By Emma Maliborski
In Collins Auditorium this weekend, a stunning cast of characters welcomed audience members into the Halloween spirit with a looming haunted house set and a show packed with on-point comedic timing.
The opening number, “When You’re an Addams,” performed by the Addams family and the ensemble of their ghostly ancestors featured comedic choreography and a strong choral sound from the company.
It also featured creative period costuming designed by Kate McGuire, FCRH ’20.
From the beginning, it was clear the cast was imbued with the Addams spirit and was ready to put on an impressively spooky show.
“The Addams Family” takes the audience through a chaotic evening in the Addams house, when Wednesday’s boyfriend, Lucas Beineke, and his fiercely “normal” Midwestern parents, Alice and Mal, visit for dinner.
Originally performed on Broadway in 2010, the show features music by Andrew Lippa and a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice.
Sly references to Ohio’s unfortunate nature as a swing state, Donald Trump’s resemblance to a tangerine and the scarcity of healthcare in America made the Mimes’ version of the show more current than the original.
Each cast member fully embraced the eccentricities of their respective characters.
Highlights included Karlene Rivera’s, FCRH ’22, modern Disney princess-esque belt as Wednesday, Joe Gerngross’, FCRH ’21, hysterical physical comedy and endearing narration as Fester.
Another highlight was Andrew Milligan’s, FCRH ’19, glacial delivery and impossibly guttural noises as the not-quite-human butler Lurch.
The Beineke family members — Alex Guthrie, FCRH ’19; Kate Courter, FCRH ’20; and Shea Quinn, FCRH ’22 — were comedic high points, often behaving so strangely in the name of normalcy that the Addams clan seemed tame by comparison.
The Collins stage was consumed by the folding set of the Addams house, complete with a torture device used affectionately by Wednesday on her brother Pugsley (an endearing Elena [Ren] Evenson, FCRH ’22) on the top level.
Madeleine Burrow, FCRH ’19, complemented the eerie atmosphere with lighting work that featured lightning, frequent spotlights to accentuate the characters’ internal moods and even a moon projection during the finale.
The dramatic and comedic apex of the show occurred right before intermission during a game of Full Disclosure, in which players sit around the dinner table and share a secret they have never told anyone.
The ardently hilarious Courter impeccably performed Alice Beineke’s descent into darkness after drinking from a poisoned cup meant for Wednesday.
Her vocals never wavered as she dominated the stage with her confessions and hysterics, finally collapsing on the dinner table to thunderous applause from the enraptured audience.
Courter’s performance as the deceptively passionate housewife, Alice, was brilliantly foiled by the other major matriarch of the show: Morticia Addams.
Mary Grant, FCRH ’21, never broke from Morticia’s classic spooky elegance and showed off her dance and vocal chops during “Just Around the Corner,” an old Broadway-esque number performed with the ensemble of ghostly Addams ancestors.
Austin Yang’s, FCRH ’20, portrayal of Gomez made for the perfect earnest husband counterpart.
He shone especially during “Happy/Sad” as he admitted that, though he is happy that Wednesday found love, he looks back on her childhood with nostalgia.
Though “Addams” tells the story of a chaotic evening where everything seems to go wrong, the cast and crew could not have been more laser-focused on the task at hand.
The finale number, “Move Toward the Darkness,” recapped the themes of self-awareness, compromise and the beauty of impulsivity that defined the characters throughout the show.
Even after the curtain call, it was clear that the eccentric cast of characters and creative technical elements filled the auditorium with the best sort of spookiness — not -that Collins was not a little creepy already.
