Liam Darnell

Walt Whitman High School

“I’m crazier than you,” a blindfolded Wednesday Addams belts as she lifts her crossbow for the ultimate test of commitment to her new boyfriend. Mount Vernon High School’s production of “The Addams Family” was full of delightfully crazy twists and turns, and shooting an apple off someone’s head with a crossbow didn’t even top the list.

“The Addams Family” is a musical comedy with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa and book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. Based on a comic by cartoonist Charles Addams, the musical follows the story of an eccentric family hosting a dinner with the Beinekes, a seemingly normal midwestern family. Wednesday, the daughter of Gomez and Morticia Addams, falls in love with the Beineke son, Lucas, and plans to announce their engagement at the dinner. Gomez knows but can’t tell Morticia, making him choose between breaking a promise with his daughter and lying to his wife. While the tension-filled dinner plays out, Wednesday’s little brother Pugsley schemes to make Wednesday fall out of love with Lucas. Pugsley steals one of Grandma’s potions, a truth serum, and sneaks it into the chalice Wednesday will drink from. However, someone else drinks out of the drugged chalice instead, and chaos ensues.

Mount Vernon High School’s production was entertaining from beginning to end. The ensemble, made up of the ghosts of the Addams ancestors, was always engaged and reacting to the action onstage.

James Gilliam excellently portrayed Gomez Addams through his strong vocals and humorous acting. Gilliam used physicality and tone of voice to express the character’s anxiety over Wednesday’s secret engagement. Additionally, Gilliam kept a consistent Spanish accent throughout the show. Equally talented was Christine Mayen-Franco as Morticia Addams, who showcased an impressive acting range and flowy physicality that perfectly fit the character. One of the best-executed moments of the show was “Tango De Amor,” a reconciliatory tango between the two after an argument.

Jamaya Edwards as Wednesday used deadpan humor and stoic body language to contrast with the strength and desperation in her voice as she experienced romantic love for the first time. Edwards’ powerhouse vocal abilities added to the character’s conviction.

Rayne Garcia-Cruz as Uncle Fester exuded energy and stage presence, especially in “The Moon and Me,” where Fester expresses his love for the moon. Garcia-Cruz leaped gleefully across the stage, never breaking character no matter how absurd it got. Acting as a narrator from time to time, Garcia-Cruz broke the fourth wall on several occasions, making the show even more entertaining for the audience.

The costumes, designed by the Costume Crew (led by Phoenix Bryant and others), were one of the best aspects of the show. The ancestors wore unique but thematically cohesive costumes representing different eras and cultures, including a 1920s flapper costume and a Korean hanbok. Pictures of the Addams ancestors were displayed across the wall on the set — which the Set Crew (led by CC Cheney and others) designed and constructed — a detail which made the set more believable. Props like a comically large scythe in “Just Around the Corner,” a chair (and torture device) from medieval Spain, and Grandma’s potion cart were all critical aspects of the production.

From emotional moments like “Happy Sad” between Wednesday and Gomez to carefree and chaotic moments like “Crazier Than You” between Wednesday and Lucas, “The Addams Family” told a wholesome story of love and rediscovery of a passion for life, lessons all audience members could take with them after the curtain closed.

Axel Nicholson

Clarksburg High School

When you’re an Addams, you need to have a taste for the odd and dreary. Mount Vernon High School brought the spooky, the icky, the despair, but also the soft, sweet love of “The Addams Family” to the stage and put on a performance that was both spine crawling and heart melting.

The Addams Family was first created as single panel cartoons in “The New Yorker” by the cartoonist Charles Addams. The cartoons were the inspiration to turn “The Addams Family” into a musical, written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, and with lyrics by Andrew Lippa. The writers took from a common experience everyone knows about: family drama. Wednesday Addams has a secret, she’s in love! And she’s soon to be married to Lucas Beineke, a goody-two shoes college student from Ohio. Wednesday wants nothing more than for her family to get along with the Beinekes, but over the course of one long evening and a disastrous dinner, everything falls apart. With marital tensions high, and lies picked out of the air, all roads lead to unhappiness. Until, that is, some good conversation and reminiscing feelings bring hope to the two family’s lives again.

“The Addams Family” is a complex story with overlapping plots and tough personalities, but Mount Vernon’s talented cast developed the show with ease.

Devoted husband and loving father, Gomez Addams, is a role that demands much from the actor. But James Gilliam took this role in stride and seamlessly performed Gomez’s many facets. Gilliam made perfect character decisions and had the vocal abilities to create a character that was doting and anxious with Morticia (Christine Mayen-Franco), charismatic and upfront with the Beinekes, and caring and wise with his eldest daughter Wednesday (Jamaya Edwards), exhibited in “Lets Live Before We Die” and “Happy/Sad.”

There’s a lot of hubble and bubble in the Addams household, but the characters are unforgettable. Pugsley Addams, brother of Wednesday Addams, is the dictionary definition of “a little stinker.” Even though Pugsley’s idea of a good time fell somewhere between mass destruction and torture, Kaziem Salazar impeccably executed the charming role of a little brother who just doesn’t want his big sister to leave him forever, especially in Kaziem's sensational song “What If.” Another character who stood out from his spot in the shadows was Lurch, played by Aaron MacWatters. MacWatters moved at nothing more than a snail's pace and stayed impressively unblinking and expressionless for the duration of the show. And even with speaking nothing at all, MacWatters was a surprising comedic delight.

The elaborate set (CC Cheney, Sam Dresch, Elijah Knight, and Keira Wankowski) was instantly impressive. The Addams family house stood two stories tall with a rotating door and see-through window, all while holding and hiding the onstage orchestra, The Crypt Band. Costumes (Phoenix Bryant, Drew Low, and Carrington Moreland) were intricate, well crafted, and well researched as each cast member was decked out in their own unique style. Most impressive were the ancestors, from a ghostly flapper girl to a ghoulish cowboy, and the contrast of style and colors between the Addams and the Beinekes.

To be an Addams, one must fall in love with the macabre. Instead though, one couldn't stand a chance against falling in love with Mount Vernon's “The Addams Family.” This was a performance full of creeping chills, sensual dance, and declarations of love beyond forever and into death. Which is always, as Morticia says, just around the corner!