“Addams Family”, the Best Showing at Little Theatre Yet
Photo by Keith Stewart
Pictured in “The Addams Family” are, from left to right, Lexie Dorsett Sharp as Grandma, Gideon Johnson as Pugsley, Jesse Sharp as Gomez, Josh Houghton as Lurch, Emmy Burns as Wednesday, Colleen Johnson as Morticia and Tommy Lucas as Uncle Fester.
•July 29, 2015•
By Dan Hagen
NP Theatre Critic
Truth is not only stranger than fiction, but stranger even than the Addams Family.
The New Yorker magazine cartoonist Charles Addams once dated a widow named Jacqueline Kennedy, and even proposed marriage to her.
“No,” Jackie replied, adding drily, “What would we talk about? CARTOONS?”
Broadway has never shared Jackie’s condescending attitude on that subject. Both comic strips and Broadway musicals are American inventions, and both display the brash energy and optimism that are part of the national spirit.
L’il Abner, Little Orphan Annie, Peanuts, Doonesbury, Superman and Spider-Man all went from four colors to footlights, and so did Addams’ series of humorously macabre New Yorker cartoons collectively referred to as the Addams family.