The scariest thing in the “The Addams Family” isn’t the giant squid that lives under the stairs.
It’s Bebe Neuwirth backstage.
The Broadway diva is said to be fuming that her role — Morticia — has been reduced since the show was revamped following tepid reviews in Chicago.
And when the Beeb’s miserable, watch out!
“Everybody’s afraid of her,” says a production source. “It’s not a good idea to stray near her dressing room.”
Another person who’s worked with her says: “She doesn’t yell or throw tantrums. But she’s icy. Cold, icy, knife-in-your-heart.”
Neuwirth, sources say, is demanding more songs and scenes. And she’s not happy that her co-star, Nathan Lane, is running away with the show, aided and abetted by his friend Jerry Zaks, who replaced those two avant-garde (and out-of-their-depth) directors, Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch.
Neuwirth’s defenders say she deserves more material. What she does have — a new song in the second act called “Just Around the Corner” — she does with flair.
“She’s very good, but she’s completely wasted in the show,” one person says.
Neuwirth detractors say she doesn’t have all that much to do anymore because her singing and dancing aren’t as sharp as they once were.
She won a Tony for her sexy turn as Velma in “Chicago” in 1997, but she had hip-replacement surgery a few years ago.
“She’s driving everybody crazy with demands for more songs — but she can’t do all that great stuff she used to do so brilliantly,” says a source.
Neuwirth, as I reported last fall, was deeply unhappy during tryouts in Chicago — and with good reason. She had crappy songs, including a Kander and Ebb rip-off called “Second Banana,” and she was saddled with some boneheaded scenes in which she fretted about getting old.
All that stuff has, thankfully, been cut. But her new material, says a source, is “pretty thin.”
In January, Cindy Adams reported that Lane and Neuwirth weren’t getting along. I’m told Zaks managed to defuse some of the tension, but you won’t be see these two hanging out at Orso anytime soon.
As for Lane, he’s now carrying this $15 million show on his back, although the hilarious Jackie Hoffman, as Grandmama, lends a helping hand from time to time.
A smart producer who recently slipped into a preview says: “Nathan is the show. He’s giving a Nathan Lane performance on steroids. And the audience loves him.”
Another insider says, simply: “Whatever they’re paying him, it’s not enough.”
Andrew Lippa, the composer and lyricist, has written about five new songs, and Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, the bookwriters, have focused the show on the beloved Addams Family characters. (In Chicago, the script wandered off with a bunch of new characters nobody cared about.)
But we’re not looking at a miraculous turnaround here, I’m afraid. The show’s racked up a $15 million advance and will run for a while no matter what the critics say.
Lane and the famous title should bring in the tourists in the summer. But, in the end, it looks like “The Addams Family” is shaping up to be this season’s “Young Frankenstein.”
Da da da dead.
Footnote: For what it’s worth, when I saw the show in Chicago, I thought Neuwirth was very good despite her material.
And I think she’s a great performer.
I ran into her a few weeks ago at a party, and while I can’t say she was overflowing with warmth, she was civil. And her new husband was fun. When I introduced myself, he said: “Please give me back my hand!”