THEATRE
Copyright Lighting&Sound America June 2010
64 • June 2010 • Lighting&Sound America
http://www.lightingandsoundamerica.com/LSA.html
current Broadway
show has been
more anticipated
than The Addams
Family, especially
given the felicitous
casting of Nathan
Lane and Bebe Neuwirth as
America’s favorite ghouls, Gomez and
Morticia Addams. As the production
headed to Chicago for its out-of-town
tryout, its level of audience
awareness was off the charts—a
producer’s dream.
Be careful what you wish for: The
publicity turned into scrutiny when
the Chicago notices were mixed.
Under pressure, the company went to
work: Marshall Brickman and Rick
Elice tweaked the libretto, Andrew
Lippa replaced songs, and Jerry Zaks
was named “creative consultant.”
And, as it arrived at Broadway’s
Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, The Addams
Family continued to defy expecta-
tions. Despite chilly New York notices,
it continues to post spectacular box
office numbers, surpassed only by
those long-running institutions,
Wicked and The Lion King. The
Addams Family appears to be that
extremely rare thing: a critic-proof hit.
Never underestimate the power of
a beloved cultural institution. The
cartoons of Charles Addams were
part of The New Yorker in its postwar
heyday. Especially popular were those
featuring an unnamed family of ghouls
whose cozy domestic life always
featured a macabre twist. (One classic
depicts the family, on the mansard
roof of their Victorian home, preparing
to drop boiling oil on a group of
Christmas carolers below.) The
members of the so-called Addams
Family were given names for the
television series, which, despite a
Photo: Joan Marcus relatively short run (1964-66), probably
did more to embed Addams’ humor
into the American mind than anything
else. A pair of films released in the
early ‘90s kept the characters alive for
a new generation.
As Stuart Oken, the new musical’s
lead producer, told the Chicago
Tribune, the creative team drew their
inspiration almost entirely from the
150 drawings that feature the
Addams Family, aiming to capture
their atmosphere of grandiose decay
and slyly inverted values. For plot
purposes, the authors made one
major change: Wednesday Addams,
previously a spooky little girl, is now a
young adult, and is in love with Lucas
Beineke, a nice young man from
Ohio; the action is set in motion when
Lucas and his parents show up at the
Addams home—located in Central
Park—for a pre-nuptial get-together.
Naturally, everything that can go
wrong, does; a dinner-table game
called Full Disclosure sets off crises in
both families, with Lucas’ parents
making especially shocking personal
discoveries. (The structure is similar
to Kaufman and Hart’s You Can’t Take
It with You.)
Whatever one thinks of The
Addams Family, the physical
production, beyond question,
captures the style and spirit of
Addams’ work. Like the cartoons, it is
full of subtle wit; the longer you stare
at it, the funnier the joke becomes.
This may be in part because it was
developed in an unusual set of
circumstances: How many musicals
can you name where the directors
and designers are the same people?
House of horrors
Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch,
who designed and staged The
Addams Family, came to the project
with a unique set of credentials. As
U.K.- based theatre artists, they were
best known in this country for
Shockheaded Peter, a Grand Guignol
entertainment based on a mid-19th-
century German book written to
terrorize children into behaving
www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • June 2010 • 65
properly.
With its
seedy Victorian
atmosphere, pitch
black-humor, and
grotesque cast of
characters (most of whom
come to untimely ends),
Shockheaded Peter certainly
demonstrated that McDermott and
Crouch had an Addams-like sensi-
bility.
The show marks the Broadway
debuts of McDermott and Crouch,
who have their own company,
Improbable Theatre, in London. The
Broadway experience led to many
ironies. For one thing, says Crouch,
“They call Broadway a big canvas,
but, when you’re there, you’re
working on some of the smallest
stages in the world. We started on
The Addams Family at the same time
we started working at the
Metropolitan Opera [on Philip Glass’
Satyagraha and John Adams’ Doctor
Atomic], and, in each case, I felt like
an anthropologist, dealing with
different tribes. On Broadway, you
have lots of technical time; at the
Met, you have no time, and you have
no previews; you do seven shows,
and it’s over.” This was in contrast to
The Addams Family’s long stay in
Chicago for revisions.
