AUBURN — Top-notch talent and attention to every detail put the current Community Little Theatre production of “The Addams Family” among the best shows of CLT’s 75 years.
It all comes together for an evening of devilishly ingenious entertainment. Director Kay Warren delivers a masterful mix of comedy and music. It’s all the more delightful because of the excellent set design and stage management.
The Addams clan is extremely bizarre, to say the least, but in their own eyes, they are a normal, everyday family. When the elder daughter, Wednesday, considers marriage, a dinner with the future groom’s mother and father turns everything upside down.
This is a musical version of the popular 1964-65 television comedy based on the macabre magazine cartoons of Charles Addams. Warren’s direction of this 2010 adaptation echoes the distinctive look of the family’s familiar characters. There’s Gomez, played with style and charm by Chris L’Hommedieu, CLT’s president, and Morticia, portrayed with dark and elegant sensuality by Jennifer McClure-Groover, a CLT favorite for 20 years. A highlight of the show is their “Tango de Amor.”
McClure-Groover’s first-rate vocal capabilities are showcased in “Just Around the Corner,” which is performed with the ensemble of assorted ancestors whose ethereal presence in almost every scene maintains the show’s eerie atmosphere.
Cody Watson, a theater major at the University of Southern Maine, steals scene after scene as the creepy and weirdly genial Uncle Fester. His portrayal of the bald and pasty-faced brother of Gomez is hilarious. He sets the tone for the plot in “Fester’s Manifesto,” which is re-enforced later in “Let’s Not Talk About Anything Else But Love.” Fester’s unconventional take on love is the basis for a comical production number in which he professes his adoration of the moon.
Pugsley, the younger brother of Wednesday, is very well played by Ethan Rombalski, a seventh-grader at St. Dominic’s Academy. He’s afraid his sister’s marriage to Lucas will end the sibling torment he welcomes in their relationship.
Lindsay Cagney, a recent Dean College graduate who was in CLT’s “Into the Woods” this past summer, displays a fine voice as Wednesday Addams, the “daughter of darkness” who is exhibiting tendencies toward normalcy. Her fiance, Lucas, is well-played by Cameron Ramich. He is the most normal of the play’s characters, and the one who sees the need to accept all kinds of traits and personalities in everybody. “Crazier Than You” is a pleasing duet sung by Lucas and Wednesday.
The show’s big production number is “Full Disclosure,” and the whole cast makes the most of this diabolical dinner-party game.
Appearing as Lucas’ parents, Mal and Alice, are Britny Anderson and Dan Kane. Their transformation from traditional to totally uninhibited is hilarious. April Purinton plays a vigorous and very frank Grandma Addams. This is her first role with CLT. She is well-known for her stage appearances in the Brunswick area. Glenn Atkins plays Lurch, the cadaverous and mostly silent butler. Andy Dolci, an eighth grader at St. Dominic’s Academy, also has a silent role, but his on-stage appearance is memorable.
A host of ghostly Addams ancestors help to keep the action rolling. They move sets and scenery into place throughout the show, so there’s no interruption between the play’s 22 scenes.
Playing the ancestors, who have no speaking parts but perform interesting and important vignettes, are Hillary Perry, a newcomer to CLT (French aristocrat), Scotty Venable (conquistador), Rebekah Leonard (bride), Lisa Bell Eskimo), Jamie Watson (saloon girl), Mackenzie Richard (ballarina), Heather Marichal (Valkyrie), Dan Burgess (caveman), Riley McCurdy, (Indian princess,) Lynn O’Donnell (flapper), Briley Bell (courtesan), and Sophie Messina (flight attendant).
The backstage and set design crew also deserve acclaim for their part in this show’s success. They produced an excellent mansion gate and gravestone scene in front of the curtain, and the two-level mansion interior is well done.
Derrick Lacasse leads an excellent orchestra. Choreography is under the able direction of Vincent Ratsavong.
Remaining performances of “The Addams Family” are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Nov. 12-14, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15. For tickets, call the box office at 783-0958 or go online to www.laclt.com. The show is at Great Falls Performing Arts Center, 30 Academy St., Auburn.

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