Broadway's Hits and Misses of the Spring

The Addams Family
Can't say I held out much hope for this musical based on the ghoulish Charles Addams characters (by way of the campy 1960s TV series). And even Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth couldn't raise the lame material from the dead. There's a frisson at the start, as the curtain rises to reveal a picture-perfect tableau of the family and a few finger snaps of the familiar TV theme song. But it's all downhill from there. Andrew Lippa's songs are unmemorable. Worse is the book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, whose idea of a story (daughter Wednesday gets engaged and brings her straitlaced prospective in-laws for a visit) would barely have sustained a half-hour sitcom episode, much less this dull, nearly interminable evening.

• Glee's Broadway Roots