THE ADDAMS FAMILY

The Addams Family opened on Broadway in April 2010 to mixed reviews but mostly negative. However it won an award for Outstanding Set Design and Broadway.com Audience Awards for Favourite New Musical, Favourite Actor and Favourite Onstage Pair. A perfect show for Halloween and a premier for the Opera House, this musical is full of spooky fun for children and innuendo for adults!

“The Hand” conducted the Overture from the corner of a theatre box getting the show off to a fine start. “When you’re an Addams” had the audience clicking their fingers in time and the introduction of the “Family” and then the “Ancestors” was very well handled. The Set by UK Productions was effective – the hall of the Addams’ gothic mansion with staircase – and insets for “torture chambers”. I especially liked the “candles” which seemed to float above the baronial hall; in fact the Lighting throughout was expertly devised. Cloths were dropped in for outdoor scenes. Sound was also good, with timely sound effects. Costumes and wigs were all appropriate – the former from Utopia, Scotland which had the well-known family apparel and a wonderful variety of ancestors’ costumes in various shades of white! Props were also very apt.

All the principal roles were well cast and ‘typical’ in characterisation. Head of the Addams family was Brian Trainor as Gomez, who employed all his comic talent within a script full of humour and double entendre. He maintained his Spanish accent and changed from frenetic (“Trapped”) to gentle (“Happy Sad”) with ease. Morticia was played with style by Kerry Cooper. With long black dress cut “down to Venezuela”, she was obviously the matriarch whose word was law. She and Brian made an excellent duo.

After a long break from the stage, Eric Millar returned as Uncle Fester – the somewhat deranged brother of Gomez.

Sometimes acting as narrator, he perfectly assumed the character of this strange child-like man who had fallen in love with the moon. Welcome back Eric! (‘Flying’ him towards the moon was very effective – one of the advantages of having the facilities of the GOH!) Shirley Adair played Grandma with energy and captured the feisty and quirky 104 year old well. Pudsley Addams – the mischievous boy who loves torture – was very well portrayed by 12 year old Ben McCambley. With excellent vocal ability he is one to watch in the future. His sister Wednesday, who has fallen in love with ‘normal’ Lucas Beineke, was played by 17 year old Emma Martin. Benefiting from many roles in youth theatre, hers was a very polished performance and she related well to all members of her stage family. She had an accomplished singing voice – “Crazier than You” with Josh Kelso as Lucas showed a great struggle between the darkness of her family and the ‘normality’ of his! Laura Kerr and Samuel Moore as his straight-laced parents Alice and Mal Beineke were excellent, both as the ultra conservative couple and the hippy pair they became when Alice mistakenly drank the truth drug. Laura had the audience in stitches throughout and Samuel’s portrayal of a middle-aged man was totally convincing. Keith Pyper took the role of Lurch, the butler with the usual grunts and groans and non-speedy walk! He maintained comical gravity and surprised everyone with his break into song at the end!

Wilfie Pyper directed a fast paced show with lots of quirky innovation. His choreographer Tim Bell blended well executed movement into the action. The Ancestors each adopted their own way of walking which was highly entertaining and were expertly drawn into a lot of the action.. The wide variety of musical styles leant itself to different dance styles; MD Colin Scott had excellent control of his 13 piece orchestra and choral singing was very good.

I was delighted to be invited to attend a BOC show for the first time as their Noda Representative, and thank Gary Redpath and everyone involved for a great evening’s entertainment.

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