Torrance Theatre Company’s finger-snappingly fabulous The Addams Family redefines what a community theater can accomplish with a crackerjack volunteer-actor cast and just as much talent behind the scenes.

From the darkly humorous single-panel cartoons appearing in the New Yorker from 1938 on, to the black-and-white sitcom of the mid-1960s, to the ‘73 or ‘92 animated series, to the ’91 film adaptation (or either of its two sequels), to the 2010 Broadway musical bearing their name, the Charles Addams creations better known as The Addams Family have been bewitching the world for nearly eighty years.

 Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice center their tweaked-for-the-tour book around daughter Wednesday’s insistence that her parents (Christopher Tiernan as Gomez and Presley Roy as Morticia) and the rest of the Addams clan give her decidedly un-ghoulish boyfriend Lucas and his parents “One Normal Night” at an Addams Family dinner.

Unfortunately, not even the out-of-character yellow dress that Wednesday (Lily Targett) dons or her family’s promise to try to behave normally can hide the fact that the Addamses (John “Spike” Fugatt as Uncle Fester, Elizabeth Bouton Summerer as Grandma, Leah Mei Gold as Pugsly, and Aiden Ludka as butler Lurch) resemble no one whom Lucas (Lukas Marvin) or his parents Mal and Alice Beineke (Garrett Engle and Whitney Vigil) have ever met before.

After all, how many families have parents who do 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?

Then comes the moment when the young lovers announce some life-altering plans and, with a sudden change in the weather preventing the Beinekes from taking their disapproving leave, theatergoers have more than enough reason to stick around for Act Two.

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

And all this works to perfection at Torrance Theatre Company, not the least because the James Armstrong Theatre gives the production a venue to rival SoCal’s best Equity houses and because the city of Torrance and other major donors have given the production sufficient bucks to deliver a pro-caliber production design and a live orchestra in place of pre-recorded tracks.

Cary Jordahl directs with equal parts imagination and flair, eliciting a bundle of terrific lead performance as Niko Montelibano choreographs one lively production number after another for the show’s ensemble of dancing ghosts, in particular the musical’s show-stopping opening number that has the entire Addams clan, living and dead, line dancing, doing the bunny hop and the twist, and even “dancing” the rigor mortis as only the dead, dying, and motion-challenged can do.

Leading man Tiernan is absolute perfection (or should I say perfección absoluta) as Gomez, making for the most irresistible of Latin lovers and Wednesday-loving dads.

Roy provides sultry comedic support as love-of-his-life Morticia, Targett and Marvin give Wednesday and Lucas teens-in-love charm and terrific pipes to boot, and Engle and Vigil are pitch-perfect as traditional-values Mal and his prim-and-proper wife Alice, the later of whom downright dazzles when “Full Disclosure” kicks in and Vigil lets it all out to show-stopping effect.

Fugatt’s Fester is the next-best thing to having Jackie Cougan back from the dead in his iconic TV role, Summerer makes Grandma Addams a crochety laugh-getter, Gold scores her own laughs every time pintsized Pugsley screams, and a deliciously droll Ludka reinvents Lurch as an adorable beanpole of a butler with unexpected vocal prowess.

A grand total of twenty-one ensemble members* sing and dance up a storm as Addams Ancestors brought back from the grave, with Torrance Theatre Company nearly doubling the Broadway’s original’s eleven Ancestors to stage-filling effect, and Jordahl and Montelibano making sure to keep their presence felt throughout the show.

Vocal director Stephen Amundson, music director Bradley Hampton, and sound designer Brian Hsieh have joined creative forces to make The Addams Family sound as good as it looks, and it looks quite fabulous indeed thanks to scenic designer Jordahl, costume designer Bradley Allen Lock, lighting designer Steve Giltner, properties designer Kyle Lukas, and hair and makeup designer Michael Aldapa, who give their Equity-production counterparts a run for their money, with special snaps to Jordahl’s imposing mansion set and the dazzling way Giltner lights it.

Gia Jordahl is producing artistic director and Rachel Baumsten is associate producer. Ed De Dios and Scipio are stage managers. Sofia De-Kaup is assistant lighting designer.

Creepy, kooky, mysterious, spooky … and entertaining as all get-out, Torrance Theatre Company’s The Addams Family guarantees top-notch family entertainment from start to finish. Can I get a snap snap?

*Suffragette Britney Acosta, Greek Goddess Gloria Amaya, Nurse Lila Bassior, Courtesan Abby Carlson, Roman Devon Dominguez, Flapper Phoebe Eskovitz, Victorian Kid Amelia Fischer, Cowgirl Nico Fisher, Saloon Girl Jessica Flynn, Conquistador Danny Gaitan, Puritan Girl Gelline Ibarrola, Dough Boy Jason Lubin, Cowboy Derek Miranda, Sailor Jonah Mirkovich, Bride Lauryn Muraida, Caveman Simeon Partida, Founding Father Daniel Scipio, Shakespearean Jon Sparks, Flight Attendant Sarah Villacarillo, Gambler Bradley Weaver, and Puritan John Webb

James Armstrong Theatre, 3330 Civic Center Drive, Torrance.
www.torrancetheatrecompany.com

–Steven Stanley
August 6, 2022
Photos: Uyen Fredericks, Mickey Elliot

Tags: Andrew Lippa, Charles Addams, James Armstrong Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Review, Torrance Theatre Company