Review: THE ADDAMS FAMILY Provides Fresh Look to Iconic Television Show

It can be a monstrous challenge to produce a musical based on an iconic television show. Most of the audience comes in with its own set of preconceived expectations of what certain characters should sound, dress and look like.

The Otterbein University Theatre Department knew exactly what it was getting itself into when taking on Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice's THE ADDAMS FAMILY. Providing the finger snaps on cue to the opening notes to the overture, the audience clearly revealed most had grown with the campy 1960s television show or the1991-1993 movies and had expectations for the two-act musical. And for the most part, the 21-member cast delivered a solid performance.

The production runs from Sept. 22-25 and Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at Cowan Hall (30 S. Grove Street in Westerville).

"Come every member of our family," Gomez (devilishly portrayed by Jack Labrecque) says in the family mausoleum during the show's opening number. "Living, dead and (with a nod to Lurch) undecided. Let us celebrate what it is to be an Addams."

The musical is set probably eight to 10 years beyond the scope of the television show. Gothic Wednesday Addams (Leah Windahl) is now 18 and has fallen hard for the romantic yet reserved Lucas Beineke (Jordan Wood) but before the two get married, the two most obtain the blessings from Wednesday's family of eccentrics and Beinke's obsessively normal family from Ohio. (When did Ohio become synonymous with all things boring, bland and normal?)

In order for this to happen, Wednesday has invited the bland Beinekes to her family's mansion for dinner. Worried he is losing his sister and torture mate to Lucas, Pugsley (Dana Cullinane) steals a potion that reveals a person's darker side and tries to slip it to his sister during dinner. As often is the case with magical potions, the drink ends up in the wrong hands, Alice Beineke (Lottie Prenevost), Lucas' prim and proper mother, consumes it by mistake and turns the evening upside down.

Otterbein seems to have a storehouse of exceptional actors and actresses in this musical. Labrecque is masterful in handling the nuisances of Gomez, who is torn between his loyalties to his wife and to his daughter. Morgan Wood channels her inner Sofia Vergara into Morticia Addams. Christopher Marth brings a looney energy to Uncle Fester, whose love affair with the moon becomes one of the running gags throughout the show. Rounding out the Addams clan are Windahl, Cullinane, Aubree Tally (Grandma) and Jacob Sundlie (Lurch) whose performance was one of the show's biggest surprises.

Serving as interesting counterbalances to the outlandish antics of the Addams were the trio of Beinke's - JorDan Morgan, Prenevost, and David Buergler (Mal). Prenevost made a remarkable transition from the perennially cheerful poet to a remorse-filled mother who realizes how repressed she has been over the last decade or so.

One of the unique, artistic touches was the host of deceased Addams ancestors - Matt Gittins (soldier), Abigail Isom (flapper), Caroline Kane (Can-Can dancer), Lauren Kent (Georgian courtesan), Trey Plutnicki (Puritan), Jenna Miller (bride), Daria Redus (hippie), Reuben Reese (caveman), Andre Spathelf-Sanders (conquistador), Luke Stewart (gambler) and Natalie Szczerba (femme fatale). The exquisitely costumed dancers silently mix among the living and add their own interpretations to the action with their pantomime. Under the direction of Lori Kay Harvey, the 10 piece orchestra provides the perfect accompaniment to the action on stage.

It was interesting to watch the walls of Fritsche Theatre on Morgan Wood's solo on "Just Around the Corner." Because of the way the show was lit, Morticia's shadow was front and center but behind her the silhouettes of the ancestors dancing behind her appeared to be pushing her and even stabbing her. It is unclear if this was director Christina Kirk and choreographer Stella Hiatt Kane's intention or an accidental byproduct, but it was, like many parts of the show, creepily effective.

Otterbein's production of THE ADDAMS FAMILY has three remaining shows, 8 p.m. Sept. 29, Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 at Cowan Hall (30 S. Grove Street in Westerville). Call 614-823-1109 for details.

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