Playwrights Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice wrote the hilarious storyline, Andrew Lippa, who was later nominated for a Tony Award for ‘Best Original Score’, then added the music and lyrics. Lippa has brilliantly written the score to match each character’s personality – e.g. Gomez a Spanish Flamenco-style melody.

The $15 million production (co-incidentally produced by Phoenix Entertainment) ran for 722 performances on Broadway, grossing over $62 million, third only to ‘Wicked’ and ‘The Lion King’. The Broadway production starred Brooke Shields as Morticia.

The Australian Premiere was in Sydney, March 2013, with John Waters as Gomez Addams.

Now is your chance to meet this ghoulish family in their two and a half hour, offbeat production, presented by Phoenix Theatre Inc. and Dark Psychic Productions at the Phoenix Theatre, 435 Carrington Street, Hamilton Hill on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 8.00 until 10^th December. There is one matinée on 4^th December at 2.00 pm.

This show’s selected charity is Cystic Fibrosis (a debilitating genetic lung condition), so please buy a programme and give a donation to this worthwhile cause. Thank you.

The entrance foyer is lined with empty picture frames, gravestones, ‘Thing’ in a box, with various black magic and torture implements. Even the coffee counter had jars of ‘creepy specimens’ as tasty treats. Huge amount of work, but a great scene setter for what is ahead – the work supervised by Jessica Tarnowy, with props supplied for this and the musical by Chantal Kerkhof, Krispin Maesalu, Ryan S McNally, Allan Veal and Pat McMahon.

The set, designed by Ryan McNally, was simple but extremely effective. There were walkways off each side of the stage, around the orchestra pit, to the front of the audience.

The curtains open to show a decrepit, weatherboard house with a glow coming from the attic window. In front of the house, next to a wooden bridge, is Bernice, a 2-metre high Venus flytrap. At each side of the stage is a cobweb covered stone arch. There are various plinths for the ‘dead’ – as opposed to ‘living’ – statues.

The production manager was Alison Kovacs, who with stage manager Nikita Harwood ensured a fast and effective stage crew (Daniel Rooney, Eleanor Weller-Brown and Luke Locantro). Slick work. The technical director, Alexander Coutts-Smith, designed both the soundscape and, aided by Krispin Maesalu, the lighting. Benjamin Albert added the fun sound effects; the sound operator was Simone Ostle.

The live orchestra are in the ‘pit’ in front of the stage. The musicians were conducted by the musical director, Krispin Maesalu who covered the various scores from soft love songs to the loud, creepy and slightly discordant tunes required when the ancestors were around. The reed section comprised Jeni Stevens, Trish Telcik and Talitha Dunn, the brass players were Paul Marion and Emma Mondy. Chris Johnston was on guitar, with Josh Haines and Ethan Walters on keyboard. The string section was Benjamin Cooke, Amanda Reynolds and Greg Critchley.  Drums and castanets played by Jake Isard. The percussionist was also assistant musical director, Ben Albert. With the musicians facing a side wall instead of directly at the audience, I found the instrument balance better than normal.

       The orchestra strikes up their Overture with the well-known Addams Family refrain. As they play, a hand – ‘Thing’ – comes out of the centre of the proscenium curtains and beckons us to join the Family. Poised on a plinth to the side of the stage is a one-legged woman, ‘the Sideshow’ (Sally McMaster).

       The curtains open and reveal the Addams Family on their way to the cemetery. Even after many years of marriage, Gomez Addams (Paul Reed) and his wife, Morticia (Holly Denton) are still as passionate over each other as ever. Lanky and bald, Uncle Fester (Callum Siegmund-Bant) and young Pugsley (Charlie Martin) are excited about the annual family gathering and all of the decaying corpses they will meet. Sadly, if Wednesday gets married she will no longer be available to give Pugsey his daily torture on the rack. Scruffy and coarse Grandma (Devetta Ridgwell) enjoys meeting all of the family members, many of whom have been dead for centuries. Butler Lurch (Declan Roden) keeps her company.

      This year however, the daughter, Wednesday (Rosie McGavock) would rather be with her new boyfriend. She has fallen madly in love with caring Lucas Beineke (Matthew Arnold), who is unfortunately ‘normal’! Gomez and Morticia are horrified, until they discover that he wants to be an embalmer.

