On October 30th, I attended the Center Stage Theater in Fontana to watch “The Addams Family: A Musical Comedy”. The play is about Wednesday Addams growing up and falling in love with Lucas Bernanke, a sweet and smart boy from a “normal” family – a man her parents have never met. When Wednesday confides in her father and begs him not to tell her mother, she leaves Gomez Addams to do something he’s never done before – keep a secret from his wife, Morticia. Struggling to keep the secret, Gomez tries everything he can to keep the peace as mother and daughter tries to pull him on their own sides, risking losing either or both of them in the process. When the family agrees to invite the Bernanke’s to dinner to see of the families can get along, chaos occurs when differences between the families become obvious, someone is drugged with a truth telling potion, and secrets come out of the dark. Thankfully, with the help of Uncle Fester and the undead ancestors, that Fester holding hostage from returning to their eternal resting place, they are determined to see love triumph over everything.
I believe that the play was executed in a very well manner. Each of the actors took in their lines and developed their own unique views on the characters themselves. I also believe that the casting of the 18 characters were done very well. In many productions, there is sometimes a flawed choice which ends up looking like Wednesday is older than her mother, however in this case it was perfectly done and they all looked amazing. Also, there was definitely chemistry and comfortableness with each set of the couples and the families themselves, which made the play as real as it possibly could. Adding to the effect were the costumes. The costumes and makeup department deserve a round of applause. The details put into their costumes made a major difference in the effectiveness of the play had on the audience.
Since this is a musical, I wasn’t sure on how this would affect the show, whether it would look really bad or not. In this case, I loved it. The singing was wonderful, each actor portrayed strong voices and I never heard a break that wasn’t on purpose. I was mainly impressed with the young boy who played Pugsley Addams and the young actress who played Wednesday. For such a young boy, he displayed an amazing vocal range that left many mouth’s hanging open. During one part in the play especially, while having to scream while being tortured by Wednesday, he shrieked as if his sister was pulling him apart. I remember talking to the person next to me discussing how we were so impressed by his performance. While Wednesday blew away the crowd with the incredably hard notes that she had to belt for a good length of time. It showed true dedication to her craft since anyone in music buisness can tell you that being able to preform night after night hitting thos notes over and over again, it takes a large amount of vocal resting when your off stage, no dairy products, and a well working humidifier.
The set itself was okay. There was definitely lots of hard work put into the production and the set itself, but I feel like they could’ve done a little bit more. Although I did also like how they didn’t just limit themselves on the stage use alone but they also used part of the dining/sitting area as well adding an effect that left the audience feeling that they were a part of the play too.
Overall, I do recommend people to go see this play for its funny puns, its outstanding song/choreography, amazing costumes and their top of the line performance. Well done Cast and Crew!!!