Andrew Lippa

Epsilon presents famous ‘Family’

PWJW_Indy Reviews, Stage , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

By John Lyle Belden

Epsilon Theatrical Company works its unique magic on what is becoming a musical classic, “The Addams Family: A New Musical Comedy.” A Broadway hit with book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, based on the popular characters by Charles Addams, this “mysterious spooky kooky ooky” clan is well suited to the family atmosphere of ETC.

Director and choreographer Buddy Reeder, a native Hoosier who has performed and directed shows nationwide, embraced the vibe of both the company and the show. Performances are upbeat and energetic, employing the stage, the back of the audience, and the aisleways in between.

Reeder said that after casting special actor Sarah Gasper, a devoted fan who has attended more than 125 performances of the musical and appeared in a number of community productions, he was inspired to greatly expand the number of “Ancestors” who haunt the Addams estate. Their near-constant presence – as chorus, in dance numbers, and roaming the audience – help us all feel like part of the show. We also get, during scene and costume changes, some moments of corny humor with a couple of Cave-Addamses played by Jack London and his grandmother Laurie London.

The family members practically stepped out of the old New Yorker cartoons: gregarious patriarch Gomez (Kent Livingston), sultry slender Morticia (Katie van den Heuvel), darkly darling daughter Wednesday (Gemma Rollison), glutton for punishment son Pugsley (Judah Livingston), charmingly eccentric Uncle Fester (Rodney Sciba), feisty Grandma (Tammy Coss), shaggy Cousin Itt (Ezzy Livingston), and butler/looming presence Lurch (Sean Stroup), who ensures that Thing (uncredited) is always on hand.

The plot (similar to the old oddball family comedy “You Can’t Take It With You”) involves the possibility that nearly-adult Wednesday has somehow fallen in love – and with a “normal” boy! Lucas Beineke (Chase Cornelius) is so okay with the weirdness that they are secretly engaged. Their intentions are to be announced at an Addams family dinner with his parents, Mal and Alice (Jim O’Connor and Brianne Snow) of Ohio, as guests. To ensure mayhem, they will play a very Addams party game.

Meanwhile, Gomez and Morticia’s relationship will be tested by Wednesday’s insistence that her mother not know about the engagement (which Pugsley will privately seek to wreck).

We will also find out Fester’s infatuation with a certain heavenly body – which is presented in a nice special effect.

Other Ancestors are played by Norah Amrose, London Bramer, Fender Brokamp, Lydia Capps, Alec Cole, Sophia Dam, Andy DeLoughery, Sophie Eastman, Mark Gasper, Klara Hollaway, Robin Kim, Thomas Kim, Eliott King, Amelia Landrum, Sharon Livingston, Gavin McMillin, Christian Parchman, Breanne Penrod, Lacey Pierce, Maranatha Potter, Brooklynn Shaw, Rain Stafford, Bella Velasco, Olivia Venable, and Luke Wilson, who is also a featured guitarist.

Rollison is exceptional in her central role, which says a lot considering the talent she shares the stage with. Cornelius as Lucas is endearing with gentle bravery. Sciba gives Fester boyish charm and joyous animated demeanor. Livingston gives Gomez his famous combination of wit and being at wit’s end, while van den Heuvel makes Morticia’s demeanor both chilling and seductive. O’Connor delivers the anticipated amount of bluster as Mr. Beineke, while Snow gives us one of the show’s hilarious highlights as Alice.

A not-so-scary spooky treat for your October, “The Addams Family” has performances Friday and Saturday evening, Saturday and Sunday afternoon (Oct. 23-25), at Broadway United Methodist Church, 609 E. 29th St., Indianapolis. Get tickets and info at epsilontheatricalco.org.

Cat ‘CAT’ show is so very ‘Addams’

PWJW_Indy Reviews, Stage , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

By John Lyle Belden

The Cat, a nice little stage in downtown Carmel, includes in its programs the Carmel Apprentice Theatre, in which local stage veterans work with new and less-experienced performers to bring forth a wonderful experience for actors and audiences alike. Appropriately opening on Halloween weekend, CAT presents “The Addams Family: A New Musical,” by Andrew Lippa with Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice.

Based on the famous Charles Addams characters, which went from New Yorker cartoons in the 1940s and ‘50s to television and movies (and even a Hanna-Barbera “Scooby-Doo”-style cartoon in the 1970s, as we see during the pre-show entertainment), the 2010 Broadway musical showcases the family’s unconventional and gently macabre lifestyle while engaging with a wacky comedy premise: Now-adult daughter Wednesday wants to marry a young man from a “normal” Ohio family.  