     Wednesday invites Lucas and his parents to the Addams’ Towers for a meal. Whilst the group were led in by the ballerina (Tabitha Kerlin), a gypsy (Chantal Kerkhof) with crystal ball in hand cast a spell. The straight-laced, passionless father, Mal (Lee Wilson) and Lucas’s inappropriately dressed Mum, Alice (Claudia Van Zeller) are looking forward to meeting their prospective daughter in law. On arrival, the ancestors were lined up on their plinths; there were the abandoned bride (Melanie Doust), the flapper (Charlotte Williams), the Indian (Bernadette Ward) and the courtesan (Steph Hickey). The gravedigger ancestor (Pat McMahon) took an instant dislike to Lucas, and had to be stopped before an incident arose. Uncle Fester calls for an intermezzo as he plays his ukulele, but nothing can prepare the visitors for ‘The Game’ at the end of the dinner.

      How can Wednesday and Lucas prove their love for each other with an apple? Or will the Grim Reaper (Craig Rickards) be called?

     The ancestor ‘flight attendant’ (Sara Urban) brought a smile on the curtain call.

 Other ancestors that visited the family included a puritan (Zack Inglis), the conquistador (Christopher Doney), the soldier (Allan Veal), the convict (Shaun Griffin) and the gambler (Julian Monck). Every actor and ‘ancestor’ extra had their moment of glory in this show, whether dancing, singing or merely their creepy presence adding wonderfully to the show.

The director, Ryan S McNally acted as a mentor for his assistant, Eleanor Weller-Brown. Ryan is certainly not one to accept ‘average’ or even ‘good’, he demands the best and then helps the cast give him the best and more. The script was extremely funny, and the cast delivered the subtle jokes perfectly. Gomez and Morticia’s love rapport was brilliant, even though delivered in Spanish, like ‘querida’ (darling) and ‘cara’ (my heart) it was when he spoke French that Morticia melted.

A couple of years ago, community theatre musicals would have one good singer, and the remainder would be able to dance OR sing. Recently I have noticed that invariably, all of the main characters in a musical can sing and dance brilliantly. The singing in this production was WAAPA standard, powerful, huge vocal range and a natural – full body – delivery. These stars strutted the stage, and engaged the audience from the moment the curtains opened. Even the fun songs like Uncle Fester’s, who sounding a little like Kermit, sang a beautiful song to the moon. Lurch’s song was possibly a unique event in Australian theatre.

The high quality choreography covered many genres from soft shoe, high kicking and a tango d’amour. The choreographers, Sarah-Rose Kelly, Ryan S McNally and Steph Hickey, amazingly managed to control this large cast, with several groups dancing simultaneously. The dancers were energetic and did not miss a beat.

With more than two dozen characters, all very different, the costume section (Ryan McNally, Rebeka Thomas and Rhiannon Thomas) had a great deal of work. Each costume was a masterpiece, well-tailored and created with imagination, whilst still ensuring a faithful reproduction of the character we all know so well. The makeup girls, Jessica Langdon and Amy Heath Murdoch, gave the finishing touches. For shows like this, the audience have a definite expectation as to what the Family should look like, and they were immaculately represented.

Superb acting, packed with energy and great fun. I expect rave reviews.

Despite this play being about all things macabre, I think that any children over nine would love the characters. Be warned, several performances are already sold out.

Youngsters nowadays have been brought up to think they are perfect and always right. This show demonstrates, with blatant honesty how, despite the admiration given by people close to you, along with most of the idealistic images created by TV programmes, have lied and that life is in fact a bloody hard struggle. It tackles topics like racism, homosexuality and sexism with taste (?).

This hilarious two and a half hour, light-hearted fantasy, a Dark Psychic Production can be seen at the Phoenix Memorial Hall, 435 Carrington Street, Hamilton Hill, at 8.00 pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights until 19^th March. There is one matinee, on Sunday 13^th March at 2.00 pm.

The eleven, large puppets are operated and voiced by neutrally dressed puppeteers, who are constantly in full view of the audience, mingling with three human actors. However, the strength of the puppets’ characters, and their complex but smooth operation, quickly help the audience forget about the operators.

The colourful set is the exterior of a block of flats in rural New York City (design assisted by Pat McMahon, Kerron and Danial Muller). Constructed by the designers, with further help from Wayne Gale, Leon Dekker and Aubrey Cason. The stage management was smooth, totally unobtrusive all thanks to Alison Kovacs and Nikita Harwood.

Alex Coutts-Smith’s lighting was colourful and very well designed.

The Musical Director, Lee Wilson, operated the music and sound. It is often tricky for a cast to follow a pre-recorded musical track as there is no leeway for error, but this cast was perfectly rehearsed and well advised by Lee.

