Tag Archives: Rick Elice

THE ADDAMS FAMILY A MUSICAL COMEDY – LIVE IN CONCERT

★½

London Palladium

THE ADDAMS FAMILY – THE MUSICAL COMEDY – LIVE IN CONCERT at the London Palladium

★½

“pretty feeble stuff and – despite the talent of the cast”

The Addams Family – originally a single-panel comic before being reimagined in a whole host of television and film adaptions – has become a cult phenomenon. Thus, it was only a matter of time that the famous family would get the musical treatment, first performed on Broadway in 2010. Now, after a successful UK tour, The Addams Family: The Musical Comedy (directed by Matthew White with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa) premieres on the West End with two nights at the London Palladium as an ‘in concert’ show.

Patriarch Gomez Addams (Ramin Karimloo) faces a conflict with his wife Morticia (Michelle Visage, of RuPaul’s Drag Race fame) when their typically morose daughter Wednesday (Chumisa Dornford-May) asks him to keep her shotgun engagement to all-American boy Lucas (Ryan Kopel) a secret. When Lucas and his parents Mal and Alice (Sean Kingsley and Kara Lane respectively) come to dinner to get to know their soon-to-be in-laws, Wednesday’s younger brother Pugsley (Nicholas McLean) causes mischief in an effort to turn his sister’s attention back to him.

The plot is weak and highly cliched. Our three couples – Morticia and Gomez, Wednesday and Lucas, and Alice and Mal – all go through some (very) minor strife before expectedly making up. They all learn some generic advice from one another – how to be honest, how to let loose, and so forth. The audience’s investment can only be minimal when the stakes are so low.

The strongest of the cast are Sam Buttery as Uncle Fester and Dickon Gough as Lurch despite the latter having minimal lines. Dornford-May performs well as Wednesday – she has a great voice. Her interest in Lucas however is baffling – she even calls him the wrong name (Lewis) at one point though its unclear whether this was scripted.

“despite the talent of the cast – not much can be done to enliven such a boring storyline”

The chemistry between Visage and Karimloo is a little lacking. They play their own roles well but one is strained to believe in their relationship, especially given Gomez’s characterisation as the doting husband.

The songs are nearly entirely forgettable. There are some amusing lyrics – most notably in the song Trapped sung by Gomez – but overall, they are uninspired and often come out of nowhere Karimloo delivers strongly in his solos but any group singing fails to pack a punch. Whether this is due to weak microphones, shoddy sound design or lack of enthusiasm from the cast is unclear.

The set (designed by Diego Pitarch) is disappointing even for an in concert performance. A cardboard façade of the skyscraper-clad New York City skyline sits at the back of the stage and a static tarp with stars and a moon shrouds the back wall. And, well, that’s it. Chairs, tables and the odd torture device are wheeled on in a vague suggestion of different rooms in the Addams’ family mansion. Granted, the musical is only scheduled for two nights but anything to suggest the set was anymore than a cheap afterthought would have been appreciated.

The props similarly fail to pack a punch. They are clearly cheap – Visage fails to make a clearly cardboard coffin look heavy at one point – and frankly no fun. There are no surprise hands or creatures jumping out of boxes. No appearance of the family pet Socrates the Octopus – not even a tentacle! Poorly rendered birds on sticks are flown around the stage at one point – I thought they were meant to be some make-belief fluff monster.

The Addams Family: The Musical Comedy – Live in Concert is pretty feeble stuff and – despite the talent of the cast – not much can be done to enliven such a boring storyline.

