"Addams Family" to close

Don’t say “happy New Year” to Morticia, Gomez, Uncle Fester and the rest of “The Addams Family.” The musical based on the macabre Charles Addams cartoons will close on New Year’s Eve after playing 725 performances at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.
 

The show opened to mixed-to-negative reviews in April, 2010, but became one of last summer’s biggest hits. The box office slumped after Nathan Lane (Gomez) left the cast in March, replaced by Roger Rees, but picked up when Brooke Shields succeeded Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia.
 

The musical was playing to 90 percent of capacity earlier this summer, but fell to 77.4 percent last week. It is not unusual for shows to close before facing the post-holiday winter chill. A US tour begins in New Orleans next month, with an international production opening in Brazil next spring.