July 11, 2014

  • Shaiman's Delightful "Addams Family"

    Among many great shows of the 1960s, one must place The Addams Family.  The iconic characterizations by John Austin, Carolyn Jones, Ted Cassidy, and Jackie Coogan made Charles Addams’ New Yorker drawings come alive.  Unlike The Munsters whose comedy tends to play up the immigrant family carving out a life in America, the Addams’ tended to focus on the eccentric behavior of the upper classes.  Both series provide interesting historical snapshots of the period through very unique lenses and work because the humor at its core is somewhat universal and relatable to its audiences.  Barry Sonnenfeld would direct the film which appeared at a time when both TV adaptations to the big screen and more unusual stylized Gothic comedies (a la Tim Burton) were doing well at the box office.  The story returned to the roots of Addams’ drawings choosing to highlight a family who was “right” while the rest of the world seemed wrong to their way of thinking.  With great costuming and sets, and a very good cast (including a young Christina Ricci), the result was an appropriately off-kilter dark family comedy.  Though Danny Elfman might have seemed like the perfect choice for the project, the score responsibilities ended up being taken on by Marc Shaiman fresh off his fun western comedy score for City Slickers.  The result is one of his many great scores of the 1990s.  La-La Land Records is releasing a 4000 copy limited edition CD that should be a must have for fans of the composer.

    The original theme for the television series, by the very talented Vic Mizzy, would serve as an opening reference and source for Shaiman’s score.  He would find the perfect gothic and romantic musical approaches to the film including a wonderful waltz theme.  And like similar Gothic horror comedies, he would take some cues from Eastern Europe for musical inspiration with Gypsy-like melodies and musical gestures.  The film opens at Christmas as a group of carolers make an unfortunate decision to share their gifts at the Addams mansion and are “rewarded”.  The “Main Title” provides the Mizzy motif and then moves into Shaiman’s really gorgeous melancholy romantic waltz idea.  A harpsichord and skittering pizzicato strings provide another “suggestion” of the series and often serves to accompany Thing as “he” scurries through the house and which appears in “Morning’.  The cue perfectly captures both the sense of the story and the oddness of the family’s life.  The waltz theme casts its shadow across the music with Gypsy-violin and beautiful romantic leanings (perhaps reminiscent of Morris’s Young Frankenstein approach).  The parent Addams’s  have a very “close” personal relationship and the sensuality comes across especially in the tango theme that follows Gomez (and is introduced in “Chess” as a source cue).  The Eastern European styling comes to the fore in “Mamushka”.  While one might think the score would be a quirky listen, it turns out to work very well in its combination of comedic underscoring, romantic gestures, hints of danger, and nostalgic references.  Perhaps it shows most how well Shaiman was able to pull these elements together.  In “A Party…For Me?” these ideas get a chance to be featured across five minutes of music for one of the score’s highlights.

    First we must give thanks that La-La Land did not include the wretched MC Hammer end credits “Addams Groove”.  Instead, they have included some wonderful bonuses with plenty of unreleased sequences, unused musical segments, and a alternate/album tracks.  The “Playmates” music from a slide sequence with Fester and Gomez heading to the vault appears as does a complete performance of Ellington’s “The Mooche”—a perfectly nostalgic take (an interesting choice similar to Elfman’s use of ragtime/jazz in his gothic comedy scores) that is referenced stylistically later in “Thing Gets to Work”.  One of the big highlights of the film, the “Mamushka” sequence, gets heard in its entirety (featuring Raul Julia and Christopher Lloyd) and in two separate versions as well.  There is also a demo of waltzes and even the theatrical trailer music.  The result is a fairly complete presentation of Shaiman’s memorable scores from those early days when his film career was just beginning to take off.  The waltz theme is perhaps worth the price of the disc alone, but then you also get a great deal of delightful orchestral ideas to boot.  Perhaps its sequel score will serve as a great companion soon.