'Wednesday's growing up so fast. She'll be Thursday before you know it!'Yesterday I went to The Lowry Theatre in Salford to watch The Addams Family: The Musical Comedy. For those of you that don't know about it, the musical is based on the original cartoons by Charles Addams, and in this story Wednesday Addams has become a teenager and fallen in love. She also has a secret, which she entrusts to her father Gomez (who has never kept anything from his wife Morticia before.) Wednesday's boyfriend Lucas and his parents- a typical, cheesy American family- come to dinner at the Addams Family Mansion, and a clash of two natures ensues. Will the darkness of the Addams family be too much for the Beinekes? This musical is so much fun. It's absolutely hilarious, with the jokes ranging from physical comedy to innuendos to puns that take you a minute to appreciate. A few of the jokes are clearly from the original Broadway version and don't translate brilliantly- a joke about healthcare falls a little flat in a country with the NHS- but those are very minor instances. Going into it I was a bit worried that the story would be quite cliche and predictable, because after all these are well-loved characters that aren't exactly well-known for being deep and emotionally complex. Or, you know, emotional. But that wasn't the case-- Wednesday, having become a teenager and fallen in love, is naturally more emotional and animated than in her previous incarnations. Morticia and Gomez have a really touching plotline. Even Pugsley gets some depth as he's scared of losing his sister. And none of this seems odd because they're not characters on a TV screen, they're actual people right in front of you-- the immediacy and intimacy of theatre means they seem more real, come alive from the cartoons and screen incarnations. So of course they have emotional journeys! Also it's a musical, and musicals have to have emotions to sing about. So the show turns out to be not just hilarious but really touching, about family and relationships and love and honesty-- with no unpredictable cliches. I've seen complaints that the story is weak and the stakes aren't high enough. I disagree. It doesn't have to have incredibly high stakes and unbelievable suspense because it's not that kind of story. It's very much relationship-based, and makes the Addams Family human and relatable, while still preserving their weirdness and darkness in its usual inexplicably charming way. No spoilers there, hopefully. Let's talk about the cast specifically. Overall I thought the cast were all just so perfect. The ensemble really impressed me- there's a lot of group dance numbers, and all members of the ensemble showed such an incredible amount of energy in everything, even 4 months into their tour. Carrie Hope Fletcher (who I've been a fan of for years through her YouTube channel and writing career) was amazing as Wednesday; she has such a uniquely powerful voice, which you can hear singing my favourite song from the show here. Dickon Gough makes a great Lurch, with spot on comedic timing, and Cameron Blakely makes an excellent Gomez, charming and a bit dotty. He works very well with Samantha Womack, who plays a morbid but caring Morticia. Oliver Ormson plays Lucas well but with a slightly cringey American accent, which only adds to the intentionally cheesy portrayal of him and his family. In the performance I saw Lucas' mother Alice was played by understudy Rhona McGregor who I thought was excellent in both distinctive acting and powerful singing. The production value of the show is wonderful. The set is deliciously grim, and strangely beautiful when the sky and moon are visible. There's lots of smoke, of course, for the creepy Addams atmosphere, and the lighting struck me as absolutely gorgeous at points. After the bows, the stage was left with the outline of the Addams Mansion around the stage and a purple sky behind, and it was beautiful. The costumes are very well designed, especially those of the ensemble, who play various Ancestors of the Addams Family and portray a wide variety of origins in both time period and geography. If you like dark humour and relationship-based storytelling, I highly recommend you go see this show. It's a lot of fun, and I wish there was a cast recording because the music here is very catchy and displays some wonderful vocal talent. Enjoy! *click click* The Addams Family: A Musical Comedy is currently on tour in the UK, with future dates in Sheffield, Belfast, Glasgow and more, and will finally be travelling to Singapore in November. For tour dates, click here. Image from https://tickets.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06ZZ5HFBT/the-addams-family
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Stephen Sondheim's Into The Woods is probably my personal favourite musical, for many reasons. Firstly, the song 'Agony' and its reprise are hilarious. Secondly, the music is beautiful- there's one harmony in the song 'No One Is Alone' (particularly well sung in the movie version) on the line 'maybe we forgot' which I just love. Mostly, however, it's the aspects of plot and characterisation that add up to a meditation on parenthood, growing up, dealing with the trials of life and morality. Sounds deep, but when presented in this format- a musical based on fairytales- it's something you don't necessarily realise you're thinking about until it's over. Almost every time I watch or listen to it, it reminds me of something I'd learnt but forgotten. Here are some of the life lessons from Into The Woods that come to my mind- leaving out the obvious, like 'don't piss off a witch'. SPOILER WARNING FOR THE FILM AND THE SHOW (THERE ARE PLOT DIFFERENCES) Something I've been thinking about recently is where stories come from and how they get to the point of being told. This led me to thinking about some of my favourite musicals and where their stories originated. A common theme that occurred to me is that some of my favourites (obviously not all, but enough for it to be interesting) are based on existing stories that, in turn, are based on something else. Let's have a look at a few examples.
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"After nourishment, shelter, and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world."- Philip Pullman Archives
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