First-time director Elaine Miller managed to get the best out of this cast of varied experience, including former apprentice turned stage regular JB Scoble as Gomez Addams, writer and dancer (who gets to show off her tango) Audrey Larkin as Morticia, Carmel High senior Jayda Glynn as a picture-perfect Wednesday, Ball State grad Elaine Endris as mischievous masochist brother Pugsley, crew-turned-cast member Jake Williams as charming Uncle Fester, Jeff Hamilton as feisty Grandmama, and classically-trained Evan Wang as the butler, Lurch. (Thing was played by “R.C.”, and Cousin Itt was absent, likely at a hair appointment.) The more conventional Beinecke family are played by Tim West as lovestruck Lucas, Chelsie Christian as his mom and compulsive poet Alice, and Greg Gibbs as buttoned-down dad Mal.

When one is an Addams, you’re in the family forever, so the ghostly Ancestors are on hand as well. They are portrayed by Erin Coffman, Ashley Mash, Diana Pratt, Vivian Schnelker, Mark Gasper, and the stage debut of Sarah Gasper, a natural charmer who after attending dozens of performances of “Addams Family” finally gets to live her dream.

What this show might lack in professional polish is more than made up for in the fun everyone has in bringing this story to life. Given the gusto with which the titular family treat any endeavor, any rough edges actually add to the overall experience. Scoble’s performance stands toe-to-toe (sword-to-sword?) with the likes of John Astin or Raul Julia, and Larkin is dead(ly) sexy. Everyone has standout moments, especially Christian in her “full disclosure” outburst.

While oddness is the rule in this world, one aspect of the musical that, to me, seemed distracting was Fester’s wooing of the Moon (yes, that big rock in the sky). Williams manages to pull off the illogical longing, further aided by Mash portraying the heavenly body, dancing in shimmering gray with matching mask. Miller’s choice in this, rather than using a light or glowing ball, sweetens the scene and makes it more relatable – we see the lover that Fester sees.

Performances of this spooky, “ooky,” fun and funny show run Thursdays through Sundays through Nov. 13 at The Cat, 254 Veterans Way, next to Carmel’s Main Street arts and cultural district. For information and tickets, go to thecat.biz.

Footlite gets truly ‘Wild’

PWJW_Indy Reviews, Stage , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

By John Lyle Belden

In 1928, Joseph Moncure March published his narrative poem, “The Wild Party,” a tale of Prohibition Era excess that was shocking at the time, and still quite racy. Taking the notion of living well as the best revenge to its debauched extreme, the story has been made into a film and at least two stage shows. The musical with book, music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa premiered in New York in 2000.

Now, “Andrew Lippa’s Wild Party” has taken over the stage of Footlite Musicals, directed by Bradley Allan Lowe. 

Queenie (Nina Stilabower) “was a blonde” with extreme sexual appettes. She would find them sated by fellow vaudeville performer Burrs (Joseph David Massingale). But she gets jaded, and he takes things too far. Thus, hoping for both excitement and a chance to embarrass her lover, Queenie proposes they throw a party. And with a guest list familiar with a wide range of sin, things are bound to get very, very wild.

Among those who show up for a long night of loud phonograph jazz, cocaine, and bathtub gin are Madeline (Miranda Nehrig) the lesbian, Eddie (Daniel Draves) the pugilist, Mae (Karen Hurt) Eddie’s gal, Jackie (Cameron Hicks) the dancer, Brothers D’Armano (Connor Chamberlin and Isaac Becker) the lovers and musical producers, Dolores (Aprille Goodman) the hooker, and Nadine (Lauren Frank) the minor. Fashionably late comes vivacious Kate (Logan Hill) with her date, Mr. Black (Allen Sledge).

Also occupying the stage for much of the show are Ervin Gainer, Logan Laflin, Claire Slaven, DeSean McLucas, Grant Craig, Jacoba White, Job Victor Willman, Anna Lee, Reno Moore and Tessa Gibbons. True to the title, the cast create a visual cacophony throughout most of the scenes, with some appropriate freezes when the action focuses on a solo or duo. Prior to the party, many stand by (and sing and dance) as a chorus mostly unseen by Queenie and Burrs. When the party gets going, there is a lot happening.

Lippa putting his own spin on the text, creating a mostly sung-through musical, didn’t seem to do the original verse any favors. Since March gave various characters the spotlight in the poem, it translated to Queenie and Burrs’ songs mostly advancing the plot, while the most memorable numbers are asides with supporting characters. Nehrig puts in the best performance with Madeline’s comic sapphic lament “An Old-Fashioned Love Story.” Draves and Hurt charm with Eddie and Mae’s “Two of a Kind.” The D’Armanos give us a fun digression, with Queenie and Burrs, presenting part of their saucy Biblical musical.

Stilabower and Massingale do very well as the leads, while Sledge adds surprising depth as Black develops feelings for Queenie, who surprises herself by reciprocating. Hill is dynamite, channeling the greatest redheaded comics in her portrayal of Kate. 

A note must be made of the show’s content. It goes beyond the swear words and the drunken fight (At this party? Who would have guessed?). This is the most mature content I’ve seen in a Footlite show – two words: choreographed rape. In movie terms, consider this a hard “R”. 

If you are familiar with the source material, or feel you are up for this kind of entertainment, check out the Wild Party through March 20 at 1847 N. Alabama St., Indianapolis. Info and tickets at footlite.org.