Der-ne-ne-ne *click-click*, and welcome to the whacky and kooky world of The Addams Family. These now almost iconic creations first appeared as a series of newspaper cartoons in New York in the mid / late 1930s, and embodied the antithesis of what was considered correct and culturally acceptable at the time. Of course, these characters grew in popularity to have TV shows, films, books, and now even Musicals written about them; and this evening it was the turn of the Youth Company of PADOS [Prestwich Amateur Dramatic and Operatic Society] to bring these comic creations to life.
The story sees the more memorable and recognisable family of Gomez, Morticia, Wednesday and Pugsley, along with Uncle Fester and Grandma and their butler Lurch. The musical is without 'It' (the disembodied hand) though. The story has Wednesday a little older than in the cartoons, and she is in love. She met a boy in Central Park whilst she was out one evening with her bow and arrow shooting birds, and it was love at first sight. So much so in fact that they are now engaged to be married and both Lucas (for that is the boy's name) and his parents have been invited over from their home in Ohio for dinner with the Addams'. It should be said also that at this point in the story, Wednesday has not yet told either parent about her secret engagement, and it is this upon which the plot and the comedy hinges.
I have to say that the principals were excellently cast. Sam Bate, quickly becoming a real doyen of the local musical theatre scene gave us a rather suave, swash-buckling and enigmatic Gomez caught between a rock and a hard place with his love for both his wife and daughter. A lovely characterisation which sat nicely between the truth / reality of the role / circumstance and the ludricrousness of it all. Madeline Jones (Morticia) was a tall, slender, aloof and perfect counterfoil for Bates. Comedy was made of her literally looking down her nose at him in indignance due to their comparative heights (although more could have been made of this), and her gliding and sliding pitted against his jumping and jittering was also excellently measured. Eve Reynolds made for an extrenely powerful and forthright Wednesday, and her confidence was perhaps just a little too much at times, but a young powerhouse of a performer that one should definitely keep an eye out for. Where Reynolds was the Ying, Alfie Leech's younger brother Pugsley was the Yang. Playing the 'abandoned and losing affection' card well, he moved withe ease from his cosy but torturous relationship with Wednesday to being consumed with jealousy enough to want to upset the whole proceedings.
Georgina Godley provided much of the more up-beat comedy being the youngest young-at-heart 90-odd year old Grandma I've ever seen, whilst slow-moving and mono-syllabic Lurch (Tylor Acton) simply 'lurched' around the stage. Unfortunately he was unable to keep a straight face and every time the audience laughed at him you could see him trying very hard (but not quite succeeding) to keep po-faced. Sean Baker garnered the largest laughs of the evening for his interpretation of Uncle Fester, who, by the time this musical was written is 'non-gender-specific'. Obviously a very charismatic performer who knows how to work an audience as well as act proficiently. However, for my money, this characterisation was a touch too OTT to blend in with the rest of the cast, and his performance overshadowed anything which had gone before it or came immediately after it, making it at times rather like a stand-up one man comedy show. This however can not be said to be Baker's fault, and is instead something that director Paul Downham should perhaps have noticed and tried to make the whole cast work as a more cohesive unit.
Excellent support came from Joshua Ord as love-interest Lucas and his parents Kieran Hurst and Kyamma Cronshaw. With a particular highlight of the show for me being Cronshaw's excellently measured vocal and physical dexterity during 'Full Disclosure'.
The principals were further supported by a large cast of Addams family ancestors; the long dead and the not-so-long dead from the family graveyard who are summoned once a year - only this year, they were deliberately hindered from returning to their resting places in order to help Fester. I really enjoyed the variety of costumes on display here, but there was, for me at least, something missing. Nothing separated them from the living. Their clothes were not ghostly, they did not wear white make-up, etc - and I simply felt that there should have been some distinction between which (who) were ghosts - invisible to anyone other than an Addams - and mortals.
The costumes however were superb. (Bell Costumes), what did let the whole feel of the musical down for me though was the make-up. Both Lurch's and Grandma's make-up was so 'obvious' with a thick grey line across the temple and strange shapes on each cheek. Neither realistic (as it should have been for Grandma) nor was it machine-like (as it could well have been intended to be for Lurch). Very odd in fact.
The music sounded wonderful and extremely secure all evening (Steve Sandiford) and the choreography was generally superb. Considering the size of the stage and the number of children on it, it worked remarkably well. (Suzi Cleary). And a special mention to the two girls who played the Siamese Twin ancestors, for so adeptly and deftly keeping up with things when they had three legs, two arms and two torsos! The set design was good as far as it went; a 'gothic-style' house interior (one room) with instruments of torture, cobwebs (mirrored nicely by the lighting design) and cut-out photos of 'ancestors'. However, this singular set was insufficient for all the scenes and although wooden cut-out trees were brought on for Central Park, this looked extremely amateurish and 'school production-ish' compared to the detailed and realistic nature of the house set, and other locations were not accounted for at all.
I didn't particularly like the cast being front-of-house prior to the performance milling with the audience. I didn't see how this profitted or tied in with the musical's opening or premise. And bringing an audience member up onto stage to dine with the family in the final scene of act one was also seemingly pointless, adding nothing to the show, except perhaps a touch of un-called-for pantomime. I also thought that entrances and exits were somewhat ad hoc. The cast sometimes used the front door, sometimes used the bare wings and sometimes simply seemed to appear from nowhere. Perhaps that was intentional but it confused me somewhat and was unsure of the 'place' of each scene because of it. However, this was Downham's directing debut and, as such, it was a very competent and assured one.
Niggles aside, PADOS Youth are undoubtedly a talented bunch who can seemingly turn their hands to almost any musical genre having witnessed their past few shows, each as different as chalk is to cheese, and each handled with a rare maturity and sensitivity. Addams Family was indeed a resounding success and a thoroughluy enjoyable evening. Once again my hearty congratulations.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 8/3/19
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