The Addams Family

Following the success of The Producers in 2016 I was eagerly awaiting COMIC’s production of The Addams Family. It was good to see the proud display of their NODA award as well as a mention in the programme.

Over the last few years the show has become a popular choice with amateur groups up and down the country. The characters of course are well known and therefore the audience know what to expect from them.

Chloe Turner with her casting was not to disappoint.

The entire cast were suited to their roles and played their respective roles to an excellent result. Each member of the family was immediately familiar in both appearance and vocally. Lewis Doley as Gomez Addams was ideally suited to Beth Chisholm-Birch as Morticia Addams they acted and sang well together. I particularly enjoyed Lewis’s rendition of ‘Two Things’.

Kim Topham as Grandma Addams with had some wonderful lines all well delivered along with Jess Billingham as Wednesday who had some good scenes especially with her father and Holly Nelder as Pugsley.

Ian Underwood was brilliant playing Fester. He showed great tenderness for the greatly misunderstood member of the family especially in his song ‘The Moon and Me’.

Equally well played were the whole Beineke family. Juliette Harrision as Alice, Andy Whallet as Mal and Liam McNally as Lucas. The Beieke as well as the Addams family were all involved in the finale of act one – ‘Full Disclosure’ which was very well done indeed.  

Finally, as a main character was Peter Holmes as a suitably tall Lurch. It was worth the wait for him to have a line! He, like the rest of the cast was made up well with good attention to detail and costume. The humour as well as weirdness of the family was delivered by the whole cast.

It is often that only a mention is made of the chorus but rarely do the chorus make such a presence as they did in this production. The costumes were outstanding, and I believe sourced by each person individually. Family ancestors included caveman, wild west, Elizabethan, suffragette, nurse and jester and included children – they looked great and very effective.

The staging was equally well conceived, and I was delighted to be able to go back stage during the interval to see how the fantastic effect of people coming from the grave was achieved. The effect from the front was equal to any major show performing in large professional venues. A massive well done for this.

Technically the show from a sound and lighting point of view was equally well done. The balance of the radio microphones was impressive making the vocals very clear. The lighting was spot on especially, to achieve the desired effects but also on musical numbers such as when Gomez was accounting for the important things in his life and the wishing to be struck down by lightening.

Once again with COMIC the band of eleven musicians were well balanced and at no time over powered the singing on stage.

This was a wonderful production from all quarters with no weak links and one the whole team should be proud of.

I most certainly look forward to the next production from this talented company.

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