Sometimes stepping off the beaten path or outside of the mainstream can be fraught with peril, but on occasion, it can turn into a wonderful surprise, and you pat yourself on the back for taking the big step.
Such was my reaction after stepping into Theatre Unchained's deliciously tiny space in order to see the production of "The Addams Family" musical, which runs through Sept. 28. This was a play I had seen before, and despite the 700-performance run on Broadway, I wasn’t totally in love with it.
Maybe it was because I was never really a regular watcher and fan of the Addams Family television show. I also recall the previous performance I had seen to be an effort to make the audience feel creepy and full of wonder about how eerie and disturbed this family was.
Much to their credit, the performance Saturday night, under the direction of John Baiocchi, left the creepiness outside and settled on making the audience laugh. And it was a smashingly successful effort.
Oh, there were things to pick at, of course. This was a cast of 16 actors, none of whom I have ever seen on stage, and I’ve seen a lot of Milwaukee theater. There was a live orchestra of seven musicians under the music direction of AJ Stibbe that was on occasion a little too loud, drowning out some of the lyrics. And there was not much of the slick polish you see around town in the bigger, mainstream theaters.
But those are all minor points that should not detract from a cast and orchestra that knew where the laughs were and mugged and timed all of them just right for maximum effect on a full house.
For those who don’t know, the Addams family is made up of Gomez (Timothy J. Barnes), his wife Morticia (a delectably sexy Kassandra Novell), his brother Fester (Marty Graffenius), their daughter Wednesday (Jamie Nyland), their son Pugsley (Jessica Hoof) and the grandmother (Danielle Gamsky). Lurch (a delightfully droll Matthew Northey) is the houseman.
The story is plain and simple.
The crazy girl Wednesday falls in love with a straight-laced boy Lucas (Robert Kroes), and they plan to marry. She is afraid to tell her parents. But a dinner is set up so that his parents, Mal (Jon Jones) and Alice (Bryanna Van Caster) can meet the Addams family.
All sorts of troubles ensue on the way to the expected happy ending where everyone is in love, all craziness is in the past, Fester is going to chase his one true love (the moon) and we all kiss and live happily ever after.
Thoughtful theater this is not. Instead, it’s an evening to sit on the edge of your chair, lean forward a bit so that you don’t miss any of the jokes and have a drink or two after the show and try to remember what the funniest thing you saw was.
If I was a betting man, I’d give odds that the moment most people remember was the transformation of Alice. She enters as an uptight wife and mother, hiding secrets, speaking in rhyme and penning sappy little poems. After mistakenly taking a potion during the post-dinner game called "Full Disclosure," she becomes something other than the Alice nobody really knows.
Throwing off her yellow jacket and letting her hair fall to her shoulders, she dances, prances and climbs seductively on the table, singing of the troubles besetting a woman whose life has lost the excitement she hoped to have. Van Caster, who claims to be a K-5 teacher in Racine, is a mixture of Carol Burnett, Vicki Lawrence and Madonna as she slithers around the assembled dinner guests. She wistfully recalls how she and her husband used to sneak out of restaurants and sometimes even end up in the back seat of his car. Lucas, embarrassed, chastises her with a "Mom!"
"Lighten up Lucas," she roars. "Parents do it. Live with it."
This production clearly benefits from the skills of Eli King, who directed a cast of 16 people into an expressive and disciplined group of singers, and of Angel Deverreoux and Sophia Jones who designed costumes for each of those actors.
"The Addams Family" on Broadway was a big show with big ideas. It had a big cast, big musical numbers and a big swing at reminding everyone how stunningly evil the family really was.
The production at Theater Unchained didn’t worry about being a big show. They crowded the entire production onto a small stage in a small theater.
The only thing big about this production were the laughs it produced.
With a history in Milwaukee stretching back decades, Dave tries to bring a unique perspective to his writing, whether it's sports, politics, theater or any other issue.
He's seen Milwaukee grow, suffer pangs of growth, strive for success and has been involved in many efforts to both shape and re-shape the city. He's a happy man, now that he's quit playing golf, and enjoys music, his children and grandchildren and the myriad of sports in this state. He loves great food and hates bullies and people who think they are smarter than everyone else.
This whole Internet thing continues to baffle him, but he's willing to play the game as long as OnMilwaukee.com keeps lending him a helping hand. He is constantly amazed that just a few dedicated people can provide so much news and information to a hungry public.
Despite some opinions to the contrary, Dave likes most stuff. But he is a skeptic who constantly wonders about the world around him. So many questions, so few answers.
