The Addams Family

It was lovely to be invited back to the Taliesin Theatre for this performance of Addams Family The Musical.

I have fond memories of performing and watching productions in this space and was looing forwardto see what the company did with this musical based on the Iconic TV show of the Sixties. The showwhich opened in Chicago in 2009 before transferring to Broadway in 2010 has toured the UK IN 2016and is a very underrated show.

The story centres on Wednesday having fallen in love with a normal boy and wanting both sets ofparents to meet, a clash of personalities with the Addams all darkness and the Beineke’s all colour and poetry.

The Front tabs were open to allow the audience to see a very basic but well-designed set, I particularly liked the moving rocking chair. The rear projection worked well, especially for Festers Vaudeville and his flight to the moon at the end of act 2, it was also a perfect way to display all the family portraits.

I did feel that there was possibly too much smoke at the opening with a few in the front few rows seeming to agree. I also noticed a few radio mikes off at certain points, but these are minor criticisms.

I loved the ancestor ensemble and thought that all their costumes and makeup were well thought out with differing eras portrayed a Titanic Victim, cave man etc well done. There was also some lovely movement set by the chorography team with a relatively large ensemble.

Ashley used the whole auditorium for entrances etc, I think this worked well for some of the ancestor scenes but wasn’t too sure about when the cast used these entrances with some dialogue being behind the audience members.

The company chose two very experienced actor to portray the main characters of Gomez and Morticia.

Simon John took on the role of the often put upon husband who wouldn’t lie to his wife or daughter and tried his best to keep both happy. I really enjoyed his rendition of Happy/Sad, and he had some lovely comic timing and double entendre moments.

Leah Collett as Morticia glided about the stage in a slinky black dress, she was obviously the matriarch of the family and had Gomez in the palm of her hand, even if he didn’t know it. Their Tango de Amor was lovely. Some lovely comic timing from this experienced actress.

On the evening I attended the roles of Wednesday, Lucas and Pugsley were played by team Kooky as the company, like many others had decided to split the junior roles.

Wednesday was played by Emma Kennedy, and I loved her facial expressions and acted out her battle between darkness and light very well. Pulled is not an easy number and Emma sang it well. Lucas was played by Dylan Stapley trying his best to get his parents to like Wednesday’s family as he had asked her to marry him, this was another strong performance by a young actor.

Max Dennis took on the role of the tortured younger brother frightened of losing his big sister and torturer Wednesday, so he decided to give a drop of grandma’s magic potion to Wednesday only finding it being drunk by the wrong person in Lucas’ mother Alice leading to one of the comedy highlights of the show. A lovely performance by this 11-year-old.

The aforementioned Alice was played by Joanne Griffiths and as I say to me her rendition of Waiting, within the Full Disclosure scene was one of the highlights of the performance, Joanne is obviously a very versatile and talented performer.

Her husband Mal was played by Michael Hunter a difficult role to play but one carried out very well.

Sally David played the wild haired, shoe licking Grandma, a lovely cameo role which I enjoyed.

Ewan Forrest took on the role of Lurch the butler with no lines throughout the show but then bursting into song at the end of Act 2 , some lovely expressions and comic moments.

This show is often carried by Fester, who basically is the link between the scenes and the main orator throughout.This role was taken by Simon Lloyd Jones, a role he has previously played with another company and clearly one that he relishes. Simon kept the pace going throughout the production and performed his musical numbers really well.

This was an enjoyable evening and the capacity crowd in attendance clearly enjoyed the show.

Thank you all for your warm welcome and I look forward to your next production in 2024.

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