The Addams Family

The show was staged at Hyde Festival Theatre where the band were upstairs and piped into the auditorium by speakers. My friend was convinced during the overture it was a recording and they sounded fabulous throughout. Paul Lawton did a great job on harmonies with the cast too.

The set looked amazing and worked well with all the scenes with no hold ups in changes. The candles, stairs, balcony and dressing all looked stunning. The costumes, props and make up looked great and the change of scenes worked well with minimum movement of props.

The lighting plot worked well, enhancing the scenes and the sound was faultless. The choreography worked well with the songs and characters and Jean had worked routines for the non dancers that still looked effective. Apart from a couple of the principles and some of the ensemble they were non dancers so Jean did well to overcome this. The ensemble as ancestors worked really hard and had great moves and harmonies on the numbers they were in.

Mathew Rigby as Gomez looked the part and sang well but due to the accent and speed of delivery some of the dialogue was lost. I loved his scenes with Wednesday where he showed real tenderness in character and “Happy Sad” was one of my favourite numbers. Playing opposite was Alexandra Severn as Morticia who looked the part but for me lacked the darkness and sinister quality needed. Alexandra had nice vocals and clear diction on her dialogue.

Gavin Chadwick was good as Uncle Fester but as the narrator of the production it requires an actor who has clear diction which wasn’t always the case but Gavin had lovely vocals as he declares his love for the moon. I felt directionally more humour could have been made of this role

Kira Richardson was a fantastic Wednesday. Her acting going from strange, affected teenager to young lady in love with a “normal” boy could have been made more of but Kira was lovely to watch. Her vocals and dance moves were great and scenes with Lucas and Gomez were very touching.

Pugsley was played with some lovely touches by Benjamin Lythe and with faultless vocals on “Honor Roll”. This young man is growing in performing skills every time I see him and was a pleasure to watch.

Mandy Mallinson as Grandma was fabulous with some great one liners delivered with expert timing. “What if” with Pugsley was touching but equally funny, a hard combination to pull off.

Paul Wilson made a good Lurch but I feel the role was a little overlooked. When on stage more should have been made of his slow walk, non verbal communication and for me he is funny because he does nothing until the end of the show when he suddenly sings. Shock from all on stage at this moment makes that funny but this was lost somewhere in the direction of the scene.

The supporting roles of the Beineke family were all very well filled by Rob Haslam as Mal with great vocals and acting and Abbie Lloyd who was great as Alice with lovely vocals and very funny acting scenes. Abbie has great stage presence which shone in this role. Lucas was very well played by Josh Hankey with strong vocals and harmonies and my favourite number was “Crazier Than You” as I felt all four actors in this number really acted it brilliantly and were seriously trying to convince their partners.

Overall this was a lovely evening’s entertainment and the whole cast, production team, stage crew and backstage team worked their socks off. Well done.

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