‘be all and end all'” anymore.
“There will be a new production of this show in South America and in Australia by the end of the year, and productions coming to the West End and Japan – and this is the version that will go out.”
The musical centres on Wednesday (Cortney Wolfson), the Addams’ “bundle of malice” daughter who’s now grown up and in love with a “normal” man (Brian Justin Crum).
A major plot point that’s in the touring production but absent from the Broadway version is that Wednesday tells her father she’s engaged and begs him not to tell her mother.
Playing the parents of Wednesday’s fiance are Tony nominees Martin Vidnovic and Crista Moore.
Other co-stars include Blake Hammond as Uncle Fester, Pippa Pearthree as Grandma, Tom Corbeil as Lurch and Patrick D. Kennedy as Pugsley.
The show opens with the signature “Da-Da-Da-Dum” intro for “The Addams Family” theme song and has some awe-inspiring magic tricks.
Also awe-inspiring is Gettelfinger’s ability to dance in Morticia’s extremely low-cut dress without having a wardrobe malfunction.
“It’s really just one amazing bra from Victoria’s Secret,” she confessed. “It’s called the Deep-V and there’s a magical wire that just keeps everything where it needs to go.”
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