Interview with Broadway Producer Pat Addiss

Even though Pad Addiss is only in her seventh year as a theater producer, she already has several high profile productions to her credit, including Spring Awakening which garnered eleven Tony Award nominations and won eight including Best Musical. The show also won four Drama Desk Awards. Pat Addiss’ Broadway credits as a producer also include, Little Women, Passing Strange, The 39 Steps and the revivals of Promises, Promises (2010) and the revival of The Fantasticks, starring Aaron Carter, which is currently enjoying a run at New York City’s The Snapple Theater Center. She also produced Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life. In 2010, Ms. Addiss was honored by Works By Women, which has a mandate to honor women in theater and to elevate the number of plays and musicals that appear on American stages and are written and directed by women. The organization says that number now stands at less than 20%. Pat Addiss received the Tru Spirit of Theater Award. We caught up with Ms. Addiss in Hershey, Pennsylvania where her newest production, A Christmas Story, based on the stories of legendary radio personality Jean Shepherd, was being staged.

When asked what she was doing in Hershey Pennsylvania, Pat Addiss, as she did throughout our conversation, punctuated her words with laughter and replied, “I am eating a lot of chocolate and getting fat. The whole town smells of candy. They have a museum and they have Chocolate World, which I have already been to and I am staying away from. The show (A Christmas Story) is glorious. There is a convention (in town) and some women stopped me in the lobby (of the hotel) and said to me, ‘Thank you so much for giving us the flyer about A Christmas Story, because we saw it last night and it was great.’ Another lady stopped me in the elevator and said the same things and that put a smile on my face. It is a wonderful show. Families love it. I call it the Rocky Horror Show for grown men. Every performance gets a little bit better, as we only had three weeks to rehearse and we could have used another week for sure. It is still marvelous.  As we go along, it is getting better every night.  It opened on Tuesday night and it closes on Sunday night and then we move to Detroit and open in Detroit on November 15^th, stay there for two weeks and then on November 29^th we open in Raleigh, North Carolina. I am not going to Detroit and Raleigh, but I am going to Tampa, where we open on December 5^th and then I am going to Chicago where we open on December 14^th and we stay in Chicago until December 30^th. We are playing at the Chicago Theater that has over 3,000 seats.”

It is easy to detect the passion and love that Pat Addiss has for the theater and her enthusiasim is contagious.

“Our composing team (Justin Paul and Benj Pasek) is 25 years old and they are the hottest composing team in America today. They have won a lot of awards, including the songwriter award and now they are being presented with the Richard Rodgers Award along with Stephen Schwartz, so it’s not too shabby.  As you can see (she laughs) I am completely in love with my show.  The website is www.achristmasstorythemusical.com  There is A Christmas Story show floating about, but it has absolutely nothing to do with us, we’re a musical, good old fashioned, thirty in the cast, a full orchestra musical,” she says.  

When asked why she decided to open A Christmas Story in Hershey, other than the chocolate factor, Pat Addiss once again displays her wit and replies, “Should there be another reason?  It is a historic landmark theater and we felt that it was a good place to jump start our tour. Now we go on to bigger theatres and I think this was a good beginning. It is a gorgeous theater.”

When it comes to the cast for A Christmas Story, Ms. Addiss literally gushes, “John Bolton (Broadway productions of Curtains, Spamalot, Contact, Titanic; Television: Gossip Girl, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Ed) is cast as the father. He owns the role and he is just so totally amazing. I cannot imagine anyone else doing the part. He’s been in Spamalot and other Broadway shows. Then we have a boy Clarke Hallum who played in it when we tried it out at the 5^th Avenue Theatre in Seattle last year and unfortunately the little boy’s voice has changed, so this will be the last show that Clarke will be able to play the part. Maybe, eventually in fifteen years he will be able to play the father. He is a superstar and this kid is just so gifted. He is amazing. Star is written all over his face.  He along with John, pretty well carry the show.  Rachel Bay Jones (Broadway: Women on the Verge, Meet Me In St Louis, Hair. Tours: Fiddler on The Roof, Grand Hotel, Rent (Berlin, German language version) plays the mother. The wonderful Karen Mason plays Miss Shields the teacher. She has one fabulous number in which she plays the witch. There is no flying, she is just a witch (she laughs). She is just amazing. She was robbed of a Tony when she did Wonderland last year on Broadway, but Wonderland got trashed and they didn’t give her, her just due. She is a really great performer and she does a lot of Cabaret also. (Karen Mason’s Broadway credits include: Mama Mia!, Hairspray, Sunset Boulevard. CD: Right Here, Right Now (MAC 2009 CD of the Year and television credits include: Law and Order).  The other actor you may know is Adam Pelty who plays our Santa Claus. (Adam Pelty’s Broadway credits: The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Musical, Joseph, Titanic)