 

THE ADDAMS FAMILY – THE MUSICAL COMEDY – LIVE IN CONCERT at the London Palladium

Reviewed on 12th February 2024

by Flora Doble

Photography by Pamela Raith

 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

DEATH NOTE – THE MUSICAL IN CONCERT | ★★★★ | August 2023

THE ADDAMS FAMILY

THE ADDAMS FAMILY

Click here to see our Recommended Shows page

 

Jersey Boys

Jersey Boys

★★★★

Trafalgar Theatre

Jersey Boys

Jersey Boys

Trafalgar Theatre

Reviewed – 23rd August 2021

★★★★

 

“There is a welcomed playfulness to the production”

 

Jersey Boys, the jukebox musical chronicling the rise of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, first debuted on the West End in 2008 before closing nine years later. Its revival at the newly renovated Trafalgar Theatre marks the show’s exciting return to the stage, made even more poignant after the original opening night was further postponed due to Covid-19 concerns.

The show opens with the chart-topping French cover of Oh What a Night (Ces Soirées-La) to demonstrate the band’s incredible international appeal. Certainly, this should come as no surprise, seeing as the band has sold an estimated 100 million records worldwide and survived the so-called British Invasion.

The story of the quartet’s rise and fall is told from the perspective of all four band members, the different seasons (Fall, Winter etc.) flashing on a screen above the stage to demonstrate this perspective shift. Though such a format presented a more ‘well-rounded’ story of the group’s success, this did have a significant effect on the musical’s pacing with some scenes forgotten as quickly as they started.

This also led to some rather jarring tonal changes. The strangest perhaps was found at the end of the production where in the space of five minutes the audience mourns the death of Frankie’s daughter before jumping forward a decade to the band’s joyous induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. There is, simply put, too much history and character development to pack in to the two-and-a-half-hour show.

An impressive number of songs feature in the production but again we are unable to rest on any one scene for too long. The opening scenes are particularly fast-paced and almost discombobulating as we are shown the formation of the group. There is no concrete sense of how much time has passed between any given scene, and the occasional time stamp on the large screen would have been a helpful signpost for the audience.

The cast is phenomenal. The New Jersey accents are well executed though very occasionally border on comical especially when we are reminded of the group’s mob connections. Ben Joyce (making his West End debut) does an excellent job of delivering Valli’s iconic falsetto. His performance of Can’t Take My Eyes Off You is particularly beautiful and Joyce was visibly moved at the audience’s ecstatic response to his rendition.

Adam Bailey and Karl James Wilson (playing singers Bob Gaudio and Nick Massi respectively) are incredibly likeable and Benjamin Yates infuses the band’s ringleader Tommy De Vito with a braggadocious energy. The concluding speeches for each band member really allow the cast to come into their own and one cannot help feeling emotional as they update the audience on their lives in the present day.

There is a welcomed playfulness to the production. A particularly amusing moment occurs when Gaudio is implored to “play the f***ing song” in reference to Can’t Take My Eyes Off You which at half-way through the second half was still yet to be played. This outburst generated raucous laugh from the audience who surely felt as though the show was articulating how they were feeling about hearing the iconic tune.

The choreography (Sergio Trujillo) is fantastic. The quartet and the various backing dancers are all perfectly synced with Joyce demonstrating some particularly impressive moves. Though not necessarily true to life, this did add a great pizazz to the performances of the more upbeat songs.

The sets (Klara Zieglerova) were relatively simple with props used more often than backdrops to convey a certain location. Some particularly impressive staging came in the form of the band performing as if on television. Facing a prop camera to the side of the stage, the front view shot of the band performing played on the screen above the stage, interspersed with presumably real clips of crowds at Four Season performances.

You would be hard-pressed not to enjoy this revival of the Jersey Boys. Though the production would benefit for slower pacing at some points, there is no shortage of excellent music, engaging story, and supremely talented cast.

 

Reviewed by Flora Doble

Photography by Mark Senior

 

Jersey Boys

Trafalgar Theatre until 2nd January

 

Reviewed by Flora this year:
Ginger Johnson & Pals | ★★★★ | Pleasance Theatre | June 2021
Godot is a Woman | ★★★½ | Pleasance Theatre | June 2021
Sh!t-Faced Macbeth | ★★★★★ | Leicester Square Theatre | July 2021

 

Click here to see our most recent reviews