Reviews
THE ADDAMS FAMILY MUSICAL 4110 Bailey Ave/O'Connell & Company
By
Oct 28, 2022, 19:17

Through October 30
THE ADDAMS FAMILY MUSICAL 4110 Bailey Avenue/O’Connell & Company

O’Connell & Company has moved again and the latest musical company is moving well, also, on stage.
The company has bounced around, small and large theaters and various locations in the North Towns.
Some worked better than others.
This new location works pretty well and has good acoustics, although the microphones sometimes didn’t cooperate.
As the name, “The Addams Family Musical,” suggests, the show revolves around characters created by cartoonist Charles Addams.
That may not mean much to younger theater-goers who have missed older, classic network TV and The New Yorker.
The show is from creators Marshall Brickman, Rick Elice and Andrew Lippa.
The Addams family members aren’t ghosts, although they can be ghouls at this time of year.
That’s when their ancestors climb out of the family tomb in the woods to celebrate.
It’s a little hard to tell from the credits but make-up designer Kris Bartolomeo is apparently responsible for the gray appearance of the tomb residents, contrasting with the (relatively) colorful and normal (?) appearance of the living Addams family members.
Leads Joey Bucheker and Anna Fernandez as Gomez Addams and his wife Morticia are very concerned because daughter Wednesday (Madalyn Teal) has fallen in love with outsider Lucas Bienek (Jared Eichel) and the parents want to stop that.
Wednesday wants Lucas’ parents to come over for dinner to make peace between the parents, with neither pair excited about the match.
Since the Bienek family isn’t part of the Addams clan, they don’t realize they are surrounded by ghosts.
The show’s name is a clue that this is a musical and it is.
It is well-directed and choreographed by Dewayne Barrett in this new performance space, once a church.
It’s a really interesting demonstration of a large cast on a relatively small space, with strong direction making it work well.
There is also strong singing, like the production numbers “When You’re an Addams,” “Secrets” and “Move Toward The Darkness.”
There are also the usual small cast numbers, like “Fester’s Manifesto” from Michael J. Galante, “Wednesday’s Growing Up,” from Bucheker and “Crazier Than You” from Eichel, Teal, and Lucas’ parents, Mal and Alice (Michael Starzynski and Kelleigh Murray.”
It’s all well done, well-drilled, with strong performances from Bucheker, Fernandez, Eichel and Teal.
“The Addams Family Musical” is a fine start for a new phase in the life of O’Connell & Company.

A.W.


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