Addams Family heads to Broadway

By John Freeman on May 22, 2007

Good news for Addams Family fans (which includes me). Variety reports that The Addams Family is on its way to Broadway, a new large-scale musical based on the cartoons of Charles Addams, aims to hit the Rialto in the 2009 -10 season.

Addams’ cartoons — about a ghoulish family whose members include father Gomez, mother Morticia, uncle Fester and daughter Wednesday — appeared for more than 50 years in the New Yorker.

(You’re not likely to find many images on the web as the Addams family estate has requested they not be published online, according to this unofficial fan site, but you can buy some great collections, including Happily Ever After: A Collection of Cartoons to Chill the Heart of Your Loved One, from amazon.com or amazon.co.uk).

The cartoons inspired several TV series, including the 1960s live-action sitcom and a couple of animated series, along with two features.

Variety says the musical – composer-lyricist Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party) is writing the songs, while Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice (Jersey Boys) provide the book – will be based solely on the cartoons, not on the big- or small-screen incarnations. It hasn’t yet been determined whether the creatives will be granted permission to include the familiar TV theme song.

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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.