Based on the drawings by Westfield native Charles Addams (1912-1988), the production makes its first stop at Chicago’s Ford Center for the Performing Arts in November and begins previews on Broadway in March. The killer cast includes Nathan Lane (Jersey City) as Gomez, Bebe Neuwirth (Princeton) as Morticia, Kevin Chamberlin (Moorestown) as Uncle Fester, and Carolee Carmello (Leonia) as a new character, Alice Beineke.
“It’s crazy,” says Chamberlin, a Rutgers grad who played a jokey game of “Which Exit?” with the other actors. “I’ve worked with almost everyone in the cast, so it’s like old home week.”
The Garden State also figured mightily in the imaginations of at least three members of the show’s creative team. Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, who wrote the book, and choreographer Sergio Trujillo are known for their work on a little rags-to-riches story that begins on a Belleville street corner: Jersey Boys.
The Addams Family has had incarnations on TV and in feature films. In the musical, the characters will be up to their usual mayhem, including Uncle Fester. “I think every family has one,” Chamberlin muses. “The crazy uncle the children are drawn to and the adults are a little frightened of.”