Musical Theatre Repertory, USC’s entirely student-produced, student-directed, student-cast, student-designed troupe of multitalented Trojans is back in business after a twenty-month hiatus, and audiences lucky enough to catch their ninety-minute “quarantined concert version” of Broadway’s The Addams Family can count themselves every bit as fortunate as the student talents at long last given new opportunities to shine.

From the darkly humorous single-panel cartoons appearing in the New Yorker from 1938 on, to their many iterations since then, the Charles Addams creations better known as The Addams Family have been bewitching the world for more than eight decades and counting.

Book writers Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice’s storyline revolves around Wednesday’s (Maycee Campano) insistence that her parents (Eli Ruano as Gomez and Kaiden Doody as Morticia) and the rest of the Addams clan give her decidedly un-ghoulish boyfriend Lucas Beineke (Scott Weinstein) and his straightlaced parents Mal (Greg Ward) and Alice (Lizzy Brunn) “One Normal Night” at an Addams Family dinner.

Unfortunately, not even the out-of-character yellow dress that Wednesday dons or her family’s promise to try to behave themselves can hide the fact that the Addamses (completed by Sam Avila as Uncle Fester, Annikka Goldman as Grandma, Carlos Lao as Pugsly, and Avery Streater as butler Lurch) resemble no one whom the Beinekes have ever met before.

After all, how often do families have parents who execute swordplay as foreplay, a son who worries that his gone-normal older sister won’t be torturing him anymore, or an uncle who confesses to being in love with the moon?

Composer/lyricist Andrew Lippa’s melodies are catchy and his lyrics as clever as they can be and Brickman and Elice’s book is not only deliciously campy, it is spiced with pop culture references galore.

Strict Covid-related protocols do mean a significantly different Addams Family than the one that MTR might have put on even just two years back.

To begin with, this is the first indoor play or musical I’ve attended where the cast remain masked most of the time, save a handful of sequences that take place far enough from the audience to meet USC’s stringent distance rules.

And though my pre-pandemic self would have found this virtually unthinkable, in October of 2021 it ends up only a slight distraction, in part because we’ve become accustomed to seeing masked faces everywhere we go and also because if there’s any musical that lends itself to masking, it’s the Halloween-ready Addams Family.

To their enormous credit, the cast pull it off amazingly well even with half their faces hidden.

Not only that, but whatever cuts have been made (at least a half-hour’s worth by my calculation) to trim the show down to ninety minutes seem scarcely noticeable.

Director Ella Lao proves yet another Trojan talent on the rise, eliciting one sparkling performance after another, in particular those delivered by delicious lead duo Ruano and Doody, who give the big names who’ve played Gomez and Morticia before them a run for their comedic money. (Ruano earns extra stars for having taken over the role of Gomez with six days’ notice.)

Campano shows off the evening’s most powerful pipes as Wednesday, and has great sibling rapport with (Carlos) Lao’s cute and quirky Pugsley (out of the closet at last!) and romantic chemistry with Weinstein’s nerdy charmer of a Lucas.

Avila’s Fester and Goldman’ Grandma are wonderfully wacky scene stealers and Streater’s towering Lurch not only grunts to do Frankenstein’s monster proud, he’s got an eleventh hour vocal surprise in store.

Ward and Brunn are terrific too as the Lucas’s uptight parents, and Caroline Goldenberg, Erin Lucid, Jessie Landes (Lupe), and Sam Guillemette pop in throughout to show off song-and-dance chops as a quartet of dead Ancestors.

Ava Noble has choreographed a particularly show-stopping opening sequence that has the entire Addams clan, living and dead, doing one dance step after another, from the bunny hop to the “rigor mortis.”

Musical director Alexandra Ornes (like director Lao and choreographer Noble) is following in some pretty illustrious footsteps (the list of MTR alums who’ve gone on to successful professional careers is a long one indeed), not only guiding cast vocals but conducting a fine onstage orchestra as well. (Keys 1: Jared R. Charney Cohen, Keys 2: Oliviana Marie, Guitar: Noah Ehler, Bass: Jack LaVanway, Violin: Cole Davis, Clarinet: John Bulda, and Drums: Louis Pereira).

Though time limitations have kept Lily Luncine’s suitably spooky set (featuring scenic painting by Jessica Geng) a good deal simpler than MTR productions before it, Julianne Pagayon’s costumes and Delaney Sylvester’s hair and makeup capture the Addams’ signature looks, and Evan Sheldon, and Yajayra Franco’s properties design, Taliyah Emory-Muhammad’s lighting and Renata Finamore’s sound design, are all first rate.

The Addams Family is produced by Sarah Campbell and Madison Thompson. Jordan Rice and Gabriella Anifantis are associate producers.

Rae Weiss is assistant director, Aidan Tyssee and Charizma Lawrence are assistant choreographers, and orchestra member Marie is assistant musical director. Rhea Mehta is stage manager.

Also earning program credit are Zoe Mccracken (technical direction/makeup assistant), and Kiley Fallon (assistant properties design).

It’s been a long tough haul since MTR’s Dogfight last graced the Massman Theatre stage in January of 2020, and the joy felt by cast, crew, and opening night attendees on October 29, 2021 was palpable.

The Addams Family gives students, their families, and musical theater lovers like myself plenty of reasons to stand up and cheer.

Massman Theatre at USC.
www.uscmtr.com

–Steven Stanley
October 29, 2021

Tags: Andrew Lippa. Charles Addams, Los Angeles Theater Review, Musical Theatre Repertory, USC School Of Dramatic Arts