Nathan Lane, Bebe Neuwirth set for Broadway's 'The Addams Family'

Break out the black mascara and fright wigs.

The producers of the upcoming Broadway musical production of "The Addams Family" have found their Gomez and Morticia.

Tony winners Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth will play the macabre couple in the musical that is scheduled to open Nov. 12 at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts in Chicago before moving to Broadway in the spring of 2010.

Both actors had performed the roles in readings and workshop versions of the musical leading up to today's announcement.

The show will feature a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice and songs by Andrew Lippa.

Phelim McDermott will direct, and Julian Crouch will design the sets.

"The Addams Family" is based on Charles Addams' original cartoons, not the popular ABC television show that ran during the 1960s (with John Astin and Carolyn Jones) or the subsequent feature films (with Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston).

Rounding out the new cast are Kevin Chamberlin (Uncle Fester), Jackie Hoffman (Grandmama), Zachary James (Lurch), Adam Riegler (Pugsley) and Krysta Rodriguez (Wednesday).

-- David Ng

Photo: Nathan Lane. Credit: Scott Landis / Associated Press.

Comments

[Jeff]

If you're going to be totally faithful to the original black-and-white cartoons, wouldn't the cast be a little pale, too?

Outstanding casting for the leads. Nathan Lane can ad-lib a line(or make it sound like one)beautifully...remember when he emceed the Tony Awards some years ago? And Bebe Neuwirth...who would ever know she was a talented singer and dancer as well as an actress? (Of course, as tight as Morticia's gown has to be to look like it was drawn from the cartoon...you'd need to be limber.)

[Arye Michael Bender]

Inspired casting.