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The Addams Family Musical Story and Characters | The Box Seat Babes Podcast · The BSB Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to another episode of the Box Seat Babes podcast.
• 0:03
  Today we are discussing the North American tour of the Addams Family Musical, which was recently stopped at the Fox Theater in Detroit.
• 0:10
  But before we jump into the story and characters within the show, please like, follow and subscribe to Box Seat Babes on all social media platforms at Box Seat Babes.
• 0:18
  Spoiler warning, we will be talking in depth about what you can expect from the touring production of the Addams Family Musical.
• 0:24
  So if you don't want to be spoiled, return to the land of the living and visit us after you see the show.
• 0:29
  But you're still here, get ready to see if the Addams Family musical is kooky crazy fun, or if it's stinkier than the Uncle Fester's fart.
• 0:35
  that might have been a deep dive, but for those who know the song, I hope you appreciated that.
• 0:41
  As always, joining me is my co-host, my fellow Box Seat babe, the musical component to whatever dynamic duo we have going on here, RJ Miller-Zelinko My dude, we are back.
• 0:53
  Back in action.
• 0:54
  m
• 0:56
  I feel like we...
• 0:56
  difficulties and all.
• 0:57
  Absolutely, and it looks like we have started it again.
• 1:00
  Hopefully we can make it through this episode.
• 1:02
  If not, we are going to try our best.
• 1:04
  But thank you for being here.
• 1:05
  It feels like it's been forever since we've recorded an episode.
• 1:08
  In fact, I can't even think of the last episode we recorded, and it probably hasn't been that long.
• 1:13
  But it's always good to see you.
• 1:15
  same.
• 1:16
  Probably the last, whatever the last show was that we saw at Broadway in Detroit.
• 1:21
  Again, it's escaping me, but um let's dive into the Addams Family in general.
• 1:30
  This is a very popular franchise.
• 1:33
  It's been around for years.
• 1:35
  It started as a cartoon, like a comic.
• 1:38
  It's had life as a TV show, as a- uh
• 1:41
  movie series as another movie series as another TV show like there's a lot going on here.
• 1:47
  So where has your intro what was your intro into the Addams family?
• 1:51
  ah Where's your origin story of this crazy family?
• 1:57
  Fairly recent.
• 1:58
  um I was not, I didn't watch the old TV show.
• 2:05
  I didn't even watch the movie movies till more recently, like the last couple of years maybe.
• 2:14
  And they were kind of more, I watched them in the background of what I was doing and not actually actively watched them.
• 2:24
  So, I don't know, it's not typically my...
• 2:28
  Like I know what it is, like I know what it's supposed to be, and it's not my usual watch.
• 2:35
  So this means you have not watched the Wednesday show on Netflix.
• 2:39
  Okay, that is the exception to the rule.
• 2:44
  I think as many people will kind of attest to that's kind of
• 2:48
  I mean, it's Adam's family, but it's not.
• 2:51
  And of course it's modernized, so there's just it's just it's just better But I did I did watch that series and look forward to it coming out again here shortly
• 3:05
  I'm very excited.
• 3:06
  I will be seeing it early.
• 3:07
  So I'm sorry for everybody who won't be seeing it early.
• 3:12
  yeah, but what's interesting about, I think the franchise of the Addams family.
• 3:17
  And before I jump into where I started is that depending on where you start your Addams family journey kind of dictates what experience you have with it.
• 3:27
  I don't know if that makes any sense at all, but I'm thinking about like how I started with
• 3:34
  the movies.
• 3:35
  In fact, I'm about to date myself a little bit.
• 3:39
  We had a VHS tape that was recorded.
• 3:43
  My grandma had recorded it for us because she had a VHS player probably before I was born or very soon after I was born.
• 3:50
  She recorded these films for us and they were on like a had a masking tape on it.
• 3:54
  I think it had the poltergeist on it as well, but nobody watched because we were in a horror family.
• 3:59
  And you had to fast forward through that film to get to the Addams Family.
• 4:02
  And I was always terrified to do it.
• 4:04
  So I always just, knew how many seconds I had to be to get to the Addams family.
• 4:09
  And the Addams family actually terrified me and I still watch this film for no reason other than the fact that like it was something that my sisters liked.
• 4:17
  It was supposed to be funny.
• 4:19
  But for me, it was really dark.
• 4:20
  know, it's like those movies from the 90s are super dark films, which is kind of in line with like the Wednesday Addams show, which is on the darker side of it.