Crouch entered this Broadway
project with his eyes open, however.
“The big thing that governed the
design was, it’s a big musical,” he
says. “You know it’s going to
change—a lot. Therefore, you can’t
design it so that it’s fixed in any way.”
Instead, he notes, they went
modular: “We designed a kit of
parts—items like shutters and stair-
cases—so we could invent new
locations, if necessary, which it
was. Obviously, you’re dealing with
The Addams Family’s house, and
people know what it is, so you’re tied
THEATRE
into certain parameters. But we tried
to design something that allowed us
to go from scene to scene very fast.”
In addition, there was the issue of
authenticity. “We had the rights to all
of Addams’ work, up to the beginning
of the TV series,” adds Crouch. “We
had to tread carefully around certain
things made famous by television and
the films. On a physical level, the
series didn’t look like the drawings—
they had to light them more brightly in
those days. Also, the house in the
series is more furnished. In the
cartoons, they basically live in a
derelict home with little furniture.
Addams wanted you to look at the
cartoon and see the joke; he doesn’t
distract with extraneous details.”
The action of the show never
leaves the house and surrounding
area, but there are many locations,
including the family graveyard;
Morticia’s room; Gomez’s “grotto;” a
small chamber where Wednesday
Top: The first-act finale, “Full Disclosure,” tortures her brother, Pugsley; and
takes place in the great hall, with a chan-
delier and paintings of the Addams several in-one locations. The elegant
ancestors. Left: Morticia’s room; the red show curtain, a glorious Victorian
designers stuck to Addams’ vision of a
grand, but dilapidated and sparsely fur- drapery featuring gold tassels and
nished house. Below: A series of thumb-
nail sketches by Crouch show how the trim, is the first of Crouch’s kit of
layout for each location took shape. parts; rather than simply going up, it
Top pphoto: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times; Center left photo: Joan Marcus; Drawings: Courtesy of Julian Crouch
prowls up, down, and around the
proscenium in different configura-
tions, framing different locations in
and around the house. “I like playing
with old-fashioned design tools in a
set,” he says. “I have a kind of
romantic outlook about old theatrical
devices, like curtains and front cloths.
I’m not a filmic designer; why pretend
we’re not in a theatre?”
According to Jennifer Tankleff, of I.
Weiss, the company that provided
them, the curtains consist of one
tabbing curtain with fringe, trim, and
ropes; the latter feature 32'' gold
tassels, about which more later. There
is also a Venetian contour curtain,
with multiple lift lines to create a
variety of openings. Both drapes
consist of a 20oz velour, with 100%
fullness. “We set up ¼'' scale models
in our shop for the design team to
work with before making the full
66 • June 2010 • Lighting&Sound America
stage goods,” says Tankleff. “That
was a big help in determining the
correct lift lines.”
Indeed, the way scenery is
revealed is unusually important here.
The curtains rise for the opening
number, “When You’re an Addams,”
set in the family cemetery. This
location, when first seen, is fronted by
a towering pair of wrought-iron gates.
The effect is that of a double reveal.
The cemetery, in many ways, consti-
tutes the show’s design thesis, as it
establishes many of the key visual
ideas. It strikes the right comic-gothic
note, and also establishes the
prevailing mood of stylization. It also
introduces an enormous moon, which
will prove to be a big plot point. (A
crypt also provides a point of entry
for the “the ancestors,” the chorus of
deceased Addams relatives who add
zing to some of the numbers.) “The
thing is to show your hand at the
beginning of the show, what your
language is going to be,” says
Crouch. “Addams never drew a
graveyard, but I was keen to play with
the idea of gates as curtains. The
curtains open up, then a gate opens
up for you to see the characters.”
The designers came up with an
approach that allows for fast scene
changes: a triptych arrangement of
walls. Those at stage left and right are
heavily louvered, making them suitable
for both interior and exterior scenes.
