Celebrate Halloween with a Visit to The Addams Family

Outside the theater walls the rain fell and the wind howled, perfectly setting the mood for Ocean State Theatre Company’s season opening production of the macabre musical comedy The Addams Family. Directed by producing artistic director Amiee Turner, it is smart, funny, clever, racy, irreverent and just plain fun.

Based on cartoons by Charles Addams that first appeared in The New Yorker in the late 1930s, America’s strangest family has survived many reincarnations first as a popular TV series and then two hit movies. The stage version represents an original story that is a bit dark (and long) but exceedingly charming.

The musical cuts right to the chase when Wednesday Addams confides in her father, Gomez, that she is engaged to a smart young man from a respectable family, Lucas Beineke. She pleads with him to keep this a secret until after a dinner party they have planned for that evening with his family; Gomez is at once deeply conflicted, he has never kept a secret from his beloved wife Morticia, but he does not want to betray his daughter’s trust.

Despite Wednesday’s pleas for a “normal night,” chaos ensues shortly after the dinner guests arrive at the expansive but mostly unfurnished mansion. Things come completely unhinged during a very telling game of “Full Disclosure” where participants drink from a magic chalice and then share a secret. Gomez seizes this opportunity to force Wednesday to come clean, but his plan badly back-fires when Lucas’ mother reveals a bit too much!

Much of the musical’s success resides in a hilarious script presented by a terrific cast. Steve Gagliastro (Gomez) has many of the evening’s funniest lines. Upon learning of Wednesday’s engagement, he laments, “Wednesday is growing up, soon she will be Thursday.” Before the dinner guests arrive, he learns they are from Ohio, “a swing state,” he gasps. Then, when Lucas’ mother asks if they have “a little girl’s room,” he replies, “We did, but we let them go!”

Strolling around in a smoking jacket with a cigar hanging from his mouth, Gagliastro cracks one joke after another in a perfect Ricky Ricardo-like Spanish accent. He projects a natural charm in a role where many may be tempted to overact. He alone is worth the price of admission, shining on OSTC’s stage unlike any other in the company’s three-year history.

Katie Anne Clark (Morticia), pale and stoic, provides the perfect counter-balance  to Gagliastro’s zaniness. Delivered in a much more deadpan manner, she too has some funny moments. While looking through a family photo album, she points out the “twice removed” Uncle Herman in a dress, “He had it removed once but it grew back,” she explains in a monotone voice while turning the page.

And while Gagliastro and Clark both have decent singing voices, it is their interactions with one another that light up the semi-darkened stage. They are absolutely hot during “Tango de Amor,” a very campy number that begins with her hiking up her long black dress above her knees.

Accompanied by the “Ancestors,” dead Addams family relatives dressed in white, “Tango” represents one of several group dance numbers. Originally enlisted by Uncle Fester to make sure “love triumphs,” the Ancestors seem a bit extemporaneous with their role never really established, and their choreography seems basic and listless.

Kayla Tomas and Brody Karn (Wednesday and Lucas) display great chemistry and easily possess the evening’s best signing voices. Tomas also perfectly wears the hot and bothered look of an angst-ridden teen; she is especially good during the devilishly funny “Pulled.”

RI’s own Fred Frabotta plays the role of Uncle Fester with an infectious and heart-warming optimism. Serving as a narrator of sorts, he proves that by literally reaching for the stars all love is possible, even among the most unlikely of lovers.

The set designers once again do their part nicely creating a spooky, haunted-house type set. From the opening scene with the Addams standing in their fog-covered yard with a blood orange moon hanging in the sky, to squeaky gates and heavy doors that echo when they shut, the set nicely captures the mood throughout. Inside the vacuous mansion, large wooden walls rise up to meet broken window panes.

And, from the prologue forward, where audience members snapped their fingers along with the show’s familiar theme song, the five piece orchestra, under the direction of Esther Zabinski, was tight as usual.

So with Halloween fasting approaching, be sure to include OSTC’s The Addams Family among your celebration of this season’s haunted happenings. The show runs through October 25 in the company’s state-of-the-art Jefferson Boulevard theater. For tickets or more information visit oceanstatetheatre.org.