By Chen Guo Chang, guest blogger
What a dark, kooky afternoon, hinging on the macabre and the eccentric. I spent two and a half hours with The Addams Family, in their new musical comedy at Resorts World Sentosa, and the star cast did not disappoint.
Straight after their tour in the US, The Addams Family arrived for a three-week performance in Singapore. But even if you’ve caught the original Broadway show, this performance is still worth catching. It has been revised from the original, and features a stronger and more logical plot.
Like any Broadway production, the music is exceptional. Andrew Lippa, the composer and lyricist, who had previously composed for ‘You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown’ in 1999 has brought his experience to bear. The music is upbeat, filled with a variety of styles from contemporary to classic Broadway. Songs like ’When You’re an Addams’, ‘Pulled’ and ’Crazier than You’ will continue to play in your mind long after the curtain falls.
The work and detail put into the sets and costumes is quite amazing. Bebe Neuwirth, who played the original matriarch Morticia in San Francisco and on Broadway, mirrored how I felt when she said in an earlier interview, “Julian Crouch, one of our directors, has done this brilliant, brilliant jobs of creating these sets and costumes… If you were to draw our sets and our costumes, you’d wind up with something that looks very very much like the cartoons, and I think that’s just brilliant.”
The cast members shone in their roles. Jesse Sharp (patriarch Gomez Addams) and KeLeen Snowgren (Morticia) deserve special mention for bringing a special comedic aspect to the famous larger-than-life characters. I felt as if they’ve walked straight out of Charles Addams’s original drawings.
Known as the Addams ancestors in this show, the splendid ensemble of 10 unique characters from different walks of life and eras was quite a genius addition. Each of the ensemble members has a distinctive personality, with their own back stories told through lines in the musical numbers. This strengthens the performance of the cast by supporting the core Addams family members.
What make this musical so likable are the many references to past productions of The Addams Family. Regardless of how you’ve come to know about this bizarre family – through the television series of the 60s or the feature films of the 90s – the show ensures that there’s something the audience could recognize and fondly revisit. Everything that’s distinctively Addams is in it: finger snapping, swordfight, tango, roses without petals. Even characters like the Thing and Cousin Itt made guest appearances.
If you’ve grown up with the Addams, it’ll evoke a sense of nostalgia and you will find yourself trying to spot the references. But if I have to pick on what’s missing, then it’ll be wishing that the team kept some scenes from the original Broadway production to showcase Cleopatra (Morticia’s flesh-eating African Strangler) and Bernice (the giant squid which lives in the sewers).
Even the curtain call is worth a mention; this show has the best curtain call I’ve ever seen. It served as an epilogue to the story and is very much a small musical on its own, since the cast members take their bows in the midst of drama, dance and song. That filled the theatre with vibrancy right up to the second the audience leaves.
The fun extends past curtain call. Guests can meet some of the cast members after each show, snap photos and grab autographs. Some cast members – like Shaun Rice ‘Uncle Fester’ (@shaunpuffyrice), Amanda Bruton ‘Grandma’ (@amanda_bruton) and Jennifer Fogarty ‘Wednesday’ (@jenfogarty) also actively communicate with fans on Twitter. These activities really complete the whole experience with interaction both on stage and off it.
Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame once commented, “I’ve heard that they are making The Addams Family into a musical and that sounds like it could be, frankly, awesome.” The show has indeed turned out to be two and a half hours of pure entertainment. I’m really tempted to catch the show for the third time before it closes.
Check out what other bloggers had to say about The Addams Family:
“With witty lines and catchy music, there’s never a dull moment in the show! A MUST WATCH!” - Jacinta Kong
Video by Charles Angel Lacson aka Wickermoss.
Get your tickets here!