Review of The Addams Family Musical: School Edition (Team Thing) at the Cripps Hall Theatre, Northampton

This weekend I found myself back at Cripps Hall Theatre to see the alternate cast performance of The Addams Family Musical, and it was every bit as entertaining as the first. For my Team Cousin IT review click here, but for now, let us talk about Team Thing.

Leading the cast in this version was Ben Mineards, and he presented an accomplished performance bringing a delightful physicality to the role of the head of the house Gomez and dealt some brilliant comic timing. Eleanor Butt played with a slick deadpan nature his wife Morticia, and I have to say her vocal skills extremely impressed me. Her singing was strong, confident and was one of the strongest singers across both productions.

I really enjoyed both Violet Clarke as Wednesday and Mia Leader as Pugsley. They provided great humour and worked excellent as the sibling partnership. Robson Scott meanwhile was a delightfully enthusiastic performer as Uncle Fester and had great charm which helped in this characters role as the narrator of the show as well.

Jacob Luck provided great lurking presence as Lurch, and his shinning moment was an excellent moment of remaining in character and delivering that nice unexpected moment in the second act.

While I didn’t refer to the production itself in great detail in my first review, here I must comment on the excellent direction of the piece from Katy Batchelor, keeping so many youngsters in check, while maintaining control on stage, I imagine it not a small feat.

Also, the excellent and clear choreography from Fiona Luck brought more visible control on stage, and showed the huge talent and dedication from the young performers. Finally, Rod Iliffe as musical director brought excellent music to the shows with the ten strong orchestra.

Both teams on The Addams Family Musical did the NMTC Youth Society proud and provided two excellent days of entertainment.

Fun entertaining, and deliciously dark comic fun.
⭐⭐⭐½

Performance reviewed: Sunday 10th April 2022 (matinee) at the Cripps Hall Theatre, Northampton.

The Addams Family: School Edition ran until Sunday 10th April at the Cripps Hall Theatre and details of the group can be found at https://www.northamptonmusicaltheatrecompany.co.uk/youth/

The Addams Family is an NMTC YOUTH SOCIETY PRODUCTION

Production photos: Ashleigh Standage

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