The Stevens Dramatic Society (SDS) presented The Addams Family last week, and the Stevens community turned out in droves to see the musical on the DeBaun stage. SDS planned to put on the same show once before, in 2020, when the show had to be canceled due to the pandemic. The timing of SDS’s return to The Addams Family held special meaning, as it not only wowed attendees over three days but was a beautiful farewell to some incredibly talented students who were cast in the same roles they landed in their first year at Stevens.
The show itself was utterly fantastic. The Addams Family, the musical adapted from the iconic New Yorker cartoon strip, is a show that centers around what the title suggests: family. It is a comedy but also very emotional and grounded in serious foundations of love, coming of age, loss, and changing relationships over time. The entire cast managed to exemplify these conflicting narrative roles with ease.
DeBaun could not have been a better setting for a show like this, given its small size and intimacy. Even from the back of the house, the audience could see the characters, who they were, and what they wanted and valued. So many amazing details of the show were conveyed in the actors’ body language. Their attention to detail was clear in that each member of the cast tended to adopt a default pose for their character. Pugsly, played by Carly Teitelbaum, crossed his arms in a delightfully pugnacious way, and Wednesday, brought to life by Taylor Terry, hung her arms stiffly, with a looseness at the wrists, as if they would grab you at any moment. Rachel Germain’s Morticia moved with the grace of a black swan, and Kyle Castillo’s Gomez excitedly bounced around the stage, being everything one could ever hope for in the character.
The excellence in everything involving Rex DeMuro’s Fester can hardly be put into words. The voice and the mannerisms of such a weird and open-to-interpretation character are so hard to accomplish in an effective manner, and yet there he was. From the voice to the insane child-like giggling and purposeful swaying, Fester really stole the show both as a character and as the narrator. During intermission on Friday’s show, the entire audience was buzzing about Fester and Gomez. When they took their bows, the crowd went wild.
As occurs in many shows, the occasional adlib squeaked through, making the show truly the cast’s own. When describing the horrors found in Florida, Gomez mentions Ron DeSantis among all the swamps and alligators, which caused the audience to roar with laughter. It is these little moments of modern humor injected into the show, that help in keeping its continual relevance. The ability to adapt and change is one of the biggest strengths of the stage for acting, it is never static.
With the Addams Family being such a roaring success, the Stevens community is excited to see what else SDS will put on in the future. With so many talented actors, whatever the fall play or the next Spring musical ends up being, it is bound to be a hit.
