Written By Constance Scrafield

There is great excitement within Theatre Orangeville's Musical Young Company. It is back with The Addams Family – a New Musical (originally released in 2009), with Murdock Schon directing.

Headline: Wednesday is now 18 years old, and she and Lucas Beineke, also 18, are in love and engaged. Wait - Lucas comes from a “normal” suburban background, and the story is about the evening when Gomez, Morticia and the Addams family meet Lucas and his “normal” parents, Malcolm and Alice.

This is the first fully-fledged musical, with sets, costumes, and lights Musical Young Company has produced for four years due to Covid. Last August, Musical Young Company members sang a cabaret-style mini-concert as part of the first annual Theatre Orangeville Arts Festival at the Mt. Alverno Luxury Resort.

Rehearsals run for the entire month of July, culminating in a full production in the theatre on the weekend of July 28 to 30.

For this bright beginning, they are going dark and very funny with this new Addams Family production.

The citizens went to the Rehearsal Hall at the end of their first week of rehearsing. First, we spoke to Nicolas Mustapha, Music Director and accompanist for the show.

He remarked. “It's a great show – really funny. They're really excited to be doing the first musical in four years.”

The cast of nine, less Lucas Nguyen as Gomez, who was absent, includes Avary Arsenault as Grandma [Addams], Ziv as Morticia; Kevin May as Fester; Cassidy Brown as Malcolm and Kiara-Lynn McKenna as Alice Beineke. Lucas Smith is Lucas; Payne Power is Pugsley, and Sophie Warren is Wednesday. Kait Gallant is the Young Company program's coordinator. 

The cast sat with us to talk about the show and their parts in it. We fired questions, and they answered variously, beginning with what they liked about the show.

“It's kinda dark with the original characters-”

“Wednesday falls in love with Lucas and he loves her back.”

“It's dark versus normal-”

“It's really funny when the Addams are trying to act ‘normal.'”

And why these young people love being part of a theatre company, we learned it is a safe spot to express yourself; it's fun, and you make friends who support you no matter what.

Acting can mean being a different person. However funny the show is, the lines are delivered straight-faced. They told us repetition is the answer – the more they rehearse, the better to handle the humour.

This terrific Addams family show might prove there is no normal but can love still conquer all?

The show runs from July 28 to 30.

For tickets, go to www.theatreorangeville.ca