Skyline High Drama to present ‘Addams Family Musical’
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IDAHO FALLS — The Addams Family is coming to Idaho Falls this week, courtesy of the Skyline High School Drama department. And they’re going to sing, too.
Skyline Drama is staging its production of “The Addams Family Musical” this Wednesday through Saturday at Eagle Rock Middle School in Idaho Falls. This fun take on Charles Addams’ beloved characters is filled with songs, choreography and romance. It’s also the first time the school has done a musical performance. (Click here for tickets.)
“This musical is an age-old tale of a son from one family who falls in love with a daughter from another family,” Skyline Drama teacher Sue Parrett told EastIdahoNews.com. “The families are very, very different and they’re trying to bring the families together and figure out if this relationship is actually going to work.”
In the musical, Wednesday falls in love with an average, everyday kind of boy, causing tension between the two kids’ families.
“The fun is seeing the families get together and interact and the way they both learn something from the other family that they can do to improve their own family,” Parrett said.
The musical numbers add to the fun, encompassing a number of different moods and rhythmic feels.
“The music has a little bit of everything to it,” said Parrett. “Obviously, there are the creepy parts where the Addams’ ancestors are coming out of the crypt, but The Addams Family, they’re a fun, kind of wild bunch. This play has everything from the Bunny Hop to a really spicy tango that is performed by Gomez and Morticia and some of the ancestors. There are amazing pieces of music in there.”
In order for the show to come together, Parrett had to find a team of choreographers who could teach the students how to do the dances, as well as assemble a team of students to handle the technical aspects of the production.
“Putting on a musical takes a combination of a lot of moving parts,” Parrett said. “There is a lot of choreography in the show and I have three choreographers who have worked with me on this show. Autumn Pruett was the lead choreographer and did most of the choreography on the show. Ana Sargent is a ballroom dance teacher and we called her in to teach the tango because that’s her expertise. Then we had a third choreographer to help fill in the missing pieces and her name was Lynelle Bishop.”
Successfully pulling off their version of “Addams Family” also requires Parrett and her cast to create adaptations of characters like Wednesday, Gomez and Morticia that honored the originals while leaving enough wiggle room to make the characters their own.
“We’ve taken the essence of the characters and (the actors) have added their own twists to the characters,” said Parrett. “I will say our Lurch is a little bit different. So we’ve taken some creative license with some of the characters.”
Parrett said it’s the perfect time to do an “Addams Family” play thanks to all the excitement for the characters stirred up by the recent Netflix “Wednesday” series.
“We selected this play almost a year ago,” she said. “When we first selected the musical, I had no idea that ‘Wednesday’ would be a series. We were super excited when the series came out because everybody’s so excited about ‘Wednesday’ and anything ‘Addams’-related.”
You can catch Skyline High School Drama’s production of “The Addams Family Musical” this Wednesday, Feb. 15, through Saturday, Feb. 18 at Eagle Rock Middle School in Idaho Falls. Showtimes are at 7 p.m. each night with a matinee on Feb. 18 at 2 p.m. Click here for tickets.