In brief, A Christmas Story tells the tale of Ralphie Parker who wants only one thing for Christmas, An official Red Ryder Carbine-Action 200-shot Range Model Air Rifle. The story takes place during the 1940's in the fictional town of Hulman, Indiana. The storyline follows Ralphie’s quest to make sure the Red Ryder Rifer appears under the Christmas tree. Along the way he has to deal with his mother’s fear that he will harm himself with the rifle, his annoying little brother, a friend who unwittingly freezes his tongue to a lamppost and several other interesting characters including a less than hospitable department store Santa Claus.

Pat Addis says, “This is based on Jean Shepherd’s story. He was on radio for many, many years on WOR in New York (also WLW (Rear Bumpers) and WSAI (DJ on Shuller’s Wigwam) and he used to tell all of these stories and the movie was based on that and now we have taken it full swing and based the musical on the movie.  Gene Weygandt plays Jean Shepherd (three time recipient of Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Best Actor in a Musical Award; Film credits: The Birdcage, The Babe, The Pager; Television credits: Cybill, Murphy Brown, Drew Carey, Ellen, Coach, U.S.A. High). He is very much mid-west and Jean Shepherd’s show originated in his hometown of Hammond, Indiana.  It is a very middle of America feel good show and everybody comes out feeling really good. It is not a sanitized show. It shows a family with all of it’s warts and dysfunction, but they are also a family full of love.  It has something for everybody. It is funny. It is clever and I just love it (she laughs).”

About her other current production, The Fantasticks, she says, “It is coming along fantastic and we just put in Aaron Carter who is a super Pop star.  The girls are loving him, because he is so adorable. It has given it a more modern spin and he even has little tatoos showing.  He is a darling guy and he is very, very talented.  It is a great play for teenage girls and for teenage boys. I took one of my grandsons to The Fantasticks and he said to me, ‘Grandma of all of the shows that you have taken me to, this is my favorite.’  It is interesting that boys and girls can relate to the show, as well as their mothers and fathers.  It is not for four and five year olds, it is more for teenage years and up.”

“As long as Tom Jones (lyricist for the musical) is alive, I would like to keep this show alive. It is a very nice, wonderful and inconic show and I feel very good about keeping it alive. You do different things for different reasons and I am not sure if I can tell you why I choose something. Everything that I choose has an artistic endeavor to it. I cannot do smutty shows. I have to feel good about the shows.  Even though not all of them have been monetarily successful, everyone of them has been successful,” she states.

For aspiring actors and actresses, Pat Addiss offers this advice, “Always be prepared, because there is so much talent out there. When you go to an audition, learn as much as you can about a part and if it is a revival, look at all of the people who have played the part, learn the role, learn the music. When we auditioned for The Fanstasticks, we had these girls coming in with tight plastic type dresses, so they spend the first few minutes pulling down their skirts and pulling up their tops. Now (the character) Luisa in The Fantasticks is an old fashioned girl who is very naïve and she is sixteen years old. You can’t come in dressed vampy looking. They should dress according to the part. I am appalled at how people turn up at auditions and how they are completely unprepared. I think being prepared is the number one advice that I can give to anyone looking to work in the theater. The other thing is audition, audition, audition. Do as many auditions as you can, because with each audition, it gets easier and easier. Understand that there are lots of rejections and if you go up for a play and there are 500 people reading for it, only one gets the job and maybe one gets to be the understudy. Two out of five hundred, the odds are against you. If you have the passion for it, you must do it, because you will always live with regret if you don’t. It is very important to do it, but it is a business and do it as a business.”

Please visit the website for A Christmas Story to find out when and where the touring show is being presented next.  For ticket information for The Fantasticks please visit this website.

Bottom Photo, scene from A Christmas Story, Photo by Carol Rosegg, protected by copyright © All Rights Reserved

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