Musicians cram onto small platforms and play a lively number as actors rehearse for “The Addams Family,” a musical that premiered on Broadway in 2010.
Charles Addams created the Addams Family characters in a long-running comic in the 1930s. Since then it has taken on many adaptations, from books and movies to a Netflix TV show. The musical follows Wednesday Addams, a morbid character who falls in love with Lucas Beineke, a seemingly normal man. The couple introduces their families to each other and chaos ensues.
August Kilcher plays Lucas and says the musical shows how different families come together.
“This musical is really about families overcoming obstacles within their nuclear units, and then growing together as an even larger one, as worlds collide between the wacky macabre Addams sphere and a more traditional American family who have their own quirks and quips about them too,” he said.
Kilcher is just one of 23 cast members, the youngest of whom is eight years old. They work alongside over a dozen musicians and several crew members.
Jennifer Norton is the director for the musical. She chose this musical because she wanted to focus on a fun story that’s appropriate for all ages.
“It's been challenging for me lately to focus on dark theater because a lot of the world seems to be struggling and it's hard to want to go see that at the theater sometimes. So personally, as a director, I wanted something that was pretty light hearted,” Norton said.
Between character work, coordinating with an orchestra and creating a dynamic set on a small stage, a lot goes into preparing the musical. The cast, crew and musicians have also shuffled between different sites for rehearsal. Norton says the full group didn’t get the chance to rehearse together on the Pier One stage until the final week leading up to opening night.
“There's been a lot of work done in advance,” she said, “but in that last week, really everything starts to just gel together,”
Still, people have fun with all parts of the production. Michael Selle plays Gomez Addams, Wednesday’s father. The character has a large personality, and Selle said he enjoys working on the role with help from Norton and her sister Carolyn, who plays Gomez’s wife.
“It makes it a lot easier when there's a lot of people who you can depend on,” he said, “and it's just so much fun. I just don't really even worry about it.”
Norton says they also had to get creative with the set. In addition to working in a small performance space, they have different elements beyond traditional set pieces.
“This show has a lot of funny, little quirky things like puppetry that can be explored, and so we reached out to a couple of people to get really crafty on the show,” she said.
Opening night for the musical is July 11 at the Pier One Theatre on the Homer Spit. It will run for twelve shows throughout the month. Tickets can be purchased at Pier One’s website,
