The Ensemblist

The original production of The Addams Family was choreographed by Tony Award winner Sergio Trujillo. Once a Broadway ensemblist himself, The Addams Family came along when Sergio had four productions running simultaneously on Broadway: our show, the long-running Jersey Boys, the sparse but beautiful musical staging in Next to Normal, and the Tony-Award winning production of Memphis. With this many shows under his purview, Sergio employed a team of talented associate choreographers to maintain his vision and keep the staging clean. And at The Addams Family, Sergio’s associate was the highly kind and highly capable Dontee Keihn.

Also a former ensemblist, Dontee had been in the original Broadway ensemble of the famed 42nd Street revival, as well as the Bernadette Peters-led revival of Gypsy. Her journey with The Addams Family began as the associate choreographer for the show’s pre-Broadway tryout in Chicago. She maintained that position for the show’s Broadway run, as well as the national tour and stagings in both Brazil and Australia. She then took over the dual roles of associate director and associate choreographer for two more “replica” productions in Argentina and Mexico City. She was with the show as long as anybody, so she knows the staging of The Addams Family intimately and thoroughly.

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It’s time to start 2021 with some joy. And what better way than to share something that’s been bringing me joy over the last few months: Let’s Hear It For The Choice. Created by Jimmy Larkin, Let’s Hear It For The Choice is a celebration of great musical theatre performances large and small. Jimmy has been sharing compilations of these bold statements, or “choices,” on his Instagram channel along with a heavy dose of dry but loving humor. He joined me recently to share what he thinks makes a great “choice” and some of his favorite ensemble choices of all time. Here’s our conversation…

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The 41st Annual Tony Awards were held June 6, 1987 at the Mark Hellinger Theatre with Angela Lansbury hosting for her third time. Heading into the ceremony, Me and My Girl and Les Miserables were neck in neck leading the pack for most nominations (with 13 and 12, respectively.) Behind them were Starlight Express with seven nominations and Rags with five. Although the category is titled “Best Revival of a Play or a Musical,” this season there were no musicals nominated.

The 1986-87 season was smack-dab in the middle of a volatile time, but not particularly bombastic itself. We found ourselves in the middle of President Ronald Reagan’s second term, with both the Cold War, the War on Drugs, and the AIDS epidemic raging. (Interestingly enough, a week after this telecast is when Reagan makes his famous speech in Berlin where he asks Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”) Also, this season occurred during the end of the Iran-Contra affair -- a political scandal that embroiled the country for about a year and a half, where the Reagan administration was found to be bartering arms for seven US hostages in the middle east...gotta love a quid pro quo…

On Broadway, the British invasion was HERE. With three out of four of the Best Musical nominees being British imports, Cats alive and well at the Winter Garden, and Phantom opening in the West End and waiting in the wings for their Broadway house, it seemed like Cameron Mackintosh, the RSC, and all their contemporaries were taking over the Great White Way.

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So many of us experienced the unexpected in 2020. When the world stopped, we were forced to reckon with who we are without busy lives to distract us. That reckoning was most uncomfortable for the busiest among us, who were moving so fast they never took the time to stop.

Paloma Garcia-Lee was one of the busiest of those artists. A verteran of six Broadway shows, she spent 2019 as an original company member of Moulin Rouge! The Musical, as well as playing a featured role in F/X’s Fosse/Verdon and playing Graziella in the upcoming Stephen Speilberg helmed feature film of West Side Story. She was running on all cylinders until March 12. Here, with what happened next, is Paloma Garcia-Lee.

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My first stop on this journey was reaching out to an old colleague, Rick Elice. Along with Marshall Brickman, Rick wrote the book for the musical adaptation of The Addams Family. Rick and I’s path crossed a handful of times during my tenure with the original Broadway production: he was in the room when I had my final audition, he was in the building to put in new leads or when the show closed on New Year’s Eve 2011. But I mostly knew Rick from being the husband of our leading man, Roger Rees, who took over the role of Gomez Addams two months into my run.

Last month, I sent an email to Rick for the first time in more than nine years. Imagine when he replied within 24 hours, excited about the opportunity to discuss the show. In the years since, Rick wrote the script for Peter and the Starcatcher, The Cher Show, and has maintained the multiple companies of his show Jersey Boys, currently the 12th longest running show in Broadway history.

