Julian crouch punch and judy

Unlike the television series, Crouch chose not to clutter the set with too many quirky props. He wanted to help keep the musical moving quickly, so for inspiration he stayed with the original cartoons, "which are actually quite spare," he notes. So I stripped things down. I was aware of what was happening with the TV show, and likewise with the films.

For my sense, this is closer to the films than the TV series, but only by chance, really. In terms of costume design, Crouch once again found inspiration in the cartoons, and he gave the newly invented Beineke clan from Ohio a funny, yet classic, Middle America look. Alice Beineike's bright yellow dress offers a colorful contrast to the darkly-shrouded Addams clan.

What excited him the most was the chance to change the costumes of the ancestors, whom Zaks wanted to make look ghoulish and to emerge from the Addams family crypt. It was a change that Crouch approved of. I have far more experience with scenic design than costume design. I was nervous about the costume design, and I was saved by the fantastic team around me.

But it was very exciting for me personally to go back and have another go at those costumes, and there was obviously a big change in the makeup as well, because they went from living ancestors to very, very dead ancestors. A lot more white came into the palette, and that went fantastically. I think along with wig designer Tom Watson, we made a really strong look for that, and made a great contrast to the main characters.

To touch upon the puppet work that Crouch revealed earlier, the giant squid was a focal point of one key scene in Act II. The designer says that every ensemble and crew member operates the colossal creation. For most of the squid arms, there is a rope or line going up that supports the full weight. There's a crew member on the end of those, so everyone in the theatre is struggling to get that together for that minute and a half.

The ultimate look of The Addams Family musical speaks to the hard work that Crouch and his collaborators put into the production. While some people have debated why the uncredited Zaks was brought on for the New York incarnation — some posit that it was to make the show more mainstream and less quirky, especially given its source material — Crouch remains positive about the experience, even as he acknowledges that the road from Chicago to New York was hard because of the chorus of voices all wanting to be heard.

The designer took this show as an opportunity to challenge and stretch himself — in the figurative sense, of course. In some ways, when something goes wrong, there's more to learn from the mistakes than there is from the successes.

Julian crouch punch and judy

In some ways, I think that's the way to persevere, to treat your successes and your failures as the same, and look at them and think what you can learn here. Don't believe your bad reviews or your good reviews. Keep your eye on what you're doing. X Hide Ad. Share this Post:. Read more articles by Tom Wicker. Enter your email address below to get an occasional email with Exeunt updates and featured articles.

Pages: Page 1Page 2Page 3Page 4. Tweet Share. Tom Wicker Tom is a freelance writer and editor, based in London. What might be termed the essential Punch story is not told with a linear narrative but as was presented originally as a series of events, albeit punctuated here with references to different times and styles that reflect his survival in popular culture over centuries.

The episodes include many in the Punch tradition such as the crocodile scene, and some play out with an unexpectedly weird or nasty twist, none more so than a troupe of acrobatic piglets minced by a singing, naked butcher and his wife, thus pointing to the sausages scene. Amazing what puppets can get away with…. From this surreal organised mayhem emerges something of the relationship between the entertainers themselves though, poignantly, fewer words pass between them than between their characters.

Like jongleurs of old they have struggled and travelled long to ply their trade and now Messrs Harvey and Hovey have fallen from popularity and are left depleted.