Oliver’s Addams Family Values

For the 27-year-old’s mum Jacqueline used to run Birchwood Amateur Dramatic Society and is the first to give her son a full review of what she thought of his work on stage.

Oliver, a former Birchwood High and Priestley College student, is currently starring in The Addams Family which creeps its way into The Lowry in Salford Quays from August 29.

But Oliver’s mum and dad, Jacqueline and Brian, travelled up for the opening night in Edinburgh in April.

He said: “It was wonderful to have them there.

“They have really supported me and I think they’re coming to more venues throughout the tour.

“It was amazing to have them there because it was a nerve wracking night.

“My family say I’m their excuse to have a night out and a drink. My siblings all have kids.

“I’m the youngest of four and they’ll organise babysitters to come to the theatre.

“I don’t feel the pressure when my mum’s there but I know after the show she will give me a rundown of what she liked and what she didn’t like.

“She’s very thorough. I think she’s a frustrated actress so she sort of lives everything through me.”

Oliver does not mind a bit though because in a way he is paying his mum back. He found his flair for the theatrical through her.

He added: “Amateur dramatics and everything she did was always part of my life.

“I recall coming downstairs when I was six or seven and there were people making part of a set and painting props in the living room.

“They were my mum’s friends so they were always around the house.

“I was very much a part of it. I was in some of the shows that she put on but I also remember just watching from the auditorium.

“It was well known that if someone forgot a line I shouted out because I’d watched it so often.

“I had a memory like a sponge then.

“I remember being sat there eating a bowl of soup listening to these conversations about the next musical they were going to do or how they were going to improve the current musical.

“They didn’t let me play on the sets but I tried the costumes on and I was very much there at the centre of it.

“There was a guy called Dean. I think he works at the BP garage in Birchwood now. He was amazing.

“He was a very good dancer. His choreography was inspired by Michael Jackson and I remember doing a dance duet with him as a young boy.

“I did bit parts in my mum’s pantomimes but when I was 10 at Birchwood CE Primary School I played Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

“I remember when I told my parents they were really emotional because it’s a big part and it had a lot of solo songs.

“I was just 10 and it was just a primary school show but it meant a lot to them.

“So that’s a really vivid memory and I remember my teacher Mrs Davies telling my mum: ‘You need to make sure he pursues the arts’.

But despite that promising start Oliver never considered a career on the stage until he was about 17.

At first the Manchester United fan, who played for Bruche Athletic and Birchwood Juniors, wanted to be