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The 41st Annual Tony Awards were held June 6, 1987 at the Mark Hellinger Theatre with Angela Lansbury hosting for her third time. Heading into the ceremony, Me and My Girl and Les Miserables were neck in neck leading the pack for most nominations (with 13 and 12, respectively.) Behind them were Starlight Express with seven nominations and Rags with five. Although the category is titled “Best Revival of a Play or a Musical,” this season there were no musicals nominated.

The 1986-87 season was smack-dab in the middle of a volatile time, but not particularly bombastic itself. We found ourselves in the middle of President Ronald Reagan’s second term, with both the Cold War, the War on Drugs, and the AIDS epidemic raging. (Interestingly enough, a week after this telecast is when Reagan makes his famous speech in Berlin where he asks Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”) Also, this season occurred during the end of the Iran-Contra affair -- a political scandal that embroiled the country for about a year and a half, where the Reagan administration was found to be bartering arms for seven US hostages in the middle east...gotta love a quid pro quo…

On Broadway, the British invasion was HERE. With three out of four of the Best Musical nominees being British imports, Cats alive and well at the Winter Garden, and Phantom opening in the West End and waiting in the wings for their Broadway house, it seemed like Cameron Mackintosh, the RSC, and all their contemporaries were taking over the Great White Way.

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It was supposed to be the biggest Broadway show of the season. Two theatre titans taking on two of the most familiar roles in popular culture. The combination of wildly successful source material and innovative theatremakers were sure to create a theatrical juggernaut. And the public agreed: advanced ticket sales for the show were the largest of any Broadway production to date.

And then… it opened. 

Many jeered the production, but none said it as succinctly as The New York Times’ Ben Brantley, when began his review with the following quote: “Imagine, if you dare, the agonies of the talented people trapped inside the collapsing tomb called The Addams Family. Being in this genuinely ghastly musical must feel like going to a Halloween party in a strait-jacket. A strangled voice inside you keeps gasping, ‘He-e-e-lp! Get me out of here!’”

And then, in early 2016 the Educational Theatre Association had released their annual survey of the most-produced musicals in high schools across the country in the 2014-2015 school year, and The Addams Family was the most popular high school musical in the country.

How was this possible? I thought high schools performed musical theatre canon - Broadway megahits like Oklahoma! and Les Miserables. How did our unloved little musical become so popular? Sure, we are only talking about high schools but it means something that for half a decade more future theatremakers and theatrelovers have learned the lyrics to “When You’re An Addams” than any other song in the musical theatre canon. 

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In this month's episode of Chris Chats With, host Christine Shepard (Mean Girls, Head Over Heels) brings together a roundtable of colleagues and friends for a roundtable discussion about community v. the individual.

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In this month's episode of Chris Chats With, host Christine Shepard (Mean Girls, Head Over Heels) brings together a roundtable of colleagues and friends for a roundtable discussion. Ari Groover, Arica Jackson and Ricardo Zayas delve deep into a discussion about community v. the individual.

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There isn’t a theatre choreographer more associated with their own unique style than Bob Fosse. The infamous Oscar-, Emmy- and Tony-winning director and choreographer created his own signature technique that distinguished shows like Chicago, Pippin, and Damn Yankees into dance masterpieces. This April, FX launches a new limited television series Fosse/Verdon, based on the 2013 biography by Sam Wesson with a focus on his marriage and collaboration with Gwen Verdon. 

In the final episode of Fosse/Verdon, we see Gwen and Bobby back together to work on a pre-Broadway revival of Sweet Charity. Leading the pack is today’s guest Kelcy Ann Griffin. Kelcy performed on Broadway herself in Bullets Over Broadway and Chicago. She has also played Detective Harper on TV’s Gotham for two seasons. On Fosse/Verdon, she plays Debbie Allen. 

Allen is perhaps most beloved to musical lovers for playing Lydia in both the movie and TV versions of Fame. Today, she’s know for her work as Dr. Catherine Avery on Grey’s Anatomy. But she started as a Broadway baby, performing in Raisin and Ain’t Misbehavin’, Anita in the 1980 Broadway revival and Charity in the Broadway revival of Sweet Charity. Recording from Actors Connection’s New York City studios, I asked Griffin about her experience with Fosse and embodying an icon. 

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