• 4:31
  But then for somebody like my mom, who grew up watching the television show from like the 60s, it was nothing but a comedy, you know, like you're supposed to laugh.
• 4:39
  And that's more in line with like the, what my nephew grew up on being the animated film and how it was funny and you're laughing.
• 4:46
  And yes, there are scaring aspects to it, but it is just like, let's laugh about it.
• 4:52
  And so I do think it really does, depending on where you start your journey with The Addams family, really dictates what kind of experience you have with the franchise.
• 5:01
  What do think about that?
• 5:02
  Yeah, I mean two very different spins I think
• 5:06
  You have a little bit of that.
• 5:08
  I don't know if it's slapstick a comedy.
• 5:11
  But then you have the intrigue of the people who just latch on to the specific characters, right?
• 5:19
  Which is why think Wednesday is such a popular show.
• 5:25
  Because the characterization of Wednesday, like I think a lot of people either identify with her or um see part of themselves or part of their lived experience.
• 5:42
  Um, or maybe their wants of a lived experience.
• 5:46
  I shouldn't say lived.
• 5:49
  Uh, undead experience, dark experience.
• 5:57
  She validates a lot of people that have maybe some alternative lifestyles, you know?
• 6:02
  Yeah, yeah, I mean, I just think back to like middle school, I guess even high school.
• 6:08
  and like specifically the girls like goth uh you know wearing the all black and the chains and the hardcore metal screamo bands um even though there's like not it's not the same it
• 6:29
  somehow feels a little bit the same
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  Like the entry level, the entry level to that lifestyle.
• 6:36
  Yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, because Wednesday is like an extreme of that.
• 6:41
  for sure.
• 6:42
  I think it is the movies from the 90s are so iconic with Wednesday because Christina Ricci was just absolutely fantastic in that role and she kind of embodied that role.
• 6:51
  ah It did when I was writing this face sheet though, I had to confront with the fact that I always was really drawn to go Gomez Addams and ah that probably says a lot about me from
• 7:03
  a very young age.
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  uh But yeah, so I mean like we all have our favorite characters and
• 7:10
  maybe some of them are just the
• 7:12
  Wednesday and some of them are just Gomez, you know?
• 7:14
  uh So that being said...
• 7:17
  That says everything you need to know, folks, about um both Brian and I's sexuality.
• 7:27
  You were like, were like, Wednesday Addams and I was like, Gomez?
• 7:31
  Yeah, yeah.
• 7:33
  You weren't even a Morticia person.
• 7:36
  You were like, no.
• 7:38
  Too dark.
• 7:39
  fair.
• 7:40
  I will always forever connect Angelica Huston to the movie The Witches and who if listeners if you've never seen the 90s version of Roald Dahl's The Witches, watch it.
• 7:55
  It's absolutely fucking terrifying from start to finish why that movie ever got created.
• 8:00
  ah I think I've seen it once as a child and I was an adult the last time I watched it.
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  I didn't even want to watch the Anne Hathaway one because it was absolutely terrifying.
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  And so I can never look at Morticia Addams the same way.
• 8:16
  But Gomez, hit me up.
• 8:18
  Where you at?
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  um So going back to the musical, now that we've learned so much about ourselves, um the Addams Family musical, um it still focuses on Wednesday Addams.
• 8:32
  Like, she's kind of the focal point of this entire show.
• 8:37
  Um, what I found interesting and what I'm assuming was influenced, what influenced the other is that there are characters that are kind of, again, maybe that they're in some of
• 8:48
  the other media, but like we have Lucas, which Lucas is in the Wednesday show.
• 8:52
  She wears the dress from the, like the Wednesday show.
• 8:55
  She dances like that.
• 8:56
  I'm, I was like, started to see some of these connections, which we'll talk about the costumes later, but right off the bat, what are your thoughts on this show?
• 9:04
  like the story of the Addams family musical.
• 9:07
  um Truthfully, I felt like it was little bit weak.
• 9:15
  um
• 9:16
  Okay.
• 9:18
  Like it was just a kind of flat plotline for me.
• 9:25
  We get a lot of introduction, which maybe feels less necessary because...
• 9:31
  Like, it feels almost assumed that everybody knows who everybody is.
• 9:37
  I mean, even just the opening number, like you, you, know who everybody is, but then it's followed up with kind of these one-offs that don't necessarily feel to me as connected to
• 9:49
  the plot.
• 9:50
  Um.
• 9:51
  I mean, like speaking of Gomez, like I would have never guessed how much he sang in this show.
• 9:58
  Like I feel like he was singing every other song.