The middle wall can be replaced to
denote different locations—a big
staircase for the great hall and a pipe
organ for the grotto. The side walls
pivot up and down; the middle wall
flies in and out.
“What we tried to do in the first
half is use the curtains to show little
snippets and not the whole set,” adds
Crouch. “The fun of it is to see the
whole thing when the Beinekes arrive.
We see them in Central Park, which
we do in a vaudeville way, with cut-
out trees and a small-scale version of
the Addams house. Then you go into
the great hall for dinner, and the
grotto, which has criss-crossing stair-
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cases, like an M. C. Escher print.”
The transition from the park to the
interior of the house is one of the
show’s biggest scenic moments. “The
little house falls over, following a clap
of thunder,” says Crouch. “The
Addamses are standing behind it. As
they walk forward, the little house is
pulled up. The staircases come on
and almost crash in the middle of the
stage; they become a bridge in
Central Park for the Beinekes to
cross. Then the stairs are pushed
upstage, the portraits fly in before the
walls do—we thought that would be
fun—and the walls are pulled up into
place. We see the ancestors push the
stairs to the side, and the chandelier
arrives just a little too late, as the
Beinekes ring the doorbell. It’s as if
the house is being created before the
audience’s eyes, but a little bit late.”
The show’s scenery was built by
Hudson Scenic Studios, Showman
Fabricators, and Chicago Scenic
Studios, with automation by Hudson.
Rose Brand supplied precision-cut
Encore fabric for the foliage on the
Central Park trees.
One of the show’s biggest talking
points is the Act II number “The Moon
and Me,” in which Uncle Fester
professes his undying love for that
lunar body. Again eschewing fancy
technology, the number is staged in
front of a black drop, with puppets—
including a variety of avian
creatures—being manipulated by
actors, who are unseen because they
are draped in black. “It’s another old-
fashioned vaudeville element,” says
Crouch, who drew inspiration from
the silent film director, George Méliès,
whose 1898 mini-epic, A Trip to the
Moon, featured a production design
that was, even for its time, blatantly
theatrical.
“In the early stages, we improvised
with Kevin Chamberlin [who plays
Fester],” says Crouch, “and, when
Andrew Lippa defined the song, we
brought in Basil Twist.” Twist is a
celebrated American puppeteer,
probably best-known for the
THEATRE
downtown shows Symphonie
Fantastique and Arias with a Twist. He
says that the chorus members in this
sequence are draped in black cowls
that cover their bodies. “We made
black velvet Snuggies for them,” he
says, amused. “They’re more like big
choir robes that fit over their wigs.
Some of them also have nice black
velvet pantsuits. We would do the
number, and I would say, ‘I can see
someone’s shoe.’ So we had to make
little booties.” The performers effec-
tively disappear against the black
velvet drop; the lighting is carefully
plotted to only pick out the puppets
in their hands.
During the number, Fester appears
to float in the air. “He’s walking up a
small set of stairs,” says Twist. “It’s
an awkward physical moment for him,
which is why the ladies of the chorus
are in front of him with parasols.
There’s an astounding amount of
lighting attention paid to this scene.
At first, even Julian and Phelim
thought it would be all right if we saw
the puppeteers, but I like to have
them hidden all the time. There is a
ton of people onstage in that scene,
The design is packed with subtle gags; note the skull in the wine rack next to Pugsley.
That’s Wednesday and her fiancé, Lucas, at right.
68 • June 2010 • Lighting&Sound America
and you can’t see them.”
One big challenge for Twist is the
fact that the puppets are manipulated
by chorus people, who had to learn a
new technique for the show. This
proved to be especially challenging
when dealing with the giant squid,
which rises up out of the grotto and
kidnaps—and, it is strongly
suggested, ravishes—Mal Beineke,
Lucas’ uptight father. The effect
requires “the entire ensemble, all 11 of
them, including an understudy for
Pugsley,” says Twist. “Everyone
handles a tentacle, each of which is
different. Three of them—the biggest
ones—are also on lines that lift the
bulk of their weight. The others are
basically built like vertebrae, with
cables in them. Each bends to one
side, and then you pull the other cable
and it bends to the other side. The
tentacles are strapped to their bellies
in the same way a drum is attached to
drummer’s body in a marching band.
