The Addams Family

‘The Addams Family’ is a musical comedy following the well-known and loved Addams Family as they deal with the news that Wednesday Addams has fallen in love with a ‘normal’ boy who is coming to visit them along with his parents. It is a personal favourite of mine, having been in, directed and stage-managed various productions of it over the last 10 years. I was pleased to be able to attend on behalf of Dianne Hayes in what was my first visit as an official, but not my first time seeing a show by Christchurch Music Society.

To open the show there was some clever interplay between ‘Thing’ and the audience members. This was the first of several clever directorial moments where the cast broke the fourth wall and for the most part these worked really well and didn’t detract from the production.

In what I consider to be the lead characters in the production, Bryn Middleton and Kate Summers played Gomez and Morticia Addams. Bryn had good character and comic timing with the audience really enjoying the delivery of his quips and jokes. He sang well in the musical numbers. Occasionally, the Spanish accent proved difficult but overall, it was a solid performance. Kate was excellent as Morticia and formed a great partnership with her onstage husband. Her singing was very strong and she moved well. I really enjoyed the musical number ‘Secrets’, which was delivered well by Kate and the ensemble cast members that joined her.

The lovesick teenagers, Wednesday Addams and Lucas Beineke were played by Sarah Purnell and Ben Middleton. They both gave good performances as their characters navigated the tricky situations they found themselves in. They had nice interplay and sang well in the musical numbers.

Gethin Hayward was superb as Pugsley Addams. Brilliant vocals and a really lovely character. A star in the making!

The larger-than-life Fester was played by Pete Routley. Pete gave an excellent and, at times, maniacal performance. He really understood the character and delivered it consistently throughout the production. He was naturally funny and had great interactions with the audience who really warmed to him. Occasionally, it threatened to go too far and could have pulled focus from other parts within the production, but balance was retained for much of the time. Very well played.

The ’normal’ parents, Mal and Alice Beineke, were played by Mike Bobbett and Ceri Middleton. They worked well together and delivered great performances with good vocals. I was really impressed with Ceri’s switch from prim and proper Alice to the wilder Alice during ‘Waiting’. Good job!

Angela Everett was the wacky Grandma. She was very funny and had good character. There were occasional slips in accent, but this didn’t detract from delivering a highly comedic performance.

As Lurch, Steve Duthie had what I consider to be one of the more difficult roles in the show. I thought he was excellent. His movements were perfectly paced. His grunts and groans were well delivered and his singing during the final number was great. I enjoyed how the comedy in the role was portrayed and congratulations must go to Steve and to director, Jan Parfitt on achieving this when many others forget Lurch.

The ensemble were well drilled and delivered the well-constructed choreography with good energy. Their vocal work in the musical numbers was also very good. ‘Secrets’ and ‘The Moon and Me’ had lovely dance routines. Well done.

From a technical perspective, the set was well designed and constructed and enabled play on multiple levels with several entrances and exits. It was kind of the society to invite me backstage during the interval to see everything and I really enjoyed this: thank you! A couple of the scene changes took a little while and on occasion lights came up out of blackouts with stage crew still on or only just clearing the stage. They were costumed but not as well as the cast and so this sometimes looked a little odd. Lighting was effective for the most part although there were a couple of numbers where I would have preferred a little more front lighting as they were a bit dark. It’s a dark show, but sometimes it was too dark! I really enjoyed hearing the music played by a live band and the balance of sound between band and cast was exceptional. A rare skill indeed!

Costumes were excellent and appropriate for the production with each ancestor having a distinct character. A lovely touch!

Thank you, CMS, for your warm welcome and for an entertaining night out at the theatre.

The views in this report are solely of the author.

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