The Addams Family: Orpheus Musical Theatre makes the most of a mediocre story.
Photo, courtesy of Orpheus Musical Theatre
Charles Addams has a lot to answer for. He was the cartoonist who created the one-panel cartoons about the ghoulish Addams Family that appeared in the New Yorker magazine in 1938.
He could not know that his creation would become an American institution. Stories of the family morphed into a television sitcom in the 1960s, followed by a cartoon version in the next decade, two movies in 1991 (starring Anjelica Houston) and 1993 (The Addams Family Values) and even a video game and a very popular pinball machine later in the decade. Finally, in 2010, Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice (the pair who wrote the script of The Jersey Boys) developed a Broadway musical version with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa.
Does the musical work? As much as any one-gag repeater with a wafer-thin storyline and constant reminders of one-panel cartoons can. Does Orpheus Musical Theatre Society make the most of a mediocre product? Unquestionably.
The Orpheus team has knocked itself out to celebrate the nasty family with inverted values and to underline the Broadway theme of love conquering all. As directed by Jenn Donnelly and designed by Donnelly and Tony Walker, the production maximizes the jokes and provides some memorable visuals from a winking moon to a flying character with eerily flexible legs that belong to another. Musical director Murray Doggett and his orchestra add perkiness to the mixed bag of numbers wherever possible and choreographers Jasmine and Jessica Lee bring joy and originality to the dance routines. One of the prime examples is the delightful presentation of Just Around the Corner.
As the Addams patriarch, Thomas Franzky brings a fine singing voice and considerable stage presence to the role of Gomez, while Stefania Wheelhouse is elegant, commanding and suitably Goth-like and macabre as his wife Morticia. Réjean Dinelle-Mayer as Gomez’ crazy brother Fester and Maureen Quinn McGovern as Grandma have great fun with their roles, while Samantha Clarke as Wednesday, the sullen daughter of the house, moves appropriately from sociopath to being embarrassed by her parents when she falls in love. Meanwhile, her young brother, Pugsley, (Jennifer Colbert) shows suitable distress when he can no longer enjoy being tortured by his big sister and Lurch the butler (Eugene Oscapella) serves the family at the requisite snail’s pace.
Andrea Black is a standout in delivering the official and the underlying personalities of Alice, the mother of Wednesday’s love interest, Lucas, while Jamie Rice is loving and necessarily wimpy, until he proves that he can be as crazy as Wednesday wants him to be. Completing the Beineke family is Charles Moir as the grumpy Mal, anxious to take his wife and son away from the spooky theme park of Addamsville, until his wife re-awakens his headbanger self of yesteryear.
Altogether the Orpheus production confirms that sometimes it is possible to create a silk purse from the sow’s ear of a silly script.
The Orpheus production of The Addams Family continues at Centrepointe Theatre to November 27
.
The Addams Family
A New Musical Comedy
Book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice
Music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa
Based on characters created by Charles Addams
Orpheus Musical Theatre Society
|
Artistic Director |
Jenn Donnelly |
|
Musical Director |
Murray Doggett |
|
Choreographers |
Jasmine Lee & Jessica Lee |
|
Technical Director & Master Carpenter |
Steven K. Jones |
|
Set Designers |
Jenn Donnelly & Tony Walker |
|
Costume Designer |
Lesley Wilson |
|
Lighting Designer |
Chris Amott |
|
Sound Designer |
John Cybanski |
Cast:
|
Gomez Addams |
Thomas Franzky |
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Morticia Addams |
Stefania Wheelhouse |
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Wednesday Addams |
Samantha Clarke |
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Pugsley Addams |
Jennifer Colbert |
|
Uncle Fester |
Réjean Dinelle-Mayer |
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Grandma |
Maureen Quinn McGovern |
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Lurch |
Eugene Oscapella |
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Mal Beineke |
Charles Moir |
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Alice Beineke |
Andréa Black |
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Lucas Beineke |
Jamie Rice |
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The Addams Family Ancestors |
Luc Cormier |
|
Kelly Fuoco |
|
|
Matteo Belloni |
|
|
Eve Beauchamp |
|
|
Bryan Jesmer |
|
|
Roxane Delisle |
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|
Sarah Olberg |
|
|
Trenton Poulin |
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|
Keegan Carr |
|
|
Bennett Langdon |
Orchestra
|
Musical director |
Murray Doggett |
|
Violin |
Sophia Pan |
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Cello |
Steve Smith |
|
Reed 1 |
Mike Mullin |
|
Reed 2 |
Mike Tremblay |
|
Trumpet |
Nicholas Dyson |
|
Trombone |
Mark Ferguson |
|
Keyboard 1 |
Stephen Pankiewicz |