      On graduating, young, naïve Princeton (Darren Bilston), decides to search for his purpose in life. After discovering that accommodation in Avenue A in central New York is atrociously expensive, he finds himself in the suburbs at Avenue Q, where he meets the tactless Nicky (Ryan McNally). Nicky says that there is a room to let in his block of flats; a block that is supervised by Gary Coleman (Bernadette Ward) who was Arnold Jackson in TV’s ‘Diff’rent Strokes’.

     Whilst living in the flat he meets the other tenants, there is the svelte therapist, Japanese girl, Christmas Eve (Jayde Clark) and her fiancé, ‘Blian’ or Brian (John P. Gray) who is a poor stand-up comic. Upstairs is friendly but tight-fisted, Republican banker, Rod (Andrew Dawson) and Trekkie Monster (Sean Williams) who spends most of his time watching porn.

     One day Princeton meets an old school friend, Kate Monster (Danni Close) a kindergarten teacher who wants to leave her boss, Mrs Thistletwat and open her own Monstersorri (sic) school. They rekindle the love of their youth. However, in the ‘Around the Clock Café’ the big busted, sex mad singer, Lucy T Slut (Elouise Eftos), and two of her friends, the charismatic, Bad Idea Bears (Sally McMaster, Ruby Reye) are determined to lead Princeton astray. The couple do have some good friends – Ricky, Jumper and Suzi (Dan Rooney, Em Rose, Chantal Kerkhof).

    Will Nicky and Kate Monster find their lifelong loves?

Confession time. I have never been a fan of ‘Sesame Street’ or ‘The Muppets’, often finding them infantile and annoying, but this show has warmth and demands empathy from the audience. The content is definitely for adults only – the first Act ends in raunchy hilarity, whilst depicting half the positions of the Kama Sutra.

Thanks to the supreme skills of the operators, the puppets are mesmerising. The puppeteers have to work the immaculately made and dressed puppets (assembled by ‘Cursed Creations’), whilst speaking in an American accent, and capturing the nasal, squeaky voices of the TV characters. The result was amazingly accurate.

When a production opens with a powerful and happy chorus, you know that the show is going to be well above average. The opening number was magic.

There was a couple of dozen musical number and songs, which were required to be sung in the strange voices, and once again with brilliant presentation and perfect enunciation.

Directed by Jayde Clark, with solid production assistance from Gabriella Guidone and Bethsaida Tapsall, the show was fast moving throughout. The songs were delivered with plenty of power and feeling – fabulous singing voices. Special mention for performers Darren Bilston, Danni Close, Ryan McNally and Andrew Dawson, their voices were amazing. Sean Williams’ gruff Trekkie voice was incredible.

The quirky songs were accompanied a soft-shoe shuffle and such convincing puppet arm movement that at times you would swear that the facial expressions were changing too.

This must be Dark Psychic’s best production yet – and over the years, they have had a very high standard. Slick, professional and great fun. Highly recommended, the type of show you could see again.

I saw this final rehearsal on the night of a full moon, but it was still a family show (for over 10 year olds). It is about Aliens but there is no blood or gore, no really frightening scenes, just lots of fun from the cast of thousands.

The music and lyrics were added later by Grammy-nominated, Bruce Kimmel (who acted under the name of Guy Haines in ‘The Partridge Family’ and ‘Happy Days’). Bruce’s first musical treasure in 1976, was a lewd farce called ‘The First Nudie Musical’ – perhaps Phoenix’s next offering?

This humorous Australian Premiere is a joint production by Phoenix Theatre Inc and Dark Psychic Productions; it is being presented at the Phoenix Theatre, Memorial Hall at 435 Carrington Street, on the corner of Rockingham Road, Hamilton Hill.

This outrageous two and a half-hour, vibrant production has ‘curtain- up’ at 8.00 pm on three consecutive weekends – Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights – until 27^th September. There is one matinee on Sunday 21^st at 2.00 pm.

       It is summer 1958 near San Fernando, and the alluring radio reporter (Shaun Griffin) warns that strange objects have been seen in the sky. In a nearby cottage live the perfect American couple, inventor and visionary, Fred Bunson (Gary Devries) and his doting wife, Joyce (Sylvia Mellor). Their well-mannered daughter, Donna (Mikaela Innes) who desperately wants to be a bad girl, is asking if she can go to the local dance. ‘Only if you take you kid brother’, Tommy (Jayden Timms) which she is only too pleased to do.

      At the dance, Donna meets the love of her life, Hippie Rod (Krispin Maesalu) and goes for a ride in his car. We see a spaceship landing and before we know it, three Aliens have landed, sending a farmer (Chris Doney) and his wife (Sharon Theil-Harkin) into turmoil.

