The Addams Family are in town this week and the stage is set for the entertainment highlight of the year in Boyle!
In the twelve weeks since rehearsals began, the cast, committee, crew and production team have spent every moment ensuring that this will be an unforgettable show! So, with the lights set, the soundcheck complete and the orchestra tuned up, the cast are ready to unveil what promises to be Boyle Musical Society’s best show ever!
(Preview by Brendan McGee)
This will be a fantastic heart-warming musical comedy, following the dark and ghoulish activities of the Addams Family. The show promises to be a spectacular production for all the family, full of kooky characters, quirky dancing and upbeat musical numbers such as “One Normal Night”, “Full Disclosure”, “When You’re an Addams” and many, many more.
Gomez, Morticia, Fester, Grandma, Wednesday, Pugsley and Lurch Addams have all gathered at the family graveyard to celebrate life and death in a yearly ritual to connect with their past and ensure their future. They seem at peace with each other and with their dead ancestors too – who emerge from their graves on this night each year, to join in this celebration of continuity.
Wednesday Addams, (Played by Cliona Dowd) is the ultimate princess of darkness and has fallen in love with a sweet young man from a respectable family in Ohio – a man her parents have never met. Wednesday confides in her father Gomez (Darragh Beirne) and begs him not to tell her mother, his beloved wife Morticia. (Gráinne Caldbeck).
Uncle Fester (Stephen Tighe) enlists the ancestors help to set things right. Wednesday’s boyfriend, Lucas Beineke (Conor de Faoite) and his parents are coming to dinner and Gomez and Morticia are wary because Wednesday is their baby, even if she is 18. Their doubts turn into terror when Wednesday refuses to torture her brother Pugsley (Sean McInerney). She bursts into song instead, as love pulls her in a new direction. Wednesday begs her disappointed parents not to cancel the dinner, afraid that if Lucas’s parents don’t approve of her, they’ll take him back to Ohio and she’ll never see him again. Like any unconditionally loving family, the Addams’ promise to do their best to oblige.
Pugsley, worried that he’s lost his sister to her new, sunny disposition, steals a potion called Acrimonium from Grandma, (Karen Kane) which is designed to bring out the dark side in anyone. He tries to give it to his sister but his plan to re-awaken her dark side goes horribly wrong when Alice (Karen Gordon) downs the potion instead. A whole new Alice, very dark and uninhibited is born, prompting her to reveal the long-buried problems with her marriage, humiliating her husband Mal (Brendan Reid). When Wednesday blurts out the news that: “Lucas and I are getting married!”, chaos engulfs both families like a tidal wave. Fester, ever-helpful, urges the Family Ancestors to work some magic – whipping up a sudden, terrible storm and trapping the Beinekes with the Addams family for the night!
Wednesday, furious at everything it means to be normal, runs away without Lucas. Morticia throws Gomez out and Alice, under the influence of the darkness potion, can no longer tolerate her husband’s cynicism. She packs him off with a pillow and blanket to sleep somewhere else, as the storm inside her heart and outside in the park, rumbles to a conclusion.
Gomez stops Wednesday but realises that his baby girl growing up. He sees that she is a young woman in love. With her father’s blessing, Wednesday offers Lucas a chance to prove that he’s The One. The test involves her skills with a crossbow and Lucas standing with an apple on his head in front of the family tree. The boy is afraid of death but even more afraid of losing Wednesday. Will he choose the possibility of death over the certainty of loss? When Lurch (Enda Regan) ushers Alice down to the Grotto, she is a woman on a mission but will she lay down the law? Will Gomez and Mal, the two displaced husbands, realize they have more in common than they would have dared imagine only a few hours earlier?
The answers to these questions and many more will be revealed when ‘The Addams Family’ hits the stage on Wednesday night!
A vibrant local cast of 32, including many familiar faces, have been working on this show since September. Joining the principal cast on stage are Laurina Brennan, Diarmuid Beirne, Ellie Carter, Majella Gaffney, Stephanie Quinn, Conor White, Kate Connolly, Michael Lohan, Michaela Beirne, Kerry Rawson, Devon Cleary, Jack Gaughan, Ruth O’Dowd, Emma Tiernan, Aileen Emmett, Emma Flanagan, Callum Blakely, Therese Regan, Shannon Kerins, Hannah Leidecker, Anna Kearney and Catherine Bolger.
BMS is fortunate to have two very talented ladies making up the production team. Turning in her seventh year as Director is Vivienne Moran. Vivienne is continuously directing shows for variety groups and schools, running workshops and if all of that isn’t enough… she is also taking on her usual role as choreographer for Boyle Musical Society! Her warm personality, creative flair and mentoring strengths have allowed both cast and crew to flourish in their roles again this year.
We are always delighted to have Anne Kielty as our Musical Director. Anne has an abundance of experience in musical theatre and choral work and she brings her teaching experience and love of music to Boyle Musical Society, where she works tirelessly with soloists and the chorus to produce the best vocals and harmonies for the stage. Along with being the orchestra pianist, Anne is also rehearsal pianist and chorus mistress.
‘The Addams Family’ is a show for all the family and it will open on this Wednesday Nov. 21st and continue until Saturday Nov. 24th at 8pm nightly in St. Joseph’s Hall, Boyle. Tickets are priced at €15 but special concessions of €12 tickets for children, students and senior citizens, will be available for Wednesday and Thursday night’s shows. There will be a Matinée performance on Saturday 24th at 2:30pm and tickets are €15 and €10. Tickets are available from Únabhán beside King House and will also be available at the door, each night.
Tickets can also be booked by telephone on the BMS Ticketline, 071 9663033.
For further information please visit www.boylemusicalsociety.com or follow Boyle Musical Society on Facebook.
Photos by Laurina Brennan and Benny Morgan.
