Theater review: Novato Theater Company offers an all together ooky ‘Addams Family Musical’
The “all together spooky” Addams Family has been deeply ingrained in American culture since the debut of the 1960s television sitcom. Charles Addams’ darkly dysfunctional family comedy was so successful that it spawned a knockoff series (“The Munsters”), at least two movies and at least one musical — a show so popular that three or four productions pop up every year in the Bay Area.
Marvelously directed and choreographed by Marilyn Izdebski, the latest and greatest of these opened last week at Novato Theater Company — a huge, sprawling and wildly entertaining production on Michael Walraven’s cartoonishly gloomy set filling the entirety of NTC’s compact stage. The set’s implications are matched by Tracy Redig’s Halloween-ish costumes.
Officially titled “The Addams Family – A New Musical Comedy,” the show features the entire family— husband and wife Gomez and Morticia, Uncle Fester, Grandma, Pugsley and their butler Lurch — all as we might recall them — and daughter Wednesday (HarriettePearl Fugitt), who has become a cranky teenager fond of hunting small animals with her crossbow in New York’s Central Park. Worse, she has fallen for a normal boy, much to the dismay and disapproval of her family. Fugitt gives a powerful insistent performance.
The classic setup-with-a-twist is rife with conflict, exploited to the max in every scene, song and dance. Izdebski gets wonderful performances from the large cast, including 11 white-faced, white-clad “ancestors” who serve as chorus and corps-de-ballet.
North Bay theater veteran Bruce Vieira is fantastically effective as the irrepressibly passionate patriarch Gomez, as is Alison Peltz as his slinky seductive wife, Mortica. Last seen in “Kinky Boots” at Mill Valley’s Throckmorton, Pat Barr is at his comedic best as the charmingly goofy Fester, matched by Kayla Gold as Grandma. Robin Kraft is confident as Pugsley, Wednesday’s withdrawn younger brother, alternating the role with Milo Ward. Todd Krish is tremendous as the family’s oversized and almost-mute butler Lurch, surprising the audience with a basso profundo song in the closing act.
John Diaz gives a natural, sympathetic interpretation of the character of Lucas Beineke, Wednesday’s straight-arrow boyfriend. David Shirk is engaging as his buttoned-down dad Mal and Jane Harrington is an absolute scream as Mal’s mousy, rhyming wife, Alice — especially after she accidentally imbibes some of Grandma’s “acrimonium” and loses all inhibitions.
Shirk and Harrington are great in their bits of musical comedy, but are overshadowed by the Addams clan, whose breakout moment is the big-production musical number “Full Disclosure,” in which they confess things that even the most malevolent creatures might not want to share. The hard-driving band led by Judy Wiesen sits stage left of the set, propelling the performers through two hours of hilariously absurd highjinks and delightful songs, notable among them, Gomez’s “Trapped” and “Not Today,” Morticia’s “Just Around the Corner” and Fester’s charming “The Moon and Me.”
The core conflict — will Gomez and Mortica accept Wednesday’s love for a boy from the wrong side of the graveyard? — carries the first act aloft. It’s like watching a magnificent hot-air balloon rise to great height; imagine the penultimate scene in “The Wizard of Oz.” The second act is like watching that same balloon slowly settle back to Earth, a rise-and-fall written into the script.
However the great airship lands for you, “The Addams Family — A New Musical” is a dazzling piece of theater. You’ll leave happy to have seen it, and perhaps, eager to see it again.
Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.Contact:barry.m.willis@gmail.com
IF YOU GO
What: “The Addams Family – A New Musical”
Where: Novato Theater Company Playhouse, 5420 Nave Dr., Suite C, Novato
When: Through Oct. 8, 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays
Admission: $25 to $35
Information: novatotheatercompany.org, 415-883-4498
Rating (out of five stars): **** 1/2