I’ve heard that Tacoma Musical Playhouse won first place in the last American Association of Community Theater’s competition among musical and play presentations. It’s The Addams Family -- first production at the ACCT Worldfest 2018 at Florida’s Venice Theater Stage--shows why the group has been and is going to be hard to beat any time. It’s community theater perfection. In my opinion, it would be very competitive with professionals. Although there’s not a miscasting in the screwy bunch of characters, Rafe Wadleigh is a superlative competitor for best actor. I can’t imagine a better sword-wielding, slick, conniving, weirdo yet wonderful Gomez, the Addams’ leader. No wonder Linda Palacious’s pretty Morticia’s been all out for him. Still, she’s conservative about his leaning toward going with daughter Wednesday’s unorthodox (for an Aadams) wishes. The plot centers on Wednesday (Savanah Smith, marvelously macabre) being able to marry Lucas Beineke (Jake Atwood, sane and smitten). Tacoma Musical Playhouse concentrates on a dinner to which Lucas and his conventional Midwestern parents are invited and at which Wednesday hopes to win everyone’s approval of a marriage. She gets her dad to keep the purpose of this first meeting of families a secret from Morticia, raising conflicts within Gomez. He’s always been open as well as loving to his wife. Working before the dinner and against the union, young physically normal though psychologically Aadams-weird Pugsley (Guthrie Bettinger, cute but acutely dangerous) musically moans about the sad prospect of not being tortured by sister Wednesday anymore. Uncle Fester (hugely well cast John Kelleher) summons up a legion of Addams ghosts to help him keep normality out of the family. When the Beinekes enter the Addams’ house for the dinner, their weird welcome from funky Frankensteinish Lurch (Jonathan Bill, hilarious) sets the tone for the evening. Morticia exchanges not really pleasantries with Alice Beineke (Michele Bettinger, who suggests depths under a Midwestern mom stereotype). Reminiscent of the famous painting of The Last Supper, all at Wednesday’s hoped-for engagement dinner fracture the fourth wall while two-facing one another. A truth-seeking potion Pugsley steals from Shelleigh Ferguson’s sweet but usually confused Grandma gets into Alice Beineke’s chalice. She sets off a riotously rebellious musical routine that ends with her “out” on the table almost being served to her horrified hubby (Erick Furuheim, suitably stuffy). How does the dinner serve the two families, especially the three couples? Tacoma Musical Playhouse leaves its audience savoring answers they’ve given and others they suggest. Jon Douglas Rake deserves to be proud of his recipe so well cooked by all under his direction. None of the just-right music and lyrics call undue attention to themselves because every bit is so integrated into the action that it’s particular to the comic drama. Sound, lighting, special visual effects, and props work well, especially important considering the Festival limits on stage decor. The program does not mention any costume designer. Maybe that’s supposed to fit in with the Addams‘s strangeness, but the clothes, especially those in black and yellow, perfectly reflect the tastes of those who wear them along with their shared conflicts.
