Students Perform 'The Addams Family' at Bishop Ireton High School

From The Cappies: Would you die for someone you love? If so, is that love worth breaking the traditions and way of life that you and your family have held dear for your entire lives? While not every family is an Addams, these pressing questions and themes are undoubtedly relatable as one watches the Addams Family performed by Bishop Ireton High School.

Beginning as a cartoon strip in 1938 and opening as a Broadway musical in 2010, the Addams Family follows the life of a peculiar, dark family who lives in a grand mansion in Central Park. This does not seem completely out of the norm, but upon entering the house, their life is anything but such.

Unexpectedly, Wednesday (Dagny Scannell) has fallen in love! Not only this, but she expects her family to give her "one normal night" when her love Lucas Beineke (Andrew Holland) visits their house for supper. The family is distraught, but none so more than Wednesday's Spanish father, Gomez (Jake Carlo).

While Wednesday has broken her secret to her father about her love for Lucas, he promises to keep this secret only between the two of them. Unfortunately, this means keeping this secret from his wife, Morticia (Olivia Hays) who is suspicious of the dinner from the get-go. When Lucas and his family do arrive, his family is stunned at the Addams' strange traditions, especially their game of "Full Disclosure," a game that uncovers all of each other's secrets, including the secret of Wednesday's love for Lucas. From this point forward, Lucas' family is confused, Morticia is furious at Gomez for keeping this important secret, and Wednesday resolves to run away from it all!

The cast of Bishop Ireton did a wonderful job in bringing the Addams Family to life. Through lively physicality and incredible harmony together as a group, they continuously served to make the audience laugh and believe the weirdness of the Addams family! In addition, by bringing some of the set and several of the characters into the audience, they made the audience feel as if they too were a component of the musical!

Olivia Hays portrayed Morticia in a very professional manner. Through incredible vocal scores such as "Just Around the Corner," she clearly immersed herself into the strange traditions and quirks of the Addams family.

This musical would not be complete without Gomez, who through his Spanish accent and flamboyancy brought many laughs throughout his performance as he displayed his dilemma. Additionally, Dagny Scannell paired nicely with Andrew Holland as they portrayed Wednesday and Lucas' love for each other, especially in their song "Crazier than You" where the two characters resolve their disagreements and profess their mutual love.

What really brought this musical to another level was its great characterization of costumes such as the colors they used to show the differences between the two families. Astoundingly, because the crew members also wore well-done makeup that was relevant to the scenes, each scene change was smooth and only added to the professionalism of this rendition of the Addams Family.

The Addams Family will forever be remembered for its strange and out-of-the-norm way of life, and Bishop Ireton will not soon be forgotten for completing the feat of so professionally bringing to life this incredible American musical.

Written by Nick Geier of Teens and Theatre Company

Photo by Lisa Marie Cheney