Review: The Addams Family (UK Tour)

Review by Raphael Kohn

⭐️⭐️

The ghoulish family you know and love are back on stage. It almost feels like they

never left, really. After one tour in 2017 and another in 2021, The Addams Family

has been revived for a third UK tour, taking the merest of breaks off the stage before

coming back to life once more. They’re creepy, they’re macabre… and now on stage,

they’ve been given the Broadway pizzaz treatment.

Given how famous these characters are, there’s really no need to introduce them

much. So the show doesn’t initially, and drops us right into the action, focused

around Wednesday’s sudden engagement to the least Addams-appropriate man in

the world, a completely pleasant young lad who is the polar opposite of anything

macabre. Over the course of one evening, he and his family experience quite the

culture clash as they experience a dinner at the Addams’ place, each family

exploring their own prejudices and quirks.

Although given the plot kicks off almost immediately, Marshall Brickman and Rick

Elice’s book then does take a long time introducing them, with the first act laden with

exposition to fully familiarise us with the characters. Oddly though, we’re only ever

familiarised with one aspect to each character, leaving them all strangely one-

dimensional despite the running time. Perhaps that’s forgivable, in a way – it’s

adapted from a series of single-panel cartoons originally – but for a stage production,

it doesn’t exactly facilitate much of a plot to be explored.

Not that the plot really does get explored, really. Structurally, it’s a bit odd, starting off

so late into the action (without any background to Wednesday’s relationship, so that

it barely makes much sense at all) and tying each plot point together tenuously

through dialogue that really just serves to link the songs up. It’s supposed to be a

musical comedy, sure, but the comedy seems to be somewhat lacking. A nicely-

inserted Donald Trump joke and a few good bits of physical comedy manage to draw

a handful of laughs, but somehow the script seems to drag.

I guess it has a challenge on its hands, trying to make its somewhat surreal style of

comedy work. Some of it is based on pretty filthy innuendos. Some of it plays up to

the culture clash between the Addams and the ‘normal’ Beineke family’s norms. And

then there are weird sub-plots about Uncle Fester falling in love with the moon and

ongoing jokes about Pugsley’s love for being tortured by his sister. What could work

on paper or on screen falls unfortunately flat on the stage with comedy that simply

doesn’t land as it should.

This puts a lot of work on the bombastic songs (penned by Andrew Lippa) to carry

the show through, which they sometimes manage to do. Each character’s songs are

written in completely different genres, with Gomez’ distinctly tango and flamenco-

styled songs clashing nicely with Wednesday’s poppy sound and some Broadway-

styled jazz numbers thrown in between. Some of them are memorable, like the

catchy opening number, ‘When You’re an Addams’ and the jazz-inspired ‘Just

Around the Corner’. Other songs though, not so much. Unfortunately, on the night I

attended the sound came out at best haphazardly and at worst… well, not at all.

Sound cues were missed left, right, and centre, drowning the actors’ voices under

the band or not turning their microphones on at all.

Those which succeed the most are the songs which showcase the cast’s talents. As

Wednesday, Lauren Jones is a clear stand-out on stage, with a tremendous belt that

blows the roof off the theatre in ‘Pulled’ and wonderful comedic timing. Opposite her,

Jacob Fowler gets little to do in his role as Lucas Beineke, mostly sidelined to put the

focus on the Addams family, though when he actually gets a chance to sing in

‘Crazier Than You’, he’s very impressive indeed.

Competing with the show’s awkwardly-written book, Ricardo Afonso starts off a touch

awkward in his role as Gomez but manages to warm up throughout the show into an

excellent performance. He carries much of the comedy on his shoulders, and

executes a lot of it with precise timing, with a great singing voice to match. Similarly,

Clive Rowe’s talent seems to be underused as Uncle Fester, confined mostly to a

role as a narrator, but he manages to still bring out plenty of humour in his portrayal.

The big-name star of the show is, however, The X Factor winner Alexandra Burke as

Morticia. She may have the steely, side-eye look nailed down in her role, but

this is where things really start to fall apart. Using the same expression

for every moment in the show, she doesn’t quite manage to develop enough depth to

her characterisation, using the exact same delivery and expression for every single

line. Her comedic timing sadly falls down similarly, resulting in a lack of chemistry

with her co-stars in an unfortunately uninspired and unenergetic portrayal. Despite

her vocal prowess in her songs, her acting simply didn’t manage to match the task

she had in front of her.

The rest of the cast is a mixed bag. Though iconic actor Lesley Joseph brings her

role of Grandma to life with a joyously silly characterisation, she gets let down by an

accent that starts somewhere near the Hudson and ends somewhere near the

Thames. There’s a glimmer of excellence, though, from Kara Lane’s singing as Alice

Beineke, especially in the Act One finale ‘Full Disclosure’.

There’s some style to the substance in the show’s production values at least.

Diego Pitarch’s creepy set design brings the Addams family’s home to life with

winding staircases and broken windows, letting Ben Cracknell’s punchy lighting

through into the Addams’ hallways, setting the stage nicely for Alastair David’s

punchy choreography. It’s not a new production – this is all revived from the previous

tours (also directed by Matthew White) – but there’s no need to fix any of that if it’s

not broken.

I’m sure those who love The Addams Family will see something different in this

show, and indeed, there’s plenty to enjoy. Perhaps it’s not the most detailed writing

ever done for the stage, with its strange humour and odd plot, and perhaps it’s not

the best score ever written. For full disclosure, I was invited to review a preview in

Birmingham, only the second performance of the whole tour so there is every chance some of the issues mentioned were teething problems that may have been tightened up by now, and the cast will have grown into their roles. In any case, there’s still plenty of fun to be had, especially for die-hard fans of the show.

The Addams Family is on a UK tour. Venue dates and tickets from https://theaddamsfamily.co.uk/uk-tour/

Photos by Pamela Raith