Over break, Sara and I took a day for ourselves and went to see The Addams Family. It is a musical that is premiering here in Chicago before going on to Broadway in New York. It stars Nathan Lane as Gomez and Bebe Neuwirth (A.k.a. Lillith, from Cheers (Frasier’s wife)) as Morticia.

Overall it was pretty good. I absolutely loved the scene where Uncle Fester is singing to the moon. For me, it was worth seeing for that scene alone. The guy who plays Uncle Fester is great, and so is the kid who plays Pugsly. Without a doubt, Grandma got all the best lines. As far as Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth, they were okay. I was excited to see them, and they didn’t do bad, but they didn’t really knock my socks off either.

Overall I’d have to rate it a solid B. I enjoyed myself, and I didn’t regret seeing it, but I can think of a couple of shows off the top of my head that I thought were better (but of course I can think of plenty that weren’t as good, either). At one point I thought to myself, “What is missing from this show?” It had everything you could have wanted; good actors, good sets, jokes. Somehow it just didn’t catch me. I think the music wasn’t that catchy. Sara thought the jokes were too corny maybe, but then again, they usually are in things like that.

So anyway, if you’re looking for a show to see, I would recommend this. Especially if you were a fan of the T.V. show; there are plenty of references to the show (I actually saw a fair number of episodes via Nick at Night, back when that showed old reruns). Just don’t pick this one over Wicked.