After reading mediocre to bad reviews about The Addams Family: A New Musical Comedy about 6 months ago my expectations were low. I had previously listened to the cast’s soundtrack, which was superb; the only thing left was for the plot to be great. I walked in to a fairly elegant looking theatre, Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on 46th street. I had a bird’s eye view of the stage (from the mezzanine). The show began with a fairly slow plot and slow moving character dialogue. But as the show progressed the music began to get better and better and the story progressively built up some suspense.

The matinee I attended starred Nathan Lane as Gomez Addams, Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia Addams, Jackie Hoffman as Grandmamma, Kevin Chamberlin as Uncle Fester and Krysta Rodriguez as Wednesday and Adam Riegler as Pugsley. Oh, you can’t leave out the creepy non-verbal butler, Lurch who is assumed by Zachary James. The show also includes the “dancsestors” (ancestors/dancers/ensemble). All of the cast members did an exceptional job, but Krysta Rodriguez (Wednesday) and Kevin Chamberlin (Uncle Fester) were by far the best singers and comedians. Krysta Rodriguez had a crisp, mature voice that shines through her character’s bipolar personality. Kevin Chamberlin had a great singing voice and a superb natural sense of humor.

Some highlights of the show include the grand scenery and sound design, and Uncle Fester “visiting the moon,” which I will not disclose anything about. Also Ms. Hoffman, who plays a century old grandma, has a great comedic side to her that is natural for her edgy personality. Ms. Hoffman is a improv actor who does some improv throughout each show, different “acts” every time. This time during one of the dialogue scenes she burst out into acting loony and saying repeatedly in other characters faces “Bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon”. This was clearly improvised because, Bebe Neuwirth (Morticia Addams) put her head down because she was laughing so much. A final great moment in this demented, delectable comedy is when young Pugsley (Adam Riegler) gets upset because his sister Wednesday stopped torturing him so he sings this adorable, heart warming song called, “What If”.

The show ended with a great smash and an amazing reaction from the audience who were cheering for what seemed like hours!  The cast was superb.  If you are in the Times Square neighborhood I would highly suggest trying hard to get tickets to one of the many sold out performances of The Addams Family.  This show is now playing at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, 46th street 8 performances a week.