THE ADDAMS FAMILY Composer Andrew Lippa Talks the Macabre Family with North by Northwestern

In an interview with North by Northwestern out yesterday, THE ADDAMS FAMILY composer Andrew Lippa reveals that the creative team turned to the original Charles Addams' cartoons in The New Yorker for inspiration. 

Says Lippa: "Much of the TV show and the films also take their inspiration from the original drawings, so going back to what the characters looked like and said to each other was a bit of a no-brainer...We wanted to back to the source, Charles Addams himself, as opposed to Charles Addams through other writers."

As for his artistic process Lippa explains: "Whenever I write I do think in terms of what the actor has to do to make sense out of it. I'm giving full thought to how to make it connected to the actual character in the play, so that it doesn't feel arbitrary and [is] grounded in the character's own reality."

To read the full interview in North by Northwestern, click here.

The new musical THE ADDAMS FAMILY, based on the bizarre and beloved family of characters created by legendary cartoonist Charles Addams, is making its pre-Broadway world premiere in Chicago.

Preview performances in Chicago began on Friday, November 13, 2009 at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre (24 W. Randolph St.) and will play through Sunday, January 10, 2010. THE ADDAMS FAMILY will open on Broadway Thursday, April 8, 2010 at The Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.

Starring two-time Tony Award winners Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth as Gomez and Morticia, THE ADDAMS FAMILY features two-time Tony Award nominee Terrence Mann as Mal Beineke, two-time Tony Award nominee Carolee Carmello as Alice Beineke, two-time Tony Award nominee Kevin Chamberlin as Uncle Fester, Jackie Hoffman as Grandmama, Zachary James as Lurch, Adam Riegler as Pugsley, Wesley Taylor as Lucas Beineke and Krysta Rodriguez as Wednesday.

THE ADDAMS FAMILY features a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice (librettists of the 2006 Tony Award-winning Best Musical, Jersey Boys), music and lyrics by Drama Desk Award-winner Andrew Lippa(The Wild Party), direction and design by Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch (Shockheaded Peter, The Metropolitan Opera's Satyagraha) and choreography by Sergio Trujillo (Next to Normal, Jersey Boys).

In this original story, the famously macabre Addams Family is put to the test when outsiders come to dinner, hurling Gomez, Morticia, Wednesday, Pugsley, Fester, Grandmama and Lurch headlong into a night that will change the family forever.

Individual tickets range in price from $28 to $105. A select number of premium seats are also available for select performances. Tickets are available at all Broadway In Chicago Box Offices (24 W. Randolph St., 151 W. Randolph St. and 18 W. Monroe St.); the Broadway In Chicago Ticket Line at (800) 775-2000; all Ticketmaster retail locations (including Hot Tix and select Carson Pirie Scott, Coconuts and fye stores); and online at www.BroadwayInChicago.com. Tickets are available to groups of 15 or more by calling (312) 977-1710.

Photo by Joan Marcus