Brennan Cuff gets a kick out of the fact that he's playing Gomez Addams in the upcoming Align Entertainment production of The Addams Family.
It's his second lead role as a Hispanic character - he's previously played Ritchie Valens, and he jokes he just needs to add Bernardo from West Side Story to his resumé. In real life, the 29-year-old Sapperton resident is anything but Latin in background.
"I'm pretty sure my heritage is Irish," he says with a laugh.
Which won't stop him from having a great time playing the patriarch of the oh-so-delightfully-macabre family in the new musical that opens Feb. 6 at Burnaby's Michael J. Fox Theatre.
Yes, it's that Addams Family - Gomez and Morticia and the gang, so familiar to generations from the original cartoons, the classic television show from the 1960s and the movies from the 1990s.
The Broadway musical has reinterpreted the family some years later. Little Wednesday is all grown up now and has fallen in love with - gasp! - a normal human boy from a normal human family. She wants to bring his family over for dinner - and therein lies the fun of the musical.
"It really explores what it means to be a normal family," Cuff says, pointing out that everyone has shared those feelings about their family being "crazy" at some point or other. "This musical gets to play around with all those those situations. Even though it's a comedy, even though it's a send-up, there's still a lot of truth there."
Cuff promises that anyone who has been a fan of The Addams Family - in any of its incarnations - will love the musical.
"This is the classic Addams Family as you've come to know them," he says - the sexy Morticia, the passionate Gomez, the crazy Uncle Fester.
He says one of the great things about the musical is that it can be appreciated by more than one generation of watchers - as in the case of his own family, where his parents were fans of the classic TV series and he grew up with the 1990s movies.
He admits that when a musical is billed as "family-friendly," it can worry adult watchers.
"Typically that means great for kids and kind of unfortunate for adults," he says. "That's not the case for this show."
And no, he notes, it's not scary - though the Addams Family is certainly fond of the macabre, the whole thing is done on a fun, kid-friendly level.
Moreover, he says, the musical itself is a little different from the typical Broadway show, where there may be songs inserted just for the sake of singing.
"Every song moves the story along," he says. "It's not your classic musical theatre campiness. There's lots of tango, lots of elements of passion."
Cuff notes that what makes the musical extra-special is the theatre company itself.
As a performer relatively new to the Lower Mainland - he moved to Burnaby in 2011 and to New West in 2013 - the Saskatoon native is delighted to have discovered Align Entertainment.
He studied musical theatre at what was then Grant MacEwan Community College (now MacEwan University) in Edmonton before taking part in a summer intensive program at the Charlottetown Festival in P.E.I. and then pursuing a master's degree in musical theatre in Glasgow.
He and his wife, Leah, moved to the Lower Mainland so that he could find work in theatre and she could pursue work in film.
As it happens, Leah is also involved in The Addams Family - she's donating her skills as a makeup artist after having done the prosthetics work for Align Entertainment's performance of Shrek The Musical last year.
"What's amazing about Align Entertainment is they're so new. Everyone is there because they want to be there. Everyone is there because they love being a part of theatre," Cuff says, noting there are no "divas" in the midst. "From the person hoisting the flies to the third trombone in the orchestra, to the cast and the whole crew, everyone has to be passionate about what they do."
What makes the show unique, too, is the fact that the leads don't actually dominate the stage time.
In fact, he notes, of the 30 or so cast members, those who spend the most time onstage are the chorus of "Addams Ancestors," whom Uncle Fester brings back to help solve the family crisis. Among their ranks is New West performer Robin Sukorokoff.
Another New West resident, Mark Kriese, also joins in the fun as Lurch.
"Our cast is a real ensemble," Cuff says.
He's high on the talent involved in the production, noting that everyone - from the production team to the cast to the crew members - brings a high level of skill and experience to the stage.
"It's just such a treat thing to have this level of professionalism in a community theatre production," he says.
And yes, Cuff says, the entire team knows they have a lot to live up to, given the success of last year's Shrek - the production not only won the hearts of audience and critics alike, it earned an Ovation Award for Outstanding Community Production (large theatre).
"They're already batting a thousand," he says, but he promises this year's show will be just as good - or even better. "We hope to raise the bar just a little bit higher."
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The Addams Family runs Feb. 6 to 21 at the Michael J. Fox Theatre. It's on Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Tickets are $37.50 regular, $25 for students and seniors. All tickets are $25 on Thursdays, and there's also a special Family Day event on Monday, Feb. 9, when all tickets are $15.
School matinees will also be held Feb. 13 and 19 at noon, for $15.
Check out www.alignentertainment.ca for all the details.
