Roger Rees to Replace Nathan Lane in THE ADDAMS FAMILY 3/2011

Roger Rees, a Tony Award winner as Best Actor for The Life And Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby and a Tony nominee for Indiscretions, will assume the role of Gomez in THE ADDAMS FAMILY on Broadway beginning Tuesday, March 22 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre (205 West 46th Street). Rees will reunite with his good friend and longtime professional colleague, two-time Tony Award winner Bebe Neuwirth, who will continue in the role of Morticia. Nathan Lane's final performance as Gomez in THE ADDAMS FAMILY will be Sunday, March 6.

Neuwirth and Rees co-starred for several years on the NBC sitcom Cheers, she as Dr. Lilith Sternin Crane and he as Robin Colcord. The pair collaborated on the acclaimed Kurt Weill revue Here Lies Jenny, starring Neuwirth and directed by Rees. They also co-starred as Kate and Petruchio in his production of The Taming of the Shrew at the Williamstown Theater Festival in 1999, and in Cabaret Verboten at Center Theater Group in Los Angeles.

Roger Rees, born and raised in Wales, began his career with the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he created the title role in the legendary production of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, based on the Dickens classic, for which he received the Olivier Award for his performance; in 1981, the production transferred to Broadway and became a national sensation, and Rees was honored with the Tony Award for Best Actor in A Play. He most recently appeared on stage in New York in the Flaherty/Ahrens musical A Man of No Importance for Lincoln Center Theater (Mitzi Newhouse). Other Broadway credits include Indiscretions, for which he was nominated for Tony and Drama Desk Awards as Best Actor, and the Roundabout productions of Uncle Vanya and The Rehearsal. Off-Broadway he starred in The End of the Day (for which he received an Obie Award) and The Uneasy Chair at Playwrights Horizons; also, The Misanthrope at Classic Stage Company. In London, he starred in the original productions of Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing and Hapgood; Double, Double; and for the RSC, as Hamlet, Love's Labour's Lost, Cymbeline, Much Ado About Nothing and The Suicide. This year, he appeared with Ian McKellen in the acclaimed West End production of Waiting for Godot at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. In December, he will perform his solo Shakespeare show What You Will in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Rees' film work includes Julie Taymor's Frida, The Scorpion King, The Emperor's Club, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Next Stop Wonderland, Trouble on the Corner, Mel Brooks' Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Bob Fosse's Star 80 and If Looks Could Kill. Television credits include Cheers, The West Wing, Boston Common, My So-Called Life, The Ebony Tower, The Crossing, Double Platinum, Titanic and Liberty. His theatrical directorial credits include Arms and the Man (Roundabout); Love's Labour's Lost and The Merry Wives of Windsor (Old Globe). He was Artistic Director of the Williamstown Theater Festival from 2004 to 2007, where he also directed The Taming of the Shrew, The Rivals, Anything Goes, Late Middle Classes and The Film Society. This winter he will co-direct, with Alex Timbers, Peter and the Starcatcher at the New York Theatre Workshop.

Based on the bizarre and beloved family of characters created by legendary cartoonist Charles Addams, THE ADDAMS FAMILY features a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, and music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa. The production is directed and designed (sets and costumes) by Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch, with creative consultation by Jerry Zaks and choreography by Sergio Trujillo. Lighting design is by Natasha Katz, sound design is by ACME Sound Partners and puppetry is by Basil Twist. The musical opened on Broadway April 8, 2010. A national touring company will premiere in New Orleans in September 2011.

THE ADDAMS FAMILY is produced on Broadway by Stuart Oken, Roy Furman, Michael Leavitt, Five Cent Prods., Stephen Schuler, Decca Theatricals, Scott M. Delman, Stuart Ditsky, Terry Allen Kramer, Stephanie P. McClelland, James L. Nederlander, Eva Price, JAM Theatricals/Mary Lu Roffe, Pittsburgh CLO/Gutterman-Swinsky, Vivek Tiwary/Gary Kaplan, The Weinstein Co./Clarence, LLC and Adam Zotovich/Tribe Theatricals, by special arrangement with Elephant Eye Theatrical.

For more information on THE ADDAMS FAMILY, visit www.theaddamsfamilymusical.com.

 

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