You pull the wires with your arms; it’s
like cross-country skiing.”
Twist, who notes that the squid
effect was even more elaborate out of
town, adds, “There was a learning
curve” for the cast. However, he says, he notes, he strove to give the right
“We took it to such an extreme level Addams touch. For example in the
in Chicago that now it’s easier for dinner scene, there’s an electric
them. Because everyone was storm, with bursts of lightning
frightened by the idea, I provided courtesy of the lighting rig. Then, says
gear in rehearsals that would give Meeh, “we dump in burst of fogs and
them a sense of what they were plenty of dead leaves.” However, he
doing; I brought in harnesses and adds, “This is the Addams Family, so
smaller tentacles to give them the they have to be dark brown and green
experience of climbing into something leaves. Also, we have fans under the
and going with it. When I work with table, for the moment when the wind
puppeteers in a workshop, there’s a blows the tablecloth up.” The scene
different level of what they’re also features Lurch, the butler,
comfortable with.” fighting to close the door in the wind.
In any case, it’s fair to say the Other amusing touches include a
Addams household is riddled with moment when Wednesday, armed
puppets. In another talked-about with a bow and arrow, shoots an
moment, a golden tassel breaks free apple off of Lucas’ head, and the
from the red curtain and takes on a lightbulb that glows when placed in
life of its own. The tassel, says Twist, Uncle Fester’s mouth.
has “a U-shaped piece that extends As you might imagine, fog makes
from the tassel like a handle with a more than one appearance, and in
control on it.” This idea was initially more than one form. “We have chilled
dismissed, he adds, “because the glycol fog from Ultratec’s LSG
curtain makes all those fancy moves machines,” Meeh says. “And, for
and they didn’t want it traveling with atmospherics in the air, we use Look
a giant piece of hardware on it. I Solutions Vipers, as well as a bunch
mocked up something in Chicago, we their Tiny foggers, for the chimneys in
These renderings by Crouch establish several of the design’s key ideas, including the
ran the curtain through its paces, and the tango scene.” (He’s referring to use of a gate for a grand reveal, the statues in the family cemetery, and the Central Park
it didn’t foul up. Now there’s a welded “Tango de Amor,” in which Gomez and setting for the house.
structure on the tassel, behind the Morticia recover their marital mojo.)
curtain; it travels with the curtain. At The most amusing smoke-related other. In the case of The Addams even bizarre, challenges, lists “the
the right moment, the puppeteer effect occurs when we see Uncle Family, Julian Crouch finds himself four hard things” about the
grabs the handle,” and the tassel Fester rocketing toward the moon, wryly apologizing to the lighting production: 1) “No sidelight, for a
comes to life. with a vapor trail behind him. First, designer, Natasha Katz. “We gave her musical with dance;” 2) “Very high
Other puppet effects include a however, we see Kevin Chamberlin a very hard task. There are little bits trims, so there’s no way to get inside
Venus flytrap, which is fed a mouse preparing for flight. “He has a of the set that pop open, with lighting of those walls and sculpt the people;
by Morticia; a flower tentacle that cornstarch powder cigar to light the in them. Also, the show needs lots of 3) “The color of the walls;” and 4)
extends itself amorously towards Mal rocket,” says Meeh. “It’s got a little side lighting, in order to get that “Lighting the puppetry with the
Beineke; a monster that appears from burner in it, with a high-power atmosphere.” But because the walls positions we had.”