• 10:01
  Which is funny because when you look at, and we'll talk about the music next week, but I put the list in our notes of the Broadway to US tour and current productions, and they
• 10:13
  added probably, they doubled the songs from the first act.
• 10:16
  And a lot of them are Gomez.
• 10:18
  A lot of them are, it's like a Gomez song after Gomez song after Gomez song, where in the original Broadway act, it's like Addams family, Morticia and Gomez, Adam's Pugsley
• 10:29
  company, like there's not a lot.
• 10:31
  And so it does make you wonder of like what happened with the story that changed over time.
• 10:35
  um Because he is, well, Wednesday is one of the main characters.
• 10:40
  I feel like Gomez is actually also like they're the two main characters.
• 10:45
  It's Gomez and it's Wednesday.
• 10:48
  So those who aren't familiar with the show, this is about Wednesday falling in love with a normie and putting her dad in the middle between him and his love for his daughter and the
• 11:00
  love for his wife.
• 11:01
  And while there is a subplot of Morticia kind of questioning her relationship with Gomez because he's lying to her, and there's also some weird Uncle Fester falling in love with
• 11:12
  the moon, which I did not quite get.
• 11:15
  What was going on there?
• 11:17
  um It really was about the relationship of Gomez with his two his two women in his life and then Wednesday being in love with Lucas and having to confront the fact that like he
• 11:29
  doesn't fit the image that the Addams have um Do you feel like there was too many plot lines going on?
• 11:38
  Yeah, and maybe that's why it felt so shallow to me is there was too much.
• 11:42
  around.
• 11:43
  I mean, and they all most of them all surrounded Wednesday, but they didn't actually, like you said, like the fester, it didn't connect at all.
• 11:54
  Like you could have literally taken faster out, you could have taken the grandma out.
• 12:02
  Like you could have almost taken Pugsley out aside from like one song.
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  And the
• 12:12
  poison, which we'll get into, but like there was just so much.
• 12:16
  happening, like you said, between Gomez and then Morticia and Wednesday, that triangulation.
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  um
• 12:25
  It is interesting to see the changes of what they kept in and what they added and how they shifted it because it felt a little bit disjointed.
• 12:35
  I will say when it comes to the storylines, I think what would have felt better to me for it, and I will say this for anybody who's listening, I actually did love the Addams
• 12:44
  family.
• 12:44
  RJ can attest to the fact that I think I laughed the entire first act.
• 12:49
  um I was pretty into the show, um to say the least, I think.
• 12:57
  I think at one point I actually actually loudly laughed.
• 13:00
  um
• 13:02
  which doesn't usually happen.
• 13:03
  usually do a polite like, haha, we're in a theater laugh.
• 13:06
  But I do think at one point I was barrel laughing.
• 13:08
  uh I think the storyline that would have fit better was one between Wednesday and her father, and then one between Pugsley and Wednesday, because that I loved that storyline,
• 13:21
  but there wasn't enough of it.
• 13:22
  This idea of like, I think every kid
• 13:26
  actually maybe you haven't experienced this because you are the eldest, but when my sister left the house, my eldest sister, and I was still pretty young, we're eight years between
• 13:34
  us, I was very upset.
• 13:39
  In fact, I have a note over on my pegboard that she wrote me about how like, I'll always be in your life and we'll always be good friends and we can still talk about books and
• 13:47
  stuff like that because I took that really hard.
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  um
• 13:50
  And so to me, I related a lot to the storyline of Pugsley being afraid to lose his sister.
• 13:57
  And sometimes we make really stupid decisions about that.
• 14:00
  For him, he goes ahead and he steals a potion from grandma that releases the darkness um within somebody.
• 14:07
  But I felt really, I could relate to that really hard.
• 14:10
  for me, I was like, that's the storyline I almost want to see more of.
• 14:13
  I want to see the dynamics between Wednesday and Pugsley so that you earn it a little bit more at the end.
• 14:19
  I think they were at the beginning so trying to focus on Wednesday being on love that they missed the fact that like Wednesday, like love comes in so many different forms.
• 14:27
  And one of those is sibling love and one of those is father daughter love.
• 14:31
  And then also what is romantic relationships should have been almost a secondary question to the rest of them.
• 14:39
  I don't know if that makes sense.
• 14:40
  No, yeah, yeah, I think I would agree with all of that um Even Yeah, the amount of time that we get to see them interacting together like yeah, there's an occasional one-line
• 14:56
  jabs, but aside from that one song like We really didn't get much of them even in that scene it was very it was song and
• 15:08
  Done.
