After several postponements, our College Performing Arts Department decided to give audience a taste of the Addams Family musical which has been rescheduled to Term 1 2023. The cast came together over a summer afternoon to perform and record the opening number of the show, ‘When You’re an Addams’.
Their performance was taken from the first scene of the musical where Gomez and Morticia Addams, their children Wednesday and Pugsley, close family members Uncle Fester and Grandmama, and their butler Lurch gathered in the family graveyard, aka our College covered tennis court, and joined by their ancestors who emerged from their graves to celebrate life and death in a yearly ritual to connect with their past and ensure their future.
We would like to applaud the cast and crew who have shown tremendous resilience and continue to bring positive energy in the face of multiple Covid-related hurdles and restrictions.
For this online premiere, the ‘Bieneke’ characters were improvised to became part of the ensemble cast ‘ancestors’. The ancestors all chose their own ‘deceased characters’ and found interesting ways to portray not only the spooky dead but also individual roles like gangsters, golfers, dancers, angels and brides. Justin Gao stepped in for Freddie Garner to play the role of Uncle Fester.
| Main cast of the Online Premiere ‘When You’re an Addams’ | |
| Gomez Addams | Matt Parkinson |
| Morticia Addams | Catalina Addis |
| Wednesday Addams | Melody Lui Webster |
| Pugsley Addams | Sean Trombitas |
| Uncle Fester | Justin Gao |
| Grandmama | Millie Eaton |
| Lurch | Alex Lambert |
The Addams’ macabre characters have been intriguing audiences for generations with renditions spanning comics, television, film, animations, and popular theatre productions.
It will be a little bit more of a wait before our community get to enjoy the full musical showcase by our talented Saint Kentigern performers, but we couldn’t be more thrilled that the crew has taken a different approach in true Addams’ style to tease us with this opening number.
We hope you are as excited as we are for the upcoming musical comedy that celebrates rich themes of individuality and family, with its spectacularly spooky set, goth-like costumes and immense talent emanating from the stage when the lights dim, and the curtains raised on their opening night in the same term next year. After all, who could have a bad time in the presence of the strange and eccentric Addams family?
