The Addams Family - 10th to 14th November 2015

THE ADDAMS FAMILY features an original story, and it's every father's nightmare! 
Wednesday Addams, the ultimate princess of darkness, has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family - a man her parents have never met. And if that weren't upsetting enough, Wednesday confides in her father and begs him not to tell her mother. Now, Gomez Addams must do something he's never done before - keep a secret from his beloved wife, Morticia. Everything will change for the whole family on the fateful night they host a dinner for Wednesday's 'normal' boyfriend and his parents.

Andover Musical Theatre Company
 
The Addams Family                           The Lights Theatre                              13th November 2015
 
Director & Choreographer: Carol Robinson               MD: Neil Streeter       
Lightning & Set Design: Eddie Nias
 
If you’re a fan of the TV series, film, or even the original cartoon strip, you’d be forgiven for feeling apprehensive about the iconic characters being thrust in to the cheese and chintz of the Comedy Musical genre. Luckily, these fears were set aside in Andover Musical Theatre Company’s Production of The Addams Family.
 
The stage, designed by Eddie Nias was interestingly set: platforms on both left and right with their own exits, a balcony, and flaps on hinges on the latter to create either a wall or revealing a room. A pair of moving staircases could be arranged in to many configurations to depict different parts of the house too. These were moved by the ‘ancestors’, members of the Addams from long ago, who were themselves a ‘part of the furniture’, either as statues around the house or trees in the woods surrounding the mansion. The whole set was very fitting, well painted and used well by the cast.
 
The score is a wonderful juxtaposition to the dark humour of the family, and was well sung for the most part. Due to the lecture-style set up of the theatre, the band were placed external to the stage, with a video link displaying above the auditorium’s entrance. This worked very effectively, and there were no missed musical entrances from either the band or the singers. There were some slight tuning issues with the harmonies in whole-ensemble numbers, and occasionally microphones were either too loud or not switched on at the right time, the latter meaning dialogue/lyrics were missed.
 
The players were well-cast, particularly Jon Baron as the sunny and affable head of the family, Gomez. Baron did very well to remember his lines and keep up the Spanish accent for the whole show, as he was onstage for the majority of the performance. His voice was suited to the songs and he conveyed a wide range of emotion, with a slight air of Fiddler on the Roof’s Tevye: stuck between a rock and a hard place. He came across as very charming, but vexed by keeping his wife and only daughter happy, the want of any husband and father. He was well contrasted by Kizzy Romer-Lee’s stony and statuesque Morticia. Her delivery was excellently timed, managing to show a surprising amount of warmth through the cold exterior of the character. Romer-Lee’s singing wasn’t the strongest in the cast, but she stayed in tune and it didn’t affect how enjoyable her performance was.
 
Also worth a mention was the hilariously zany Grandma, played by Caroline Roper, and Claire Nias who really let loose as the bourgeois housewife Alice. Both actors brought comedy to the stories running alongside the production’s main path. The rest of the family: Wednesday, Pugsley and Fester, portrayed by Louise Ellison, Joe Sartin, and Ryan Boath respectively also fit in to the cast. Unfortunately some of Fester’s scenes felt disjointed to the rest of story, which came across as more to do with the script as opposed to a lack of direction, as this was the only part that didn’t quite fit. Boath occasionally looked slightly uncomfortable but gave a lot of enthusiasm to the role. Ellison sang strongly as Wednesday, but there wasn’t enough contrast between her usual unemotional persona to when she was lovey-dovey at the thought of her fiancée, Lucas (Ollie Burgess). Young Joe Sartin also put in a commendable performance as the masochistic youngest member of the family, Pugsley.
 
As well as directing the cast, Carol Robinson also choreographed. Dance numbers fitted the music and abilities, and each individual character was able to adapt their movement to their personality, from the Native American Indian to the matador. Especially good was the Tango between Gomez and Morticia, despite an anxious pause while her skirt was buttoned to transform it for the number.
 
Costumes were well thought out and you got to see some of the recognisable styles of the family. The make-up was impressive, with students from Andover College’s Media Make-up course giving the ancestors their ghostly look featuring red-rimmed eyes. The make-up for Lurch was also terrific, and actor John Winchcombe, fittingly last but not least, gave a strong, comic performance as the slow, (nearly) mute butler. He played the part with aplomb, and was subtly vital to the show.
 
Andover are known for choosing musicals that are not necessarily sure-fire hits, but The Addams Family was well-staged and produced, and thoroughly enjoyable.
 
 
 
 
Review by Beth Cox

Some rehearsal shots

CAST LIST
Gomez - Jonathan Baron
Morticia - Kizzy Romer-Lee
Fester - Ryan Boath
Grandma - Caroline Roper
Lurch - John Winchcombe
Mal - David Scanlan
Alice - Claire Nias
Lucas - Ollie Burgess
Wednesday - Louise Ellison