This production had dual casts in principal roles. In the interest of fairness to all, we reviewed both casts. David Smith reviewed the Thing Cast and Brian Godfrey reviewed the It Cast.
THING CAST
What an entertaining and well-coordinated production this was. Ceri Hutton, the Director achieved a fine result with her cast and crew. The cast were focussed at all times, the minimal set changes were smooth and efficient, and the pace was well sustained throughout. The Parks Theatre 1 was well suited to the performance, with the cast strategically deployed around the main stage and at different levels, either on raised platforms or on the steps in the aisles. Musically the production cohered well, with the cast singing strongly and tunefully to the recorded tracks, and, importantly, the choreography in the big numbers was tight, attractive and well suited to the songs.
The plot and characters are familiar, and the humour relies heavily on the characterisation of the well-known family members. That was well managed, and the contrast between the weirdness of the Addams household and the normality of the Beinecke family is well drawn. Central to the plot is the unlikely relationship between the decidedly ghoulish Wednesday and the boy-next-door Lucas. the pair have met and want to marry, and that fact in many ways determines the rest of the action. It’s as unlikely and as unpopular with the families as were Romeo and Juliet.
In the Thing cast, Oakley Hyland was a splendid Gomez. He had the necessary flair, and presented Gomez’ off-beat and quirky character with confidence and conviction. He was articulate in both dialogue and song, where he used his warm baritone singing voice to great humorous and dramatic effect. Importantly, he related well to all other characters, bringing them into the story and action with ease.
Emma Kenyon, as Morticia, drew our attention at all times. She was the picture of restrained strength, with a hint of danger. She, too, had a clarity of voice and expression and moved fluidly around the stage. Her subtle dominance of Gomez was splendidly handled.
The Addams children, Wednesday (Maddy Brookes) and Pugsley (Parker Brookes) showed successful characterisation. The ever-dour Wednesday was a delightful contrast to the more vulnerable – even somewhat normal – Pugsley. Their torture scene was both funny and would-be scary.
Alex Carpenter was impressive as the nerdy, love-struck Lucas, and his scenes with Wednesday were perfectly credible. His parents, Mal and Alice Beinecke, were well developed by Roni Perkinson and Meri Wagland. While the dad was a genuine, decent mid-Westerner, Wagland’s Alice was very funny, speaking – and, we assume, thinking – as she initially does, in sappy greeting card rhyming poetry. She did well to contrast that with the character change once under the influence of the well-named acrimonium potion.
Lily Moore gave us a sustained crazy-lady performance as Grandma and Thomas Mendes was entertaining and credible as Fester. His song The Moon And Me was beautifully rendered, backed as it was by the Ancestors and the splendid dancer Talisha Johnston as The Moon.
The ensemble cast were uniformly well portrayed. They looked stunning in their well-made pale costumes and they moved about the stage with confidence. Chloe Svaikauskas’ choreography was snappy, precise and well devised. The ensemble carried it off with discipline, grace and style. Their singing was tuneful and, where necessary, such as in the impressive When You’re An Addams, was powerful and striking. Full credit here to the MD, Robyn Brookes.
In short this production was a credit to the organisation, cast and crew. It looked and sounded delightful, and it was great fun.
IT CAST
The It cast were aptly named in that they certainly collectively had IT!!!
This show requires not only excellence in singing, dancing and acting, but also a well honed skill when it comes to comic timing. All these youngsters had all of these qualities down pat from the youngest to the oldest. It was a real pleasure to see the entire cast deliver the show with fun, humour and talent. Alex Carpenter (Lucas) and Roni Perkinson (Mal) were the only main cast members of both casts, so they have probably been mentioned already.
CJ Parkinson played Gomez Addams. CJ is female and this reviewer will admit to being a little apprehensive at first about a female playing a male. But I soon forgot her gender because of her sensational performance – only glimpses of her pony tail gave her gender away every so often. CJ used a deep tone in her dialogue and a cleverly modulated baritone when singing. She handled the comedy perfectly, using her exaggerated eye pops to great effect. This was a gender swap that worked very convincingly.
Helena Sheridan played Morticia differently from the expected norm but again it worked. Her chemistry with CJ worked and was believable. Lily Moore is perhaps the best Grandma this reviewer has seen. The adult Grandmas I have seen just don’t seem to get it. Reminding one of Carol Kane’s performance in “The Princess Bride” (look it up on streaming channels), Lily captured the character and our hearts wonderfully. Another female tackling a usually male role was Mila Takac as Lurch the butler. It’s quite hard to portray a character that only grunts and has a dead expression the whole time but Mila pulled it off in spades. Carter Penley as Pugsley gave a joyous performance and his reactions to being tortured during “Pulled” were absolutely hilarious. Isabelle Matulick as a “normal” mother, Alice, with a penchant for self-written poetry played her role well.
The ensemble of ancestors were all simply ‘horrific’ in the best possible way. They mastered their zombie-like, ghoulish, ghostly dance movements perfectly and had fun doing it.
Nadia Coppens made the role of Wednesday her own (watch out Jenna Ortega!). Her singing voice in particular just soars. Her last note of “Pulled” is a show stopper in itself!
I have literally left the best for last – young Ramon Alejo as Fester is BRILLIANT!! He captured the audiences hearts from the get go and didn’t let go. He is already a little triple threat. The stance was there, the acting chops were there, along with the ability to move well and sing fantastically. He was another that could pull off a final high note superbly. His solo, “The Moon And Me” was absolutely beautiful. Just keep an eye out for this young man later in life.
“The Addams Family Musical” is one of this reviewer’s favourites and the It cast did not let me down. Keep up the good work Parks Youth Theatre.
