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.

This fun-filled, family show is being presented by Phoenix Theatre Inc, in the Memorial Hall, 435 Carrington Street, Hamilton Hill; the hour and a half shows commence at 8.00 pm on Friday and Saturday nights until the 30^th July with matinées at 2.00 pm on the 16^th and 24^th July.

The production is supporting Puss in Thongs’ favourite charity, the ‘Cat Haven’ with the profits from raffle ticket and programme sales.

The stage has a bright and colourful, artistically painted backdrop showing fields and a castle. The stage apron has a garden seat and large, attractive rockery (designed and built by Wayne Gale).

The Phoenix regular lighting designer, Alex Coutts-Smith has produced another vibrant display, operated by Jayde Clark. The soundscape was mainly supplied by the copyrighter and operated by Aubrey Cason.

The colourful and unusual costumes are the work of Sheryl Gale and Jaclyn Fogg, with the makeup for the Witch and Puss being by Ryan McNally.

       When the local miller dies, his three young sons have to survive the best they can. Instead of sharing the inheritance, the oldest brother, Tom (James Buckland) takes everything, giving his two younger brothers, Dick (Adian Mellor) and Harry (Chris Doney) only $5 each.

       With so little money their future looks dim, until Harry meets a talking cat, Puss (Sylvia Mellor). Being a bit of a trickster, Puss talks Harry into going to the local op-shop, run by three deaf and senile ladies, Dora (Valerie Greeves), dotty Doris (Jude St. Clair) and Daisy (Beryl Francis) to buy her some boots and a hat. Puss is much admired by the folk of the village (Katy Cowie, Shelly Cowie).

       Puss tells Harry that if they cross the Great Sandy Desert and reach the King’s Palace, The King (Shaun Griffin) will allow Harry to marry his attractive daughter, the Princess (Bernadette Ward). However, on the way they encounter a confused Bunyip (Benjamin Steel) and a strange camel (Adian Mellor, Olivia Goud).

       Soon Harry learns that a wicked witch, Winifred (Liana Russell – absolutely glowed), lives nearby and is sure to kill them. Will the witch bring misery? Or will there be a possible marriage?

Directed by Sheryl Gale and assisted by Shaun Griffin, produced a cast who were word perfect, filled with enthusiasm and large smiles. I saw the final rehearsal, but the main members of the cast sang melodiously and had wonderful audience rapport. Puss had a magnificent threatening Meow, and the kids will have the chance to dance with a Bunyip. Alison ‘A.J.’ Kovacs was a most efficient stage manager, with props moving around quickly and silently, and good crowd control of the large cast.

The choreography by Sarah-Rose Kelly, was relatively simple, but this ensured that the whole cast grooved together.

A small warning, the theatre heating is faulty, so come well wrapped up in case it doesn’t work.

This children’s musical is written on one level, for younger children – best age groups from 5 to 12 – without the usual double-entendres for the parents.

Being presented by an all adult cast, the story is easy to follow; there are lots of singalong songs and nursery rhymes that all children will know. So find some kids to use as your excuse to see this latest fun rendering at the Phoenix Theatre.

Lookout for some more great shows lined up including ‘Portraits ‘and ‘The Addams Family’.

West wrote this play between babysitting two kids and working in a fish and chip shop; yet it was Winner of the 2014 Australian Theatre for Young People Foundation.

This well-presented play is being produced by Playlovers Inc., at the Playlovers’ Theatre (in Hackett Hall), Draper Street, Floreat. The performances are nightly at 8.00 pm until Saturday 28^th May. Last Sunday’s matinée with high tea was sadly cancelled – yet another victim of the storm power outage.

The scene is Trolley Towers, a magnificent hovel constructed on the dangerous outskirts of a city by the homeless kids of the area. Made from scaffolding, bicycle parts, old oil drums and air conditioning ducts; the result was a colourful and impressive work from the constructors, Richard Ferreira and Gordon Barnett. Additional artwork was by Amanda Simpson and the play stage managed by Cassidy Pemberton.

       A group of homeless children live on the city rubbish tip, they are happy, the best of friends and share everything equally; although the oldest girl, bossy Savage Kim (Sarah-Rose Kelly) seems to get a little more than her share.

     One day, Phlegm (George O’Doherty) points out that their supply of lights – jam jars with special glowing properties – are starting to run out. Living in the dark is a major risk. One day whilst playing with their friend, sensible Blue (Georgina Ferreira) and fun-loving River (Leo Rimmer) saw a small kid (Macy Waldram) explode and turn into coloured dust. What they did not know, was that an invisible ballerina, a Dust Collector (Atira Shack, Grace Brennan) had noticed the small girl’s fading lamp and exterminated her.

       Later that night, the youngest of the gang, caring Baby May (Gemma Vu) and Jones Boy (Prea Cunningham) were walking home when they saw another Small Kid (Jacob Clayton) explode. They were very frightened especially because of the haunting singing that seemed to be coming from drain or ditch. It was the beautiful voice of Lemon (Aimee Evans – her song was composed by Rodney Holborn).

     Jones Boy suspects that Lemon was in fact an ‘evil being’, a friend of the Dusters, sent to capture them. When another kid (Ella Simpson) explodes, then even Baby May is suspicious.

       Are the Trolley kids in danger and can they find some kind of magical help?

The other little dusters were Nils Soderstrom, Millie Muller, Emma Luckley, Kara Kelly, Charlotte Spencer, Vivian Whibley, Lizzy Zimmermann, Gabriel Zimmermann

Lighting designer and operator was John Woolrych, who produced a complex and impressive vision to enhance this creepy story.

The sound operators, Ruby Meegan and Bradley Fraser, were accurate with their timings. They also created a wonderful crunching and shattering sound as the Dusters carried out their malevolence.

Director Andie Holborn has done an admirable job with these youngsters. It took a few minutes for them to ‘warm up’ – perhaps a better pre-show routine may help – but once the children got into this fast moving story, they were all impressive. They were word perfect and their actions showed they understood the script and the emotions involved.

It was lovely to see children acting in a production that wasn’t twee. In fact it is many years since I have seen such a young cast faced with such a dramatic script. The age of the actors was probably between 10 and 15 years, and yet they managed to develop an admirable amount of tension and mystery.

Suitable for all of the family, although some younger children may need help with the concept. The actors can all be proud.