The Addams Family brings characters to the stage in spooky, kooky musical
Show # 18
Immaculata High School
The Addams Family: A New Musical Director: Jillian Budgell
Thunder strikes and lightning flashes as guests arrive for a “normal night” at a peculiar looking mansion with a peculiar looking family. Welcome to the Addams family, where everyone is everything but normal. From wishing to be tortured, to falling in love with the moon, everything remained spooky and kooky at The Addams Family: A New Musical performed by Immaculata High School.
Based on the classic and famous characters created by Charles Addams, The Addams Family: A New Musical follows a grown-up Wednesday who has found love with a normal boy named Lucas. Now wanting to be married, the two struggle to merge their wildly different families together. Wednesday's mother Morticia's disapproval of the engagement causes conflict among the two families. Tensions arise as members of both families begin exploring new sides of themselves in this strange and humorous story filled with love and darkness.
The lead role of Gomez, an eccentric father and passionate husband, was played brilliantly by Dominic Laconi. Laconi featured a perfect accent that remained consistent at all times when speaking and singing. Laconi's voice intonations and line delivery were hilarious and allowed for a laughter-filled performance. Laconi had an exceptional dynamic with all other characters on stage, most noticeably with Elizabeth Morin who played Gomez's wife, Morticia. As Gomez and Morticia questioned the foundation their relationship is based on, Laconi and Morin built a heartwarming relationship on stage that exhibited the eccentric and wild nature of the entire family. This was best shown in the musical number “Let's Live Before We Die” where the two showed impeccable vocals and heartwarming emotion. As well as “Tango de Amor” where Morin and Laconi's amazing dancing filled the stage with romance and passion. Morin's emotional performance and flawless vocals were astonishing.
Charlie Micheniwez's role as the younger annoying brother, Pugsley, was exceptional. Micheniwez featured magnificent facial expressions which were big and clear on stage. This was marked by the big and serious eyes that focused on the audience at all times during Micheniwez's singing and dancing.
Micheniwez also held outstanding mannerisms which made the performance much more entertaining, such as Pugsley's constant clasped hands and creepy grin that turned on and off when something exciting happened on stage. Micheniwez's majestic performance was one to remember.
Another memorable performance was Logan Rodriguez in the role of Fester Addams. Rodriguez had a wonderful voice with hilarious intonations that made the singing incredibly entertaining. With a strong stage presence and clear motive, Rodriguez took on the spotlight incredibly well. This was done spectacularly in the musical number “The Moon and Me.” The romance Fester felt for the moon felt incredibly real, and Rodriguez played on the weird yet comic energy of the character magnificently.
The cast's exceptional acting was anchored by the spectacular technical aspects that made this musical so incredibly wonderful. The colourful lighting played upon the themes and moods of each scene and made the Addams family stand out in their all black costumes. Moving spotlights always followed and illuminated actors as they walked through the audience and across the stage. The set was spooky, depicting an ominous looking mansion noticeably decorated with a portrait of the family, lots of spiderwebs, the signature “A” for Addams, and was a pleasure to look at.
Immaculata High School portrayed this conflict-filled, yet beautiful and humorous story of a bizarre family dealing with far more normal things than them phenomenally. It was brought to life by the truly memorable actors and crew who put on a spectacular performance of The Addams Family: A New Musical.