The musical “The Addams Family” is altogether ooky.
Not the Arizona Repertory Theatre production now on stage, mind you — the remarkable talent and delirious joy the University of Arizona student actors displayed on Wednesday’s opening night made the evening worthwhile.
But brother, that script. Ooky is the right word.
Yet, there are so many reasons to go.
Monte Ralstin, a guest artist for this production, is one of those reasons. The UA theater prof dons the long coat of Uncle Fester Addams, who generates electricity as frequently as he generates chaos. Ralstin is seen too rarely on stage these days, and that is a shame: His acting and singing chops are wildly impressive. And he made a character that could have been ho-hum vibrant.
Alex Gossard took on the role of the Addams family patriarch, Gomez, a macabre romantic. Gossard oozed charm — how else would Gomez Addams display it? — and he has a singing voice that’s just as seductive.
Morticia — Gomez’s stiff, smile-less wife with a well-hidden soft side — had an elegance in talented Nicole Knox’s hands.
While voices were occasionally pitchy, and the acting sometimes wonky, those were the exceptions. The whole cast threw themselves into the show with abandon and the finesse one would expect from professional actors rather than students.
The Patrick Holt-designed costumes — from the ghoulish to solemn to everyday “normal” dress — defined the characters and were packed with wit.
Christie Kerr’s choreography was a knockout — sometimes quirky, always captivating.
The story, based on Charles Addams’ dark cartoons: Wednesday Addams has fallen in love with a young man who fits into the “guy next door” category, and her family’s freaked because he’s normal; his family’s freaked because the Addams are not. But wouldn’tchaknowit, love is love is love. But not without a lot of ghoulish complications involving magic potions, ghosts of ancestors and giant insects glued to the back of characters.
It’s thin, predictable, corny in a not-very-fun way, and, with a few exceptions, the music is forgettable. But director Danny Gurwin kept it campy and clipping along. And he saw to it that, despite the material, the students stretched themselves and committed fully.
And that translated into a play you want to see just for the talent on stage.
