It’s kind of cheating when the theme song from the TV program that inspired the musical, The Addams Family, includes a review of the show:
They’re creepy and they’re kooky
Mysterious and spooky
They’re all together ooky
The Addams family
Their house is a museum
When people come to see ’em
They really are a scream
The Addams family
– Vic Mizzy (Editor’s note: an earlier version of this article attributed the song to Andrew Gold, who has performed a cover version. We regret the error.)
And while the Alameda High School Drama Department production is all that, it’s more and different and better and surprising and charming, from the adorably creepy tree whose branches reach across the stage and out to the audience, to the platform shoes Lurch (Henry Forder) wears that made at least one audience member sitting close to the stage fear that the actor might pitch headfirst into the front row.
Under the impressive direction of Anneka Fagundes, and supported by her artistic crew, the stage crew, and back of the house team (shout out to Yela), the production was superbly assembled, from the pre-show announcements to the curtain call. Putting all of this together is a serious challenge and needs to be applauded and given a loud “Woohoo!”
One thing I need to especially say about the quality of this show, which has become the hallmark of this gifted drama teacher and director, is that it is so genuine. Big-budget departments from big fancy schools can hire professional painters or rent backdrops to lower onto their expansive stages. But there is something pure and beautiful and honest about having, for example, small trees made of cardboard, hand painted, and then carried onstage by the dancing dead ancestors. Or the set pieces wheeled in as backdrops, or those fixed upon the back wall, or Grandma’s wacky cart of witchy herbs and spices. All student-made and all perfect.
There were so many wonderful performances in this show—Marcell Peto and Sydney Mersch played Gomez and Morticia with a confidence and panache that impressed, Carmen Baskette’s Grandma was fun and odd and goofy and apparently from Brooklyn, Amelia Forder was terrific as Pugsley (though smoking is bad for your health), Aris Peterson was outstanding as nerdy Lucas, as were Harper Taylor and Dean Alis as their Ohioan parents with dear hearts. My favorite scene was when Zyon Mak, as Fester, sang to the love of his life, Karissa Pate, as the dancing moon. Seeing a bald-headed dude with blackened eyes serenade his dream girl while the unliving ensemble spun pink parasols was something I never expected. Serious swooning! However, I need to save the highest praise for Kasia Kim, our goth girl Wednesday. Yes she stomped about angrily dressed dark and daring, yes she worked the crossbow like an emo assassin, and yes she had really tender moments as the daughter to her dad—but when she sang, hers was the voice of the night.
Other shoutouts: The costumes were great fun, the make-up was darn cool, the swords were incredible—where does Fagundes get her weaponry?—and the dancing was fantastically choreographed by Rachel McCray Denton. A second helping of praise for Mersch and Peto for their tango. They executed the leg-kick-flop-backwards pose spectacularly.
I would be remiss to not feverishly fawn over the fingering—and wristing—of Jay Boardman, who took on the task of playing Thing, the renowned disembodied hand. With the iconic song warming us up, said appendage crept through the curtain and began to conduct the music, spider up and down the opening in the stage drape, dance with phenomenal digital dexterity, and then draw the drama cloth open to reveal the spooky sparse set and nutty nuclear family. Sorry, can’t help it—I gotta give him a hand!
See The Addams Family this coming weekend at the Frederick L. Chacon Little Theater, Alameda High School, 2200 Central Ave., March 21, 22, and 23 at 7 p.m. Purchase tickets online at GoFan; general admission $15, student/seniors/cast family members $10, AUSD students $8, AUSD staff free. For more information and to see photos, visit their Instagram page, @ahs.drama.department.
Gene Kahane is the founder of the Foodbank Players, a lifelong teacher, and former Poet Laureate for the City of Alameda. Reach him at [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Gene-Kahane.