under Pugsley’s bed, and a tiny Uncle cigarette lighter. A fuse sputters and pivot down, such positions are often On the subject of sidelight, she
Fester, who rockets toward to the smokes; inside the rocket, we have a obscured. Furthermore, he adds, adds, “The curtain cuts off the
moon. Speaking of Pugsley’s liquid CO2 burst gag, like a small fire “The great challenge for her is, it’s sidelight in one. The two pivoting
monster, Twist says, “Liz Ramos, the extinguisher.” He heads offstage, takes supposed to be dark and spooky— walls start essentially in two, so
dance captain, has what most profes- off, and a prominent smoke ring but it’s a comedy, and people have to there’s no sidelight there. We do
sional puppeteers have; they’re appears from the wings and crosses laugh. She managed to give the show sneak some in, depending on where
Illustrations: Courtesy of Julian Crouch
game. She’s willing to be squished the stage. It’s but one example of the its beauty and atmosphere, and you the curtains are,” but this proved to
under the bed, with weird things on way traditional theatre techniques are can always see the stars’ faces.” be a constant effort.
her feet, using all of her limbs to used add fun to the House of Addams. When told of Crouch’s remarks, Regarding the trims, which go as
make it happen. And she’s really Katz, laughing, says, “I’m very happy high as 40', she says, “Every single
Photo: Joan Marcus
happy! She also does the tassel. It’s a The moon and her to hear that. I had to twist myself into overhead unit is a moving light. There
delight to find people like that.” In stories such as these, it’s fairly a pretzel on this one.” are so few positions, and I needed to
Gregory Meeh adds to the show’s typical for members of the design Elaborating, Katz, who is known be able to do a lot with those units.”
store of special effects, all of which, team to say nice things about each for her ability to deal with unusual, Twenty-eight of the movers, she
www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • June 2010 • 69
THEATRE
adds, are Vari*Lite VL5Bs, chosen for
their incandescent light source. “I
really believe that, when lighting
actors, we’re not at the point where
moving lights are completely compli-
mentary to incandescent sources,”
she comments. However, lighting the
chorus was a challenge: “In Chicago,
they were in black, and, in New York,
they’re in white. The question was,
are these white costumes going to be
too present all the time? Fortunately,
they weren’t, and what in Chicago
was a recessive element became
something I could really light.”
As for lighting the set, which is a
virtually indescribable gray-black-
brown, Katz says, “Originally, the
thought was to keep it more black
and white. But, as we evolved in
Chicago and into New York, it
became really clear that the walls
needed color—and the show needed
more variety of color.” However, “A
very small palette works on the set—
let’s say six colors. Some colors,
which are within the tonal range of
the set, require fewer lights, and
some require a lot of lights. You need
many units to put blue on those
Most of the cast members wear DPA 4061 mics with Sennheiser wireless systems.
70 • June 2010 • Lighting&Sound America
brown walls—but blue looks good, as
does orange and ochre and yellow.
Cyan looks great. The grotto is white
and blue-ish. Morticia’s boudoir is a
vibrant yellow. The great hall is
basically the color of the set. The
exteriors are something different—it
all takes place at night, and, well,
‘chilly’ is not a bad word to use when
you think of the Addams Family.”
Overall, she adds, the addition of
color “gave it a kind of depth that it
didn’t have before.”
As for lighting the puppet gags
and “The Moon and Me,” Katz says,
again laughing, “It’s all precision
lighting. NASA can’t compare to what
we did.” Indeed, each unit in these
scenes must be carefully focused to
keep light on the puppets and off the
chorus people in their Snuggies. Here
the designers’ complement of 28
Vari*Lite VL3500Qs, with their
shuttering capabilities, really came
into play, she says, adding that each
effect is “a true marriage of
puppeteer and lighting. If he or she
moves an arm an inch too far, the
illusion is lost.” Twist calls the lighting
of these scenes “a game of
millimeters,” and notes Katz’s skill in
dealing with extreme obstacles.
Overall, Katz notes, “We
brightened the show when we came
to New York,” a decision that added
more gear to the front-of-house
positions. These include a set of City
Theatrical VSFX wheels to create
clouds for Fester’s trip to the moon.