• 15:09
  And that's pretty much it.
• 15:12
  Yeah, I mean, when I started, when I was writing this sheet and I was looking through it, was like, okay, we have Martisha and Gomez, Fester and the Moon, Wednesday and Pugsley.
• 15:19
  We didn't even talk about Lucas's parents, who were also like a different form of love.
• 15:23
  They were the love that had been lost.
• 15:26
  And then they kind of get it back because of the wackiness that is the Addams family.
• 15:31
  Spoiler alert, everybody.
• 15:33
  Lucas's mom drinks the potion and releases a dark side and it actually ends up bonding the two of them together.
• 15:39
  And then they end up having a happy ever after.
• 15:40
  uh
• 15:43
  which again felt rushed because we're not even getting the potion to the end of act one, which again, that's like kind of the climax.
• 15:50
  You're building up to that.
• 15:51
  You're building up to something big.
• 15:53
  And then there's, they want you to have this payoff at the end that doesn't feel like it's earned.
• 15:59
  And again, it takes the focus off of the Addams family, which should have been the bonding that moves that storyline through.
• 16:07
  In fact, get rid of Uncle Fester's storyline completely.
• 16:10
  Yeah...
• 16:11
  Yeah, mean, truthfully, like halfway through Act 2, I was like...
• 16:16
  Where is this...
• 16:17
  Where are we ending?
• 16:19
  Because, yeah, we started addressing the...
• 16:22
  The lost love, and then the found love, and then...
• 16:26
  They're together, they're not together, and nobody's together, like it...
• 16:31
  Yeah, it was...
• 16:33
  You had...
• 16:35
  One, two, three, four...
• 16:39
  four, five, six relationship dynamics happening.
• 16:43
  Like, it's just, it was a lot.
• 16:46
  Sure.
• 16:46
  Yeah.
• 16:47
  like, Morticia had a storyline that she was worried about becoming like Gomez's mom.
• 16:52
  But like, that wasn't even in the question until Act Two.
• 16:57
  And it was just like, before we had gone to see the show, having talked to a lot of the Broadway people that I have seen,
• 17:02
  There was a lot of the there's a reason why the show didn't last.
• 17:06
  And I was just like, maybe it's just because Addams family is kind of a little odd.
• 17:10
  It's a little different.
• 17:11
  But it does feel like the we want to take everything and we want to throw it at the board.
• 17:16
  I think that's maybe what Wednesday the show does well is that it took a focal point and made that the story.
• 17:23
  and it plays out a little bit better than this.
• 17:24
  Well, and even the like, and I get the need for an ensemble, but even opening with...
• 17:34
  Essentially setting the tone that the whole point of them being outside of the crypt is that they have to Fix her love life basically, right?
• 17:49
  But really like they have nothing to do with it Like literally not like you could have you could have literally not had that ensemble and it wouldn't have made it
• 18:00
  And they showed up so many places that like they showed up behind photos and stuff, is like, they didn't, again, didn't add much of anything with, I think the one scene where
• 18:10
  Gomez is talking to Lucas's dad and he's trying to like notice that they're moving behind him.
• 18:15
  And I was like, you're actually like utilizing these characters.
• 18:20
  You're actually using them for something.
• 18:22
  Yeah.
• 18:22
  And I think, I mean, I understand what they were trying to do with that.
• 18:26
  you know, create that like weird sense of doubt or, you know, like, am I crazy type vibe?
• 18:32
  Um, but then they immediately adjusted it.
• 18:39
  Like, I think there was only one time that I noticed that he kind of caught, it caught his eye and that was it.
• 18:47
  Um.
• 18:49
  So it's like, well, I don't know.
• 18:53
  What's the point of that?
• 18:57
  It felt like there was a lot of use of comedy, but there was like not a lot of direct to comedy because like Uncle Fester was comedic timing.
• 19:03
  Lurch was comedic timing.
• 19:05
  Thing is comedic timing.
• 19:07
  Like all of these really like they used Cousin It too, which even Cousin It felt like it was shoehorned in a little bit just to get Cousin It in there so people could recognize
• 19:14
  this character.
• 19:16
  You didn't need that ensemble.
• 19:18
  And it was a huge ensemble.
• 19:20
  Like there was a lot of people.
• 19:22
  in that ensemble.
• 19:23
  Like when I was making the sheet again, I was looking through the program.
• 19:25
  I was like, this was a lot of people to be on stage.
• 19:31
  I felt like they were primarily there for transitional purposes.
