The Addams Family

This was the first time I had seen this stage musical although I was familiar with the characters having watched the TV show in years gone by. I was most impressed not only with the musical itself but with this production.

The very striking opening family tableau with fabulous make up and terrific costumes made a real impact .The opening number ‘When You’re an Addams’ introduced us to the alive and ‘undead’ members of the family.

This mysterious, dysfunctional family was made up of some excellent caricatures. Head of the family, Gomez, was very well played by Liam Lannon who was not only a strong actor who kept things going at a good pace but had a grand singing voice. Martine McCluskie made a great job of Morticia with her austere look and almost monotonal voice as she glided about the stage. They are concerned about their daughter Wednesday who wants to marry a ‘normal’ boy and Carly Peters who played the part the night I visited gave a convincing performance. She enjoyed torturing her younger brother Pugsley and Saxon Kerr was a real little star singing beautifully and confident in his actions looking very much as if he was enjoying being tortured by his sister. Their duet ‘Pulled’ was very well done.

Alicia MacLean, the  Grandma of this bizarre family, instantly had the audience smiling with her almost grotesque humour as did  the very strange Uncle  Fester (Gordon Roberts) who has aspirations of loving and going to the moon. Loved the rocket journey!

The family butler Lurch (Raymond Williams) towered above the rest with his built up boots and although he had no dialogue as such, grunted his way through impressively eventually showing that he could sing in the final numbers.

The Beineke family are invited to the Addams family home and the scenes involving the two families together were most amusing. Diane Kerr has a fabulous voice and she successfully conveyed the character of the somewhat naive Alice Beineke constantly spouting her poetry. David Legge was a long suffering husband, Mal, dealing with his love struck son Lucas (Max Weaver) who convinced us of his sincere affection for Wednesday.

The ‘undead’ family of ancestors with their spooky moves and the  dancestors gave strong support for the principal characters. They were in great form in ‘Full Disclosure’ and ‘Tango de Amor’.

With some great singing, a good orchestra, superb costumes and make up, good sets and fun maintained throughout this was undoubtedly a most entertaining production. The courageous move from more traditional musicals to this challenging musical certainly paid off and was well received by the audience. Very well done.

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