samwinolj, Bonnie, Jerry, daisy_knotwise, and I headed down to the Loop today for the previews of The Addams Family, the new musical starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth. Gretchen's capsule review was "Well, it won't be a classic of the American theater, but it was a fun way to spend an afternoon." And that's pretty much true.

There's a structural problem in the second act that's caused by the leads not being the romantic leads in the show, with the result that a number that should be very near the end of the act ends up being pushed substantially too early. (In my opinion, of course.) This leads to a relatively weak number just before the end of the musical, but I'm really not sure how to fix it. On the other hand, that's what tryouts are for.

There are a number of current references in the show, most of which were pretty funny, one of which falls in the politically polarizing category and resulted in a brief halt due to applause. I'm not convinced that applause is what you want there, because it disrupts the timing pretty severely. We'll see if it survives, I suppose.

Although the show is not supposed to be drawn from the old TV show or the movies, but from the original cartoons, they did have the good sense to license the TV theme. We even had a cameo by Cousin It.

And Uncle Fester, playing the role of Dr. Exposition, does his best to steal the show. And he gives it a very good try.

Gretchen, meanwhile, observes that it appears that all new Broadway musicals are required to have someone fly. She blames Cats.

My pithy observation was that Morticia may well be the role that Bebe Neuwirth was born to play: "Sybil on the Half-Shell".

Of course, after such a show, we find ourselves trying to figure out how to cast it with members of SpaceTime Theater. We concluded that daddy_guido and I would engage in a death match to determine which one of us was Gomez and which one was Uncle Fester. After that, we discovered we would run into an acute shortage of women. And I suggested importing catalana to play Morticia, as she can both sing and dance.

Though it's difficult trying to cast a musical when half of the cast doesn't want to sing. :)

daisy_knotwise and I went out with Sam, Jerry, and Bonnie to see The Pirate Queen, the new musical about Grace O'Malley and the English conquest of Ireland. It's actually more of an opera than a straight musical, which I expected. The critics say that it needs some rework and I have to agree.

There's a story hiding in there somewhere, but it's not quite getting out.

On the other hand, Sam, Bonnie, and Jerry enjoyed it more than Gretchen and I did.

As I walked out of Spamalot last night, I turned to daisy_knotwise and said, "It's really funny, but it doesn't hold together well." Then I paused and continued, "Of course, it's Monty Python. They never hold together well."

It's a nice production. They're still working out some technical glitches -- one piece of pyrotechnics came loose and was pinwheeling on its cable and they had a couple of the wireless mics cut out briefly -- but it was fun, the audience enjoyed it, and it's definitely worth seeing. Gretchen was particularly impressed by the bit with the Black Knight, which was quite nicely handled.

daisy_knotwise and I are joining Sam, Bonnie, and Jerry tonight for the opening night performance of the touring company for Spamalot. Ok, so it won't have Tim Curry or David Hyde Pierce. Life's like that.

We'll let you know how it goes.

Bonnie and Sam gave us a season subscription to City Lit Theater Company today, so we were off to the show this afternoon to see Dr. Knock, a 1920s French play (in translation) that was an indictment of doctors who need to find something to treat whether it needs treating or not.

After the show, Sam, Bonnie, Jerry, Thomas, Anna, daisy_knotwise and I grabbed dinner at Gulliver's.

I've just gone over the ISFiC Press financials with shsilver and we think they're correct now, so they go off to our treasurer so he can file the taxes.

And now I can finally get back to our taxes...

No, not Jerry Lewis. That's comedy that the French like. (Sorry, Charlie.)

Instead, daisy_knotwise and I went to Chicago's City Lit Theater this afternoon along with Jerry, Sam, and Bonnie to see their adaptation of two one-act plays by Moliere, "The Doctor In Spite of Himself" and "The Pretentious Young Ladies". The tickets were a Christmas gift from Sam and Bonnie which worked out quite nicely.

The first bit was, I think, stronger than the second, propelled by the lead actor whose performance reminded me of Jackie Gleason. The second bit was still funny, costumed in 21st century funky and really, really frightening at times.

Afterwards, we grabbed dinner at Gulliver's and headed home. If we're really lucky, we'll start addressing Christmas cards tonight.

We saw all of them last night. All of the plays of William Shakespeare condensed down to a handy two-act play. It was like a very funny version of Cliff's Notes.

The play is called "The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (abridged)". They take abridged seriously as they did all of the comedies in one sequence. The whole play is performed by three men and one woman who are kept *very* busy.

The entire second act is devoted to Hamlet and is a good bit funnier than the Harold H. Hecubah version, although it's *not* a musical.