Need a good laugh? Try dinner with the Addams family
By Sasha Paulsen
NAPA, Calif. — When the first musical notes of Lucky Penny’s new production sounded, the audience knew its part.
Da-da-da-dum (clap clap), da-da-da-dum (clap clap), da-da-da-dum da-da-da-dum da-da-da-dum (clap clap).
Who else could be arriving onstage but the darkly zany, contentedly self-accepting and undeniably looney Addams family?
Lucky Penny opened its 15th season last weekend with “The Addams Family Musical,” in which the lords and ladies of the macabre take to singing and dancing as they host a dinner party at their creepy mansion for a seemingly normal but unwitting family who will soon discover that they may well be just as cuckoo as anyone else at the table.
The Addams family, the creation of cartoonist Charles Addams, first emerged in 1938 on the pages of The New Yorker. The bizarrely comic family subsequently traveled to television and then Broadway, along the way securing a place in American culture. Everyone in an audience of all ages knew the cues to clap to the opening song.
The 1950s and ’60s filled television with improbably idealized families in sitcoms such as “Leave it to Beaver” and “The Donna Reed Show.” And then came the Addams’ hilariously satirical take on the ideal American family. Weird though they are in their tastes, they live together in harmony – albeit dark.
Until, in this story, love rattles the walls of their haunted home.
The characters didn’t have names until they went on television in 1964, but the Lucky Penny casting is so spot-on, each one could each have stepped out of the magazine ( or television): the devoted couple, Gomez (Jeremy Kreamer) and Morticia (Shannon Rider); their children, Wednesday (Emma Sutherland) and Pugsley (Arthur Mautner); strange Uncle Fester (Tim Setzer); wild Grandma (Beth Ellen Ethridge); and the wonderfully zombielike butler, Lurch (David Murphy); along with assorted household pets and the Severed Hand, played by itself.
The musical opens with a problem. Wednesday has fallen in love with — gasp — an upstanding, clean-cut boy. She has invited him and his parents to dinner, throwing her parents and brother into a dither.
“Can we just act normal?” Wednesday pleads with her parents.
“Normal,” her mother replies, “is an illusion. What is normal for a spider is a calamity for a fly.”
Indeed, Wednesday’s love, Lucas Beinke (Tommy Lassiter) might double for Dobie Gillis, and his parents, Mal (Dennis O’Brien) and Alice (Sarah Lundstrom) are straight out of “Father Knows Best.”
Unbeknownst to Wednesday, she has an ally in Uncle Fester. Played to perfection by the matchless Setzer, Fester is a romantic at heart, and he summons the Addams’ ancestors to help Wednesday. Tuolumne Bunter, Alex Corey, Rachelle King, Trey Reeves, Leslie Sexton and Caitlin Waite, all in their ghostly array, are an outstanding and spirited backup as the evening unfolds.
But is the Beinke family really normal? An accidental sip from one of Grandma’s potions supports the truth of a magnet on my fridge, a gift: “The only normal people are the ones you don’t know very well.”
In short order, Alice, who has a peculiar tendency to speak in rhymes, is going to be amorously ogling the stoic Lurch, and Mal will find himself in the amorous embrace of Beverly the squid.
Ah, love. It’s all undeniably silly, but in the hands of this gloriously talented cast it’s two hours of welcome fun.
Directed by Staci Arriaga with musical direction by Craig Burdette, “The Addams Family Musical” runs through Sept. 24 with performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Thursday shows are “pay what you can.”
The little theater that could
Fans have come to expect no less than great entertainment from Lucky Penny Productions, a dauntless group of thespians who have earned the moniker “the little theater that could.”
Taylor Bartolucci, a Justin-Siena graduate, and Barry Martin, a transplant to Napa well-known for his radio and community work, pooled their thespian talents and training to launch Lucky Penny in 2009. In the midst of a recession and in a town where it’s tough-going for theatrical endeavors, particularly when it comes to finding affordable theater space, they had a few hundred dollars between them to invest, and they presented their first production in the lobby of the Napa Valley Wine Train. But they also had drive and determination, and by 2015, having found that renting theater space was all but impossible, they decided to transform a former tile showroom on one of Napa’s backstreets into a theater of their own.
With the help of volunteers, they created a black-box theater and named it the Lucky Penny Community Arts Center. They began presenting seasons that included popular musicals — from “Oliver!” to “Monty Python’s Spamalot” — as well as classics such as “Blithe Spirit” and “The Crucible.” They challenged audiences by taking risks with lesser-known and new works, like last year’s superb “Silent Sky,” about an early 20th century woman astronomer. They now draw in actors from around the Bay Area and have won a long list of awards from the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. In addition, they are building a new generation of theater fans with workshops, camps and productions for young actors.
Martin is managing director, “which means I know where to get the mop.” He has also been the author of some of Lucky Penny’s biggest hits, including the satirical “The Tasting Room” and the seasonal hit, “A Napa Valley Christmas Carol.” Bartolucci is artistic director and chief of inspiration, dreaming up ideas like last year’s new family show, “Saving Santa.”
They’ve continued to weather challenges, among them the COVID-19 pandemic, the after-effects of which continue to threaten theaters around the country.
“We didn’t know if we were going to make it through the pandemic,” Martin said. He and Bartolucci presented online shows, and when they were finally able to open their theater again, they turned to their supporters to help make up for what they’d lost during the shutdown. The response exceeded their expectations. “The community support was so great,” he said.
This year they are back with a full schedule of plays. After “The Addams Family Musical,” here’s what they have planned:
“The Revolutionists”: an “irreverent, girl-powered comedy set during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, Oct. 20 to Nov. 5
“The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical”: Their trailer park plays are always a huge hit, Dec. 1 to 17
“Saving Santa”: a Lucky Penny original, a family holiday show about what happens when Santa Claus lands on Mount St. Helena; Dec. 2-23
“Almost Maine,” a collection of vignettes, surreal, playful and tender, all taking place in Almost, Maine, and concerning matters of the heart, Jan. 26-Feb. 11
“The Sound of Music,” Rogers and Hammerstein’s musical set in Austria in 1938, about a nun who changes the lives of an unhappy family as the Nazis arrive in their country, March 8 to 24
“The Glass Menagerie,” Tennessee Williams’ 1944 classic about the Wingfield family, waiting in St. Louis for a “gentleman caller,” April 19-May 5.
“Real Housewives of Napa Valley,” a new Barry Martin Lucky Penny original, bound to be a hit. I predict this one will go to Broadway, May 31-June 16.
Season tickets are on sale now, as well as individual tickets. For more information, click here.
Sasha Paulsen is a Napa Valley-based novelist and journalist.
Thanks so much.
Great review Sasha! We loved your column in the Press Democrat about the NV Register!