Guest critic Jim Murchison

Photo, courtesy of Orpheus Musical Theatre

The original creator of The Addams Family, Charles Addams could likely not have imagined the long lasting effect he would have on popular culture when he inked his first drawing for the New Yorker in 1938. Countless reincarnations in TV, animation and film have allowed these characters to endure into the 21^st century.

The musical version written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa is a well crafted tale of love discovered, love lost and love regained that has been a favourite theme since civilization first picked up a pen, a quill or a rock and started writing. This isn’t heavy stuff. It is quintessential entertainment, the perfect antidote for the post election blues and although the play is about an eccentric, wealthy American family living in New York there are no other frightening similarities to the first family elect. They’re a little macabre to be sure, but generally loving.

The front curtain for this production is a drop of portraits of the Addams’ framed by cobwebs. When it lifts, it reveals a gnarly old tree stage right stretching its craggy limbs over a dark gated cemetery as if ready to pluck someone up and toss them towards the gorgeous full moon.

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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.

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Spring Awakening: The Musical, Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik’s adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s 1891 German play, is about many things: coming of age amid sexual and other late 19th century bourgeois repressions; the chasm between generations; the sometimes dire consequences of challenging the prevailing social ethos.

As well – and this seems especially important in light of our own era’s cynicism and our confused sense of what’s real and what’s merely artifice (our digital lives, for example) – the show is about trust and authenticity. It’s about discovering and trusting who one really is, finding the determination to live authentically in the face of a social order deeply opposed to the individual’s need for self-expression, love, sexual connection.

You may know the storyline already. In a nutshell, a group of young people find themselves severely constrained by their society, their church, their families. Hypocrisy, cruelty and power call the shots, causing some of the young people to crumble but others to assert their individuality and pursue what they perceive as right. The narrative, with its rock/pop score, is fundamentally dark despite the unfortunate Hollywood ending tacked on in keeping with the tradition of musicals.

Orpheus’ rendering of this story is rewarding on many levels, but it is the sense of trust and authenticity permeating the show that shines most brightly. For that, choreographer Lola Ryan deserves special applause. …

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Photo. Alexander Vlad for Alan Dean

In a theatre community where claims to professionalism are sometimes  suspect, Orpheus stands out like shining beacon. It wears its  community-theatre label proudly and without pretension. And it often  puts to shame some of the tacky touring productions that have lumbered   across Canada (and into the NAC) in recent years.
All of which is a preamble to declaring that this organization’s new  production of A Chorus Line is another worthy achievement. It remains  true to the sensibility of the legendary Broadway original, which was  conceived by its first director, the late Michael Bennett, as a   bittersweet valentine to the kids in the chorus line, the ones we tend
to take for granted when we watch a stage musical, but who supply the  essential support system for any successful show.

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Photo: courtesy of Orpheus Musical Theatre

This is the emblematic hit Broadway musical which stages the work taking place within the chorus line before the curtain rises on the Broadway show! Showing the audition process is a fascinating concept. It brings us into the workings of musical theatre, stripping away the drama, the glitz and the glamour by taking us into the disappointments, the heartbreak, the tough work, the anxiety, the personal encounters that have led to the final moment in front of the choreographer who will finally decide who stays and who goes.

The show has a huge cast of 28 actors some playing several roles. They include ballet dancers, tap dancers, strippers, singers, actors, comedians, serious actors but most of them dance and sing, especially the individuals vying for spots on the chorus line. The task is daunting and because each dancer takes on a special meaning within the show, A Chorus line depends on excellent performances from each member of the cast, especially those who have solo numbers or who are dancing in small groups.

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