BWW Reviews: THE ADDAMS FAMILY Comes to San Diego

By: May. 31, 2012
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The creepy and kooky neighbors next door, The Addams Family are back in San Diego.  If you have missed the mad and macabre adventures of this family then here is your chance to see them! The Addams Family is playing through June 3, 2012 at the San Diego Civic Center.

Gomez gets a shock when his daughter Wednesday informs him that her fiancé, Lucas Beineke is coming to dinner with his parents, but she wants Gomez to keep her engagement a secret from Morticia.  The dinner will be strange enough when the Beineke family from Ohio enters the Addams abode, so Wednesday asks them for "One Normal Night".  But can the couple survive the inevitable Culture Clash between the two families?

Led by Douglas Sills as Gomez and Sarah Gettelfinger as Morticia, this cast is Broadway caliber. Sills is likeable as Gomez as he tries to balance his daughters request with the apprehension of lying to his wife.  He has a gorgeous voice, great comedic timing and plays well to the audience.  His increasingly flustered Gomez is likeable and the audience is with him every step of the way.

Gettelfinger has the striking look of Morticia – lithe and lovely- and wears a dress that defies gravity since it is "cut down to Venezuela".  Her voice is lovely, clear and she makes the most with her part.  "Just around the Corner" is a charming song where Morticia is trying to cheer herself up by reminding herself that "death is just around the corner".  A very Morticia way to look at a situation and Gettelfinger plays the moment to the hilt.

Cortney Wolfson is the grown up Wednesday Addams and has a big, bright voice.  Other cast standouts are Gaelen Gilliland, who steals the show in "Waiting" as Alice Beineke and Blake Hammond as Uncle Fester. Past San Diegan Tom Corbeil as Lurch has an impressive baritone that helps close the show.

The hardest part of this show to accept is the premise that Wednesday would ever ask her family for a normal night.  The fact that they play with dynamite or poison each other is normal to them; it is everyone else that is odd. Even in the comics, which this show draws from, has Wednesday playing with spiders the size of dogs and trying to kill her brother. So it makes no sense that the girl who always enjoyed the ghoulishness with the same relish as her family would ask them to be anything but themselves. The show whitewashes the family into a ghostly shadow of the characters we know and love.

Cousin It and Thing make cameo appearances and the audience cheered when they saw them.  The finger-snapping music that everyone is familiar with makes a brief appearance in the interlude to the audiences delight.  I just found myself wishing for a little more "Addams" in The Addams Family.

The Addams Family is playing at the San Diego Civic Theatre through Sunday June 3, 2012. Ticket information can be found at www.broadwaysd.com  

Photo Credit: Jeremy Daniel



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