All in the Addams Family for GCP
Show is based on Charles Addams’ single-panel cartoons
For the second show of its 2017/18 season, Garden City Productions is getting spooky and ooky.
Gomez, Morticia and the rest of the macabre clan will take the stage for The Addams Family ,a musical comedy which offers a slightly different twist on the characters by bypassing their TV and movie versions and going straight to the source: Charles Addams’ original single-panel cartoons.
“Because there has been many television shows and movies, they all have their own different stories because (the comic) was just single panels,” says director and choreographer Brady Van Vaerenburgh, who also directed last year’s Garden City production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. “I’d say (the musical) stays pretty true to anything that has been done, because it’s a bit of a collection of everything.
“This one really centres around Wednesday and her finding a boy and wanting to get married.”
With musical direction by Chelsea DiFranco, the show opens at Ridley College’s Mandeville Theatre April 6 and runs to April 22. The hefty cast includes Paul Lewis as Gomez, Alison Braley-Rattai as Morticia, Chris Webb as Fester and Jessica Johnston as Wednesday.
Vaerenburgh says there were plenty of performers hoping to join the family during auditions.
“We have a cast of 24, and we could have cast it twice,” he says. “Some people walked into the room and you just knew who they were automatically.
“But we spent a lot of time trying to really nail some of them down. We had too many options, which is a good problem to have.”
The show’s cult following and two films from the early ‘90s likely played a role in the huge turnout, along with the fact the musical is a rarity in Niagara (although Laura Secord Secondary School recently did a production).
“I think a lot of people have a connection to the show because it has spanned a lot of decades,” says Vaerenbergh. “And the fact it’s a contemporary musical theatre show, that draws in a lot of youth.”
The musical opened on Broadway in 2010 with Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth leading the cast. It closed in December, 2011, after 722 performances.
It has toured extensively since, with productions in Prague, Tokyo, Sydney and this year in The Netherlands.
Despite being met with scathing reviews – and just two Tony Award nominations - the show has been a consistent box office hit.
Vaerenbergh isn’t fazed that Laura Secord’s production played just last month.
“A lot of our cast went and saw it,” he says. “It’s always nice to see how the exact same script and score can be presented in such a different way.”
Who: Garden City Productions What: The Addams Family Where: Mandeville Theatre; 2 Ridley Road; St. Catharines
Tickets: $28 adults, $23 students/children under 12 www.gcp.ca