By Your favorite family of oddballs is touring currently in The Addams Family: A Musical Comedy. The tour recently visited St. Louis at Stifel Theater for a special one-night engagement.
The production, showcasing music and lyrics from Andrew Lippa and written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, made its Broadway debut in 2010, earning two Tony award nominations. The characters are of course based on Charles Addams famous family of misfits that have an affinity for the mischievous and macabre, whom have been featured in numerous cartoons, films and television.
The show follows the Addams family as they navigate the new love interest to deadpan daughter Wednesday, who wishes to marry normie Lucas. Doting parents Morticia and Gomez seem at odds about the relationship, and Wednesday’s brother Pugsley is afraid of losing his maniacal and murderous sibling. Uncle Fester, Lurch and Grandma also get brought into the mix when Wednesday convinces her family to host a dinner for Lucas and his parents, at which the couple plans to announce their engagement to be married. Joining the cast is the ghosts of the Addams family ancestors, who round out the ensemble. Both acts of the show see the two families clashing over values, romanticism, and the worries of the gushing teens in love are brought about by the reflections of their parents.
Renee Kathleen Koher and Rodrigo Aragón play Morticia and Gomez, and visually, they fit their parts perfectly. Melody Munitz, Logan Clinger and David Eldridge played Wednesday, Pugsley and Lucas. Munitz balanced the perfect combination of theatrical exaggeration and deadpan facial features Wednesday Addams is often known for. However, the star performances came from Chris Carsten as Uncle Fester, Chereen Hickman as Grandma, Jackson Barnes as Lurch, and Sarah Mackenzie Baron as Alice Beineke, mother to Lucas.
The most exciting moments in a theatrical performance are the moments when the cast can ad lib and add a layer of creativity to the show. For this particular go-around of The Addams Family, some cultural references included some Taylor Swift, a call for universal health care, TikTok, and a quick snap about Ozempic. Carsten’s Uncle Fester worked as a pseudo-narrator and was absolutely delightful. During his rendition of “The Moon and Me,” Uncle Fester seemed to float through the sky as he sang about his professed love for the moon.
Hickman’s portrayal of Grandma delivered gut-punch after gut-punch of hilarious dialogue that had me cackling a little too loudly. And what Barnes was able to accomplish as Lurch with simple grunting and gestures was a truly enjoyable feat. (You wouldn’t want to go up against him in a game of charades.) And lastly, stealing the show was Baron who played a giddy and rhyme-scheming Stepford-Esque Alice Beineke. Her vocal range absolutely blew me away, and during the Act one finale “Full Disclosure,” it was her belting that had me tapping my feet in anticipation for the curtain to come back up after intermission. Baron’s “main character energy” rolled off the stage from her vibrato and presence and I have to comment that she is a phenomenal performer with an insane set of lungs.
The show is the perfect example of a musical comedy that sits suspended out of time and reality, because that’s of how The Addams Family function – existing in a world that’s a bit too dark and too mischievous for the normal world. Equal parts glam and gloom, The Addams Family is a wonderful time, has some catchy songs, and is a reiteration of one of the most bizarre-yet-lovable fictional families to ever exist (insert double snap.)