La Jolla High School’s Theatre Department had their opening performance of The Addams Family on Friday, January 31st. The musical follows the character Wednesday Addams, played by Senior Wesley Preis, as she introduces her ‘normal’ boyfriend Lucas Beineke, played by Sophomore Dante Arminio, and his parents to her family. 

In terms of acting, the show was exemplary. Each line was delivered with appropriate inflection and emotion. Junior Marshall McInerney played Gomez, the father of the Addams family, with an impeccable Spanish accent and well-executed physical comedy. The rest of the cast also performed extremely professionally and without a single noticeable slip-up. Sophomore Ava Potter said her favorite characters were Uncle Fester, played by Sophomore Ben Jimenez, “because [his acting] was really funny and well done,” and Morticia Addams, played by Senior Ava Albaisa, who “was really good and portrayed her character well.”

On the flip side, the singing was underwhelming in this musical. The cast as a whole struggled to sing outside their vocal ranges; most noticeably the female characters. Their voices often grew quieter and lost strength when they sang higher notes. McInerney, despite his charisma, was perhaps the weakest singer. However, not everyone agreed that the singing was sub-par. Freshman Max Goldberg said, ”The wife of Mal [Alice Beineke, played by Junior Isabella Kandel], did well in that song with the table. She sounded really good.”

Additionally, the show could have benefited from more microphones. If a soloist was not equipped with a mic pack, they sounded washed out in comparison to the vocal power of the whole cast. The opposite was also an issue, being that the main characters all got microphones, so their voices sometimes rang more clearly than the ensemble’s and made for some discordant full-cast harmonies.

The production quality of the show was near-professional. “The sets were really good,” agrees Goldberg, “and [so were] the costumes.” The props and backdrops fit perfectly with each scene, and no costume looked lackluster or out of place. The musical as a whole came together beautifully, and the cast gave an outstanding performance despite a few unimpressive vocal moments.