A truly unique musical danced across the P.G. stage this week. It wasn't one of the blockbusters with decades of reputation, it wasn't glamorously attached to superstar performers, and yet it had a charming familiarity.
Everyone knows The Addams Family from TV and film, but the musical theatre production was not a stage amalgam of those old iterations. The characters were in place, some of the settings were in place, but the storyline and all the songs were unique to this performance. It was already a bona fide hit on Broadway, but Prince George audiences had never seen it before until UNBC Musical Productions went to all the effort to get the rights for the show and then produce it for the local community to see.
The same UNBC club did that last year with Avenue Q, and in fact this is the sixth production under the direction of Arielle Bernier for the university community. What a gift they have been to the community, and The Addams Family was the most opulent package yet.
What most often lacks in a community-level musical theatre production of any kind is the singing. It asks a lot of any high school or not-for-profit drama society to come up with vocal talent in a small setting. Bernier allowed no such weakness. All the main characters, all the supporting roles and all the chorus members had quality pipes, none more so than Bernier herself. She is an exceptional singer who attracted strong voices to share the stage with her.
The acting, too, was quite robust. Bradley Charles carried a large load in the role of Gomez Addams, and he delivered sensitive characterizations with a strong sense of comedic timing and confident singing. He was utterly believable and entertaining.
Bernier was another standout in the key role of Wednesday Addams.
Jared Quarenghi is but a tween-ager but he served notice with his performance that Prince George has some strong youth talent and his name is one of the ones to expect great things of.
Neil Brooks's character was in place for comic relief (within a comedy, that's saying something) and to help advance little nuggets of the plot. He was splendidly goofy, but always in control of the swollen dialogue and bizarre body language called for by the script.
Franco Celli had to play a classic straightman, but he, too rode the waves of funny. He had to flex imperceptibly between "square young man in love" but also the nuanced guy Wednesday would fall in love with. Tough, but no problem for Celli.
Alex Pinnet as Lurch was delightfully blank. It took subtle acting abilities, however, to make the stoic zombie butler into more than stage furniture. Under the grunts and stoic stares was a thinking thespian.
Colton Fitzsimmons had a pivotal but open-ended role as Uncle Fester. He could have played the part any number of ways, and picked a straightforward "regular guy" tone to strike. It worked, especially since his singing was so effortless.
Erika Calleweart was a snappy choice to play Alice Beineke, the mother of Wednesday's betrothed, Lucas. For local audiences, she is best known as a singer-songwriter, so it expanded her audience base but at the same time gave us a cast member we could depend on for vocal chops and stage confidence.
And Dwight Scott Wolf. This guy is becoming the Phil Hartman of local theatre, the guy who can play anything, the guy who acts as glue for the other cast members. He's been memorable in many smaller roles - the sadsack Mr. Cellophane in Chicago, the chilling Nazi officer in The Sound Of Music, etc. - and he adds to his list of successes as milquetoast Mal Beineke in this production.
If anyone was born to be in this production, it was Sandra Clermont in the essential role of Morticia Addams. Bernier told me that when she read the script, the only person she envisioned as Morticia was Clermont, so she pursued the veteran musical theatre performer like a birder chasing a South Pacific kagu. It took some convincing, but Clermont was indeed a fit with the role like a sword to its sheath. She carried the womanly stateliness required for the statuesque Morticia, but also the romantic sensitivity needed for someone at the top of her confidence game suddenly shaken by an unwelcome surprise.
Even the chorus makes a memorable impression in this production. These 12 "ancestors" come out of the grave and work as a collective throughout the show, but with little more than a flourish of dance or well-timed cock of an eyebrow, or smirky smile, individuality ekes out from each one. Their costumes and makeup are sensational and it is hard not to fixate on how each one is different within the white ghostly visual treatment they are painted with. I had my favourites, by the end, despite not knowing who was underneath most of these comical creamy characters. There was one in top hat, a sailor, a cowboy, a baseball player, etc. They were so brilliantly created they could have made for action figures or trading cards. "Collect all 12!" Props (if you'll forgive the theatre pun) to Lana McCracken and the wardrobe team.
So applause goes, too, to Carmen Campbell, Veronica Church, Jasmine Eadie, Miranda Hanson, Jenny Mwende Lind, Lluvia Lopez, Michelle Karey-McKenna, Melissa McCracken (okay, I knew McCracken from previous work, and her choreography in this show stood tall), Danaya Rankin, Cassandra Thummerer, Katelyn Vandersteen and Tierney Watkinson for being the ectoplasmic dozen.
The university has an asset worth developing, in this all-volunteer production company. Many of these roles, on stage and back stage, were carried out by those with no connection to UNBC at all, who just wanted the show to go on. That kind of community commitment is invaluable to both university and audience alike.