• 19:34
  um There was no part in the plot for them, but they were literally there to be stagehands.
• 19:46
  And this is not to like, shit on the ensemble.
• 19:49
  I mean, they did a wonderful job, but the way that it's written, like,
• 19:53
  They were basically stagehands in costume.
• 19:58
  um who occasionally sing.
• 20:01
  like maybe one or two songs on stage.
• 20:06
  It might just be like literally the opening and the closing.
• 20:09
  They sang a little bit off stage, but yeah, from a storyline perspective, it was...
• 20:16
  Nothing happening.
• 20:18
  looking there's only three-ish songs that they are like one of that they're singing in act one and then they're accompanying a few of them but like act two a few at the beginning
• 20:30
  and then they're out like it's
• 20:32
  Yeah, like usually the opening and yeah, even the, you know, just around the corner, the moon and me, like they weren't even really.
• 20:43
  super visible were doing contributing.
• 20:46
  They were just singing.
• 20:47
  Not just singing, but you know, the oohs and the ahs basically.
• 20:54
  Right.
• 20:55
  So of the performances that we had, was there anybody that stole the show for you?
• 21:01
  Or did everybody just dig their own grave?
• 21:08
  I mean, as we've kind of, as I've made obviously clear Wednesday, um
• 21:15
  or a melody.
• 21:16
  ah
• 21:18
  Super clear vocals um just fit the part very well.
• 21:23
  I thought it was well cast.
• 21:25
  I mean, in general, thought pretty much everybody was well cast.
• 21:32
  But we were also close enough that I got to catch so much of the facial expressions and the nuances of that.
• 21:41
  um And she just felt...
• 21:47
  Like the standout to me.
• 21:49
  So I will say this because obviously I'm gonna just...
• 21:55
  Okay, okay, okay, first off, rude but correct.
• 21:58
  Rodrigo Aragon was phenomenal as Gomez.
• 22:03
  Like not only did he capture like the energy of Gomez, the suavness of Gomez, but like he had a fantastic singing voice.
• 22:10
  ah Did I follow his Instagram?
• 22:14
  I might've.
• 22:15
  So, you know.
• 22:16
  That explains a lot about me again, so we can bypass that.
• 22:19
  But um Logan, who played Pugsley, there was two songs that I thought it was like, okay, you're just playing a part, you're just playing a part.
• 22:27
  And then he like sang his song and I was like, where's this voice coming from?
• 22:33
  And that to me made him kind of a standout of just like, you know, you're kind of doing the bad guy voice, you're kind of doing this.
• 22:39
  And then all of sudden you like hit a note and you're like, like you.
• 22:43
  you could be on Broadway, you know?
• 22:45
  so, while that's, I know we're talking about the music next time, but like, I feel like he did really give a good, strong vocal performance, ah even if his character was a little
• 22:56
  lackluster.
• 22:57
  Also shout out to Sarah Mackenzie Baron who played Alice.
• 23:01
  When she finally drinks that potion, best part of the show, she absolutely
• 23:07
  she also, I mean what a wacky role to play.
• 23:11
  um Also I imagine that she's probably exhausted after every show just because of the, I don't know, like the knee-jerk-ish motion and just craziness, um especially the end of Act
• 23:32
  1.
• 23:33
  I mean, I know we're gonna talk about vocals
• 23:37
  later, but Again, she was one that you be because you didn't really hear her sing a lot, but when she did open her mouth you were like, oh Okay, I see
• 23:49
  mean, it was really good.
• 23:51
  And granted, she has this kind of, she starts off very timid, very like, I hate to say, but like 1950s housewife, you know?
• 23:59
  And then like by the end, she's just this like powerhouse, like hitting notes that I'm just like, you hear, like, this could be an Elphaba note almost, you know?
• 24:09
  Like she was crazy, crazy kooky, know?
• 24:12
  Fits the show.
• 24:13
  She does a great job carrying the energy, but.
• 24:16
  boy, would I need a nap at the end of that if I was playing this role.
• 24:20
  I couldn't even imagine the kind of energy like for lack of better terms, I felt like she was on drugs at some point because she was just so elevated consistently and she kept that
• 24:33
  show moving quite frequently.
• 24:35
  Agreed
• 24:35
  So that kind of concludes our first part.
• 24:40
  So be on the lookout for part two of the Addams Family discussion.
• 24:44
  We will be exploring if the staging, music, and costumes have cast a spell on us, as well as giving our final verdict.
• 24:50
  So thank you again for joining us here in our box seats.
• 24:52
  Till next curtain call.