The BDT STAGE

     BDT Stage’s production of “The Addams Family, the Musical” provides a scrum diddly antidote to the sometimes saccharine and often cloying offerings of the holiday season.  It’s non-traditional and nostalgic as well for the lovers of the television series that aired in the mid-sixties.
      Right from the start the audience is involved snapping their fingers twice after each “duh duh duh dut” preceding the lyrical description of this crew – I almost said coven – as  “creepy and kooky, mysterious and spooky, altogether ooky-The Addams Family.”

     As Morticia, Alicia King glides across the stage with serpentine arms afloat or tiptoes on little cat feet when she’s not gracefully accompanying Scott Beyette’s Gomez in a sultry and deadpan tango. Scott Beyette brings great good humor to his portrayal of Gomez. In a performance laced with the accent and flirtatiousness of a real Latin lothario, Beyette stuns.

     Wednesday (Sarah Grover) is the sullen center of this shadowy tale. Had she not fallen for a normal guy the only plot would be outside in the family cemetery. This smitten kitten’s asking Gomez to keep the secret of her impending bonding with her normal guy causes Gomez to be trapped between the support of his daughter and the requisite keeping of a secret from his beloved Morticia. Ms. Grover, who first dazzled BDT Stage audiences as the innocent Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” proves she can portray the wonderfully weird Wednesday equally well.

     Barb Reeves communicates the foolishly well-meaning Grandmama’s old school cranky and twisted wisdom with brio. The pouty Pugsley (Owen Leidich) is the masochist in the family; and that’s just fine with Wednesday who treats him to being stretched on the rack till he screams.

     Brett Ambler (the memorable Buddy Holly in BDT Stage’s recent "The Buddy Holly Story") proves how versatile an actor he is. His geeky average Joe portrayal of  Wednesday’s new squeeze Lucas Beineke, is a radical departure from the 50’s rock star he so recently embodied.
Lucas’  “normal” parents, Alice (Joanie Beyette) and Mal Beineke (Scott Severtson), who have come to dinner in The Addams’ crypt-like home, mirror the strait-laced Dindons who come to dine with Georges and Albin in “La Cage Aux Folles.”BDT Stage favorite Joanie Beyette belts out a sensationally hilarious rendition of “Crazier Than You,” as she lets it all hang out in an after dinner game sponsored by Morticia.

Casey Andree's Lurch is as ominously still as one might expect barring the occasional basso groan. His vocal participation in the final number, “Move Toward the Darkness,” is as startling as it is amusing.

     The ensemble of joyously macabre Addams Family Ancestors includes such consummate talents as: Tracy Warren, Parker Redford, Matthew D. Peters, Bob Hoppe, Brian Burron, Olivia Beyette and Brian Cronan.

     Lighting designer Brett Maughan gets a workout illuminating this show, which makes one recall the daunting challenges cinematographers encounter when shooting day for night. Maughan’s luminescent personification of the moon, which is being adored and courted by a gleefully leering Wayne Kennedy, is masterful.

     Neal Dunfee provides the magical music direction. Bob Hoppe has done the fine choreography.

BDT STAGE is located at 5501 Arapahoe Avenue in Boulder, Colorado,80303

For tickets go online at bdtstage.com or call the box office at 303-449-6000Marlowe's Musings