The Addams Family

The Addams Family

Rutland Musical Theatre

The Cube, Corby - April 2024

 

This was my first visit to The Cube, and to a RMT production. I was impressed with both. The theatre is a splendid setting, and RMT gave as entertaining a version of this show as you’ll see anywhere.

The Show

The Addams Family is less well-known than many musicals, as Director Tom Johnson suggests in his programme notes. But it’s rapidly becoming popular with societies. The story, music, characters, chorus involvement and comedy make it enjoyable to be in and entertaining for audiences.

Direction

Tom Johnson has packed much experience into a still relatively short theatrical career. Besides performing roles in many productions, Addams is his sixth RMT show as Director.

Reflecting on this first-night experience, the overriding impression is how the many separate features of the production complemented each other smoothly and seamlessly. Tom deserves congratulations for the achievement, as does Assistant Director Katie Ross (who also designed the excellent and colourful souvenir programme).

Choreography & Music

These were both the responsibility of MD & Choreographer Ally Ambrose, supported by Assistant MD Mariana Dickson.

The pre-recorded music, skilfully synchronised with vocals and action, supported the movement and singing, adding its own colour to the production.

Choreography was masterful. The ensemble numbers needed versatile and coordinated movement which the large company delivered with enthusiasm and accuracy. I didn’t see a hand, or foot, out of place at any point! Quite an achievement for Ally, and for Dance Captain Jenny South and the entire company.

The Cast

Impossible to identify a ‘standout’ character. This was a team. The main performers played their roles with comedic accomplishment and mutual support.

As Gomez, Guy Sharman portrayed the father with assurance, leading the story with comedy and dramatic skills. In his songs Trapped and Happy/Sad he conveyed the dilemma of the loving husband and father balancing conventional family values with their unconventional lifestyle.

Katy McNaughton-Brown’s performance in the complex character of Morticia showed how to play this role. In addition, she managed to make the ‘gothic black’ costume look stunning. She gave us the wife and mother trying hard to maintain her family’s macabre values, slowly adjusting to the need to recognise a different kind of ‘normal’ for the sake of her daughter Wednesday. Katy brought Morticia to new life in the lovely Live Before We Die Argentinian Tango duet with Gomez

As Wednesday, Alicia Dodds portrayed the part skilfully and convincingly. Her dilemma - loving a boy from a conventional family, is the core theme of the story. Alicia combined her romance for Lucas with her bloodthirsty affection for younger brother Pugsley, and looked every bit the sinister young woman with an affectionate side. She acted and sang the role with assurance.

Reece Yarnold, as young Pugsley, achieved the dramatic challenge of an adult playing a boy. His appearance and characterisation were totally convincing as the youngest member of the family, particularly when being ‘tortured’ by Wednesday. As a bonus, appearance-wise Reece and Alicia made a very believable brother and sister.

Uncle Fester is perhaps the one all-out comedy role in the story. His utterly Addams-normal approach to life and his love affair with the moon were beautifully acted and sung by Scott Topping, who strongly sustained the crazy element of the family’s approach to life.

Equally off-the-scale in terms of normality was Grandma. Lizzy Young was consistent in portraying the oldest member of the family, and almost-believable in a role even weirder than the others!

Lucas, the son in the ‘normal’ Bieneke family, in love with Wednesday, was played by Jude Major. Jude gave a convincing performance as the young man torn between his conventional upbringing and the Gothic Addams world.

As Lucas’ mother, Alice Beineke, Ashleigh Hammond gave us, in turn, the subdued mother, the uninhibited (after Grandma’s potion) woman, and the frustrated wife rediscovering lost youth, all with dramatic conviction. Her riotous revelation, in the impressive ensemble number Full Disclosure, was entertainingly performed.

Richard Coville in the part of Mal, the Beineke father having, like Alice, settled too comfortably into middle-age, wakes up to the possibility of re-living his youth after dinner at the Addams. Richard gave the character an interesting personality and illustrated the repressed rock-and-roller rediscovering his younger self.

George Walker gave Lurch, the Addams Family butler a personality the character rarely enjoys. While generally mute, apart from guttural grunts in his conversation with Mal Beineke, George owned the part. His mimed description of being dropped as a baby was a disturbing delight, and his strong singing voice, late in the show, a revelation.

The Chorus of Ancestors was a watchable feature of the production. Portraying individual characters, separately named in the programme, in distinctive costume and make-up, their entertaining and well-drilled contribution was a significant element in the show’s success.

Staging & Presentation

The Cube theatre’s vast stage was in this production well used. The hired-in set filled the space attractively and dramatically. Lighting, of scenes and of individual characters,  precise and effective. The sound was controlled and balanced. Congratulations to Stage Manager Malcolm Holmes and his team for the accomplished technical achievements.

The costumes, hired for the show, were attractive and entirely appropriate to the production, the set and the characters.

Special mention also for the very effective make-up, professionally applied by Imogen Mercer and stage & screen make-up students from Northampton University.

 

While separate aspects of the production are here referred to individually, the most important feature is the way they combined into a single experience enjoyed by the large opening night audience and, I’m sure, similar audiences for the rest of the run. Congratulations, RMT!

In conclusion, thankyou Tom, vice-chair Laura Ray, Ally and the rest of the company for the very warm welcome you gave us on arrival, and for staying around for a chat (& a photo!) at the end. The organised reception, the front-of-house organisation, and the attention to effective multimedia marketing, were all signs of a well-managed, happy and enthusiastic society. No surprise, then, that the attention to detail in running RMT is reflected in the quality of the group’s productions.

My wife and I greatly enjoyed this visit, and are looking forward to another RMT experience.

 

Colin Blackler

© NODA CIO.  All rights reserved

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.