Bühne Baden launches Addams Family musical with dark humour

Bühne Baden opened its production of The Addams Family at the Stadttheater on Friday, staging the macabre story with black humour and visual flair, ORF reported.

Director Francesc Abos brings the family to life in a decaying villa designed by Sam Madwar. Drew Sarich and Ann Mandrella play the musical-savvy couple Gomez and Morticia. Their children, Wednesday (Celena Pieper) and Pugsley (Thamos Hollweg), share a bond through sadomasochistic practices, according to APA culture critic Ewald Baringer.

Viktoria Schubert plays the grandmother, who brews dubious potions in the attic. Christian Graf takes the role of the eccentric, moon-struck Uncle Fester, who eventually blasts off into space. Gerhard Karzel completes the cast as the silent servant Lurch. Andrew Lippa’s score, with its tango rhythms, adds to the production’s morbid atmosphere.

The Beineke family brings a dose of normality to the story: their son Lukas (Timotheus Hollweg) falls in love with Wednesday. During a game of truth, his conventional parents, played by Missy May and Boris Pfeifer, undergo a kind of therapy and rekindle their love. The story becomes rather sentimental at that point, Baringer writes.

First staged in 2009, the musical looks set to become another hit with Baden’s growing musical-theatre community. Intendant Andreas Bergen has given the theatre a fresh lease of life, bringing in new audiences and sold-out performances, the review says.

The success of the musical programme is overshadowed by uncertainty over the future of the Baden theatre orchestra, led by Michael Zehetner. The orchestra is facing a possible dissolution, and the situation remains unresolved.