     A creature in a long flowing cloak and with a massive external cerebellum arrives; this is The Brain (Cody Fullbrook). With him is his highly strung, grovelling helper, Zubrick (Glenn Wallis) and the beautiful, appropriately named, Yoni – look up this Sanskrit word – (Kate Lloyd). They come from a planet where any kind of emotion is totally unacceptable, but the ardent Yoni makes up for the whole population’s lost passions. This is shown in the beautiful ‘I Need an Earthman’, delivered in the style of Eartha Kitt.

      The army is called in, and is led by a lowly 1-Star general, desperate for promotion, he is General Mills (Mario Piccoli) with his strong, silent-type assistant, Private Partz (Jordan Norrish). They recruit Joyce Bunson’s elderly father, the scholarly Professor Leder (Pat McMahon) and a police officer (James Buckland) to help them tackle this Alien threat. When a local girl (Aimee Nicholls) sees Private Partz, she dumps her boyfriend (Keith Ong) for this uniformed hero.

       When the Aliens try to ‘tap’ the Earthlings’ brains, they send for their ‘tap’ team – of dancers (Nikita Harwood, Darby Kelly, MMoloki Hartill, Erica Luck, Kylie Griffin and Devetta Ridgwell).

       Will the Aliens win? Can anyone save the earthlings?

The outstanding chorus consists of Lisa Malatesta, Alex Rivas, Sheryl Gale, Angela Donlan, Brenda Gabersek-Goud, Sara Urban and her wonderful daughters, Leah and Ruby (who at 7 years old looked as though straight from the film ‘Annie’) did not miss a beat in the complex choreography. The dancing routines devised by Jayde Clark and her assistant, Kate Lloyd are bright and fill the show with magic. The dances were carried out in perfect sync and filled with energy.

It is obvious that director Ryan McNally and his assistant, Rebecca Coutts-Smith, have put a tremendous amount of thought into the movement and the delivery of this clever script. The dialogue has so many subtle references to the ham acting, expressions and sentence structure of ‘The Addams Family’, ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Happy Days’. Blended with the wonderful orchestrations of the 22 songs and tunes, many of which were toe-tappingly good, the show came alive.

The genres of music ranged from marches, soft shoe and high kicking, to passionate seductive melodies. The musical director, Krispin Maesalu, managed to unite the very large cast. They were pumped up, bringing life and smiles to their powerful delivery. The delightful chorus line did not have a single weak link; they gave all the numbers 100% vocally and physically, creating a memorable ‘opening’ and ‘finale’.

The main characters, Mr and Mrs Bunson, Donna, The Brain and his two assistants were all wonderful singers. They could all belt out a tune without faltering. Gary Devries is a new discovery and yet the audience warmed to him immediately. Glenn and Kate gave a high kicking routine and Cody was mesmerising as the Brain who almost hypnotised the audience with his delivery. Great loopy fun.

I know I often joke about the programme, but Shaun Griffin has produced a superb, full colour A5 programme. The lighting and sound from designer Alex Coutts-Smith has taken the show to a new and professional level. He had full movement, multi-pattern LED spots, which along with the standard LED floods gave an exciting movement and colour range to the songs and dance routines.

The five-piece live band was led by Josh Haines on keyboard. Talitha Dunn on numerous woodwind and brass instruments, along with Greg Critchley on acoustic bass and Catherine Motteram on piano helped complete the group.

Joe Snelgrove was supposed to be on drums, but someone said ‘Break a leg’ and he did, the night before the show. Mark Sutcliffe stepped in, and without any rehearsals did an amazing job. The music was sparkling and gave that special depth that a playwright’s CD of music would lack.

The costumes (Sheryl Gale, Jodie Innes and Ryan McNally) were stunning, and there were dozens, all well designed with plenty of clever and stylish finishing touches. The Aliens outfits were space age, comprising black leotards with Lego-like patterns sewn onto them. Even the Bunson family had the typical homely, daggy outfits of the late 50s. Clever design and a lot of work.

The set changing, and there were many scenes, were rapid and well planned and carried out by Jeni Stevens and her team of Alison Kovaks, Becca Jackson and Hannah Gould.

Don’t expect a triumph of a storyline, but the fun script with its subtle references to the old TV series is hilarious. If you enjoyed ‘Reefer Madness’ and want another good light-hearted, chewing gum for the mind entertainment at the end of a hard day’s work, then you will really enjoy this cleverly presented, tongue-in-cheek, madcap fun.

Go along and experience the thrill of ‘Feel-O-Rama’ as introduced by Gabi Guidone and Andy Griffin.

This is a catchy energy filled romp with plenty of laughs. As near to a full-scale professional musical as a community theatre production could expect to achieve. Excellent.