The lighting rig, from PRG, includes
20 VL1000 AS units, 24 VL2000 Wash
units, six Martin MAC 2000
Performances, 380 ETC Source Fours
and PARs, 40 Altman 65Q Fresnels,
10 PAR 46 units, 180 MR16 birdies,
24 Altman Micro Ellipse MR16s, 13
Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlaze 72s,
five ColorBlaze 48s, five ColorBlast
12s, 16 High End Systems Dataflash
AF1000 strobes, 100 Wybron
Coloram scrollers, four Lycian M2
followspots, two MDG Atmosphere
hazers, six Martin Jem AF-1 fans, City
Theatrical’s SHoW DMX wireless
system, five ETC 96 x 2.4kW dimmer
racks, and 12 Leprecon ULD-360-HD
dimmer packs. The lighting is
controlled by an ETC Obsession II
console, for the conventional gear,
linked to a PRG V676 console, for the
automated units.
Overall, Katz burnishes the
scenery with many pleasing splashes
of color. She also adds depth to the
stage pictures while highlighting the
stars, giving them distinct touches of
ghoulish glamour. One imagines
Addams looking down—or up— on
the Lunt-Fontanne in admiration.
Monster sound challenges
Just as Crouch, anticipating changes
to the show out of town, had his
scenic kit of parts, the sound design
team Acme Sound Partners adhered
to a similar be-prepared philosophy.
“In our initial design approach, we
wanted to be ready for anything,”
says Nevin Steinberg, speaking for
his colleagues, Tom Clark, Mark
Menard, and Sten Severson. “The key
was making sure we had the ability in
the system to make sound come from
anywhere you can imagine—even in
the pivoting walls. Our approach, in
terms of distributing the sound, was
no-holds-barred.”
He adds, “We did a tremendous
amount of homework with the set
design and lighting design teams to
share space effectively. We pretty
much exhausted all the places we
could put speakers. We started on
this project very early, and we arrived
at a system design that approached
what we imagined. We never ran into
a situation where we needed
something and didn’t have it. Of
course, it did help that the scenic
designers and directors were the
same people.”
In contrast, the main hang,
Steinberg notes, “is pretty light from a
reinforcement point of view. There are
no line arrays on the proscenium. In
fact, the only array consists of two
center clusters, and they’re
horizontal.” The center clusters are
made up of L-Acoustics ARCS units
and Meyer JM-1Ps. The latter unit, he
adds, is “designed to be hung either
horizontally or vertically; it’s tightly
packed, with very narrow coverage in
one plane and smooth coverage in the
other.” These boxes are largely aimed
at the theatre’s mezzanine; the L-
Acoustics units, he says, “are
asymmetrical in dispersion of the high
frequencies, and are used for the main
floor.” He also notes that the Lunt-
Fontanne, with its long shoebox
configuration, “is very narrow, with a
lot of hard, parallel surfaces. It’s
difficult in terms of signal-to-noise
management. There are many
unwanted reflections around and
behind you that can be confusing.”
On the sides of the proscenium,
the Acme team placed Meyer UPQ-
1Ps for the main floor and Meyer
CQ-2s for the mezzanine. Providing
additional fill are UPM-1Ps. For the
underbalcony area, two sets of d&b
audiotechnik E3s are used, and, on
Photos: Joan Marcus the mid-house lighting truss, one
UPQ-1 and two UPQ-2s provide
coverage for the rear mezzanine. In
addition, two Meyer UPJs handle
Natasha Katz notes that the ancestors were costumed in black during the Chicago try-
out, then changed to white for New York, which made them easier to light.
the extreme sides, and, on the main
truss for additional orchestra
reinforcement, are UPQ-1s and
UPQ-2s. The surround system
consists of EAW UB12s
But that’s not all. “Onstage,” says
Steinberg, “we get a little nutty.
“Because of the way the pivoting wall
scenery moves, we have foldback on
the walls on two levels, for both the
open and closed positions, inside and
behind the walls, in the wings, and
also in the lighting ladders. All are
addressable for sound effects; the
onstage system is a kind of hybrid,
used for both foldback and effects.”
To give you an idea of how complex it
gets, he adds, “We have a four-frame
Meyer Matrix 3 system that
distributes 75 outputs just to handle
that distribution system. That’s not
speakers; it’s just outputs. We have
over 80 loudspeakers on stage.”
