The Addams Family
Information
- Date
- 27th October 2022
- Society
- Brightlingsea Musical Theatre Group
- Venue
- Brightlingsea Community Centre
- Type of Production
- Musical
- Director
- Jayne Meek
- Musical Director
- Emily Hill
- Choreographer
- Vicky Burgess
I was delighted to see the return of this society after a lengthy absence due to Covid.
From the beginning this show set a cracking pace with some excellent pairings.
Kieran Foreman as Gomez Addams and Samantha Slim as his wife Morticia both had good singing voices and I particularly enjoyed Kieran singing “Happy Sad”. There was a fabulous dance featuring these two which was attractive and well choreographed.
Sophie-Megan Edwards was a very convincing Wednesday Addams, somewhat belittled by her parents but who proved well able to stand up for herself in the matter of her intended marriage to Lucas. Katie Everett, as Pugsley Addams acted the part well and bought the character to life in the song “ What If”.
Lynne Farlie, as Grandma was priceless as a 102 year old with some comical actions with her potions trolley.
The Beineke Family, with Sam Smith as Lucas, Gregg Weaver as Mal and Lucy Weaver as Alice created lots of the comedy, especially Mal and Alice. There was a totally hilarious scene at dinner with the Addams family where Alice had tried one of Grandma's potions and ended up laying on the dinner table with Mal trying (unsuccessfully) to calm the atmosphere. Lucy was superb in this role and showed the power of her voice when singing “Secrets” with Morticia. Mal and Alice had a romantic and tender number in “Crazier Than You”. Gregg tended to play the voice of reason against Lucy's very flamboyant character which made for good rapport.
Sam, as Lucas clearly found his parents antics very embarrassing as he was focussed on his love for Wednesday and he interpreted this role really well. His voice blended beautifully with Sophie-Megan's voice as they sang “ Crazier Than You”.
Scott Cavill, as Uncle Fester led the group of Ancestors with good singing and movement in “ But Love” and “The Moon And Me”.with Vicky Burgess as The Moon providing a sensitive ballet routine. Well done.
Dominic Simpson, as Lurch, was mute during the whole show until almost the end where he proved to have a strong and magnificent voice !
There were several young people in this production including Lillia Weaver who had a cameo role as Cousin IT.
The eight piece band, under the skilled direction of Musical Director Emily Hill achieved just the right sound levels and included (unusually) two reed instruments. It was a pleasure to listen to and provided good support to the cast !
The sets were turnaround sets with two basic scenes, aided by the use of props eg chairs, tables etc and scene changes were slick. Costumes were interesting and relevant and I specially liked Uncle Tester's red and white stripy “long johns”. Overall sound levels were good and there was interesting use of lighting effects.
Congratulations to Choreographer Vicky Burgess for the slick and diverse dance routines.
Finally Director Jayne Meek did a fantastic job of bringing this musical/comedy to life so many congratulations for your innovation and inspiration.
The audience certainly enjoyed this performance as did I. Well done everyone involved both on and off stage.
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