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| Chloe Dallimore (Morticia) & John Waters (Gomez) dance the "tango de Amour" |
Book by
Marshall Brickman & Rick Elice
Music and
Lyrics by Andrew Lippa
Directed by:
Jerry Zaks
Musical
Direction: Luke Hunter
Capitol Theatre,
Sydney from 23rd March 2013
Reviewed by
Bill Stephens
Based on the
familiar Charles Adams drawings “The Adams Family” tells the fairly predictable
story of what happens when Wednesday Addams (Teagan Wouters), the daughter of
an unconventional family, who has had an unconventional upbringing, but has
fallen in love with a nice young man, Lucas Beineke (Tim Madden) from an
ultra-conservative family and background (although not quite as conservative,
in the case of his mother, as we were first lead to believe).
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| The Addams Family and ancestors |
Wednesday’s
family is the macabre, Addams Family, who live in a huge Gothic mansion, and include
her father, Gomez (John Waters), her mother, Morticia (Chloe Dallimore), her
brother Pugsley, whom she regularly tortures, (Liam Faulkner-Dimond at the performance
reviewed), and her extended family of Grand-ma (Meredith O’Rielly), Uncle Fester
(Russell Dykstra) and a half-dead butler, Lurch (Ben Hudson). The Addams family
are also surrounded by a collection of long-dead relatives who provide
spectacular support in a series of cleverly-staged production numbers for which
Sergio Trujillo has devised some appropriately quirky choreography.
When
Wednesday invites Lucas Beineke’s family to the mansion to meet the rest of The
Addams Family a series of events occur which provide the momentum for this
surprisingly engaging musical.
Guided by
legendary Broadway director, Jerry Zaks, who also directed the Broadway and
National tour productions of “The Addams Family”, this beautifully detailed
production moves at a leisurely pace, making sure the audience has sufficient
time to savour each laugh line and inventive piece of stage business. There are
visual surprises aplenty, and even the lavish red velvet curtains develop a
life of their own.
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| The Adams Family Meredith O'Rielly (Granma)Ben Hudson (Lurch) Teagan Wouters (Wednesday) Russell Dykstra (Uncle Fester) Liam Faulkner-Dimond (Pugsley) Chloe Dallimore (Morticia) John Waters (Gomez) |
John Waters
is charming and funny as Gomez, as is Russell Dykstra as the fey, rather surreal
Uncle Fester whose love affair with the moon yields some surprising results. Meredith
O’Rielly as Grandma, and Ben Hudson as Lurch get their fair share of laughs,
and Teagan Wouters is a breath of fresh
air as Wednesday. Tim Madden as her boyfriend, Lucas Beineke, is engaging but
has yet to find the key to make his character memorable. Tony Harvey does as
much as he can with the rather stock of the anal father Mal Bieneke.
Katrina
Retallick gives a stand-out performance as his wife, Alice Beineke, pulling out
all the stops to hilarious effect in her number “Waiting”.
However it
is Chloe Dallimore, as Morticia Addams, who steals the show. Tall, elegant and drop-dead
gorgeous in her black wig and long gowns, she moves with a ballerina’s grace and
dominates the stage whenever she is on. Towards the end of the show she tucks
up her gown to reveal ridiculously long million-dollar legs to dance the “Tango
de Amour” with Gomez, and the effect is stage magic.
With its seriously funny scenes and special effects, which delighted the many
children in the audience, “The Addams Family” is a musical to savour. More
likely to charm than excite, with songs that are catchy rather than memorable
and characters who are loveable, but perhaps not as ‘out-there’ as one might
expect, it's a musical which still offers a surprisingly elegant, gothic and funny comment of the value of family.
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| Russell Dykstra as Uncle Fester and Ensemble Photos by Jeff Busby |