NATHAN LANE's new Broadway musical THE ADDAMS FAMILY has been branded more "ghastly" than ghoulish by theatre critics with a slew of frightful reviews.
The Producers actor stars as Gomez Addams alongside Bebe Neuwirth as his Morticia in the new production based on the kooky family, who were first immortalised in Charles Addams' comic strip and then in a TV show and movie series.
The curtain went up on the show in New York City on Thursday night (08Apr10), but critics were unimpressed - The New York Times' Ben Brantley wrote a scathing review, branding the musical "genuinely ghastly".
He writes, "Imagine, if you dare, the agonies of the talented people trapped inside the collapsing tomb called The Addams Family. This genuinely ghastly musical... stars a shamefully squandered Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth. Everyone else tries not to look embarrassed, though it's not easy."
Elysa Gardner, of USA Today, adds, "The stabs at crass hilarity also seem ill at ease with the hokey plot," while Joe Dziemianowicz of the New York Daily News' calls the show "half-baked", adding: "By the two-and-a half hour mark The Addams Family really wears thin. Hearing the finale, Move Towards The Darkness, it struck me. Move towards the exit was a much better idea."