For example, he says, “We have
d&b E3s providing front fill. We can
return the Matrix 3 to the individual
six front fills or the surround system
to multiple zones in the house, or the
main PA, or to the 80 loudspeakers
on stage.” In the footlight troughs on
stage are Meyer MM-4XPs, EAW JF-
60s, EAW UB12s, and Galaxy Audio
Hot Spots and Micro Spots, for
additional foldback. Built into the
walls, are Meyer UPJuniors, and, into
some scenic pieces, UPM-1Ps.
“The Matrix 3,” Steinberg adds “is
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also running Wild Tracks, so it’s
driving sound effects playback and
distributing foldback, as well as
returning effects playback to the main
PA. It serves as a supplementary
distribution method for the whole
sound system.” (The sound effects
include explosions, thunder, the
squid, screams, and gunshots.)
The main reinforcement console is
the DiGiCo SD7T, the company’s
latest product for the theatre. (It’s
designed to supersede the D5T.) “We
got it new for the Chicago tryout last
fall,” says Steinberg. “It improves on
the D5T both in terms of system
robustness and reliability. This is a
great step forward for Digico.”
Mic placement is a fairly straight-
forward affair on the show, as there
are few hats, and even fewer costume
changes. “There are a few tricky mic
placements,” notes Steinberg. “For
one thing, Uncle Fester is iconically
bald; therefore, we worked to get two
or three mics in places where we
could get a good sound from him
without interrupting his baldness.” But
what happens the chorus members
don their black Snuggies for the
puppet scenes? “The faces of the
Snuggies are designed with mesh, so
sound gets through pretty well,”
Steinberg says. Of course, there’s the
issue of getting the Snuggies on and
off; the sound tech has to make sure
the mics are off during these transi-
THEATRE
The family gathers in the cemetery for the finale: Note the projection of Uncle Fester’s face on the moon.
tions to minimize distracting noises.
The entire cast wears DPA 4061
capsules, except for Bebe Neuwirth,
who sports a Sennheiser MKE1.
“She sounds better on the
Sennheiser,” Steinberg says, noting
that such differences happen, for
reasons that often remain myste-
rious. The MKE1’s tiny form factor is
another plus, since Neuwirth’s
character, Morticia, has what the
designer calls “the most severe
hairline on Broadway.” All mics are
combined with Sennheiser SK-5012
and EM-3532 wireless systems. Gear
was supplied by Masque Sound.
The deployment of the complex
loudspeaker system allows for the
voices to sit comfortably on the
music from the 17-piece orchestra,
and allows the sound effects to land
with precision and punch.
72 • June 2010 • Lighting&Sound America
When you’re an Addams
Many others were involved in
bringing The Addams Family to
stage life. These include Frank
McCullough (associate scenic
designer); Yael Lubetzky (associate
lighting designer); Jason Crystal
(associate sound designer); Jeremy
Chernick (associate special effects
designer), Ceili Clemens (associate
puppetry designer); Aland
Henderson (automated lighting
programmer); Paul T. Wimmer
(production carpenter); Mike
Hyman (head electrician); David
Gotwald (production sound);
Lauren Alvarez, Jeffrery Hinchee,
Christine Peters, and Rob Thirtle
(associate scenic designers); Joel
Shier (assistant lighting designer);
Meredith Miller (assistant in
puppetry); Jeremy Wahlers
(assistant electrician); Bill Partello
(assistant carpenter/ automation);
Scott Silvian (assistant sound);
Darin Stillman (advance sound);
Stephen R. Long (lead followspot);
Bryan S. Davis (flyman); Denise J.
Grillo (production props); and
Kevin Crawford (assistant props).
Everyone agrees that the
production benefitted from a solid
planning process and the presence
of designers as directors. “There
was a sense of inclusion from the
beginning,” says Steinberg. “I was
in the rehearsal room from Week
One; we created a lot of sounds
there in collaboration with the
directors. That’s our first
Photo: Joan Marcus
experience with that.” That prep
work will be useful when The
Addams Family takes to the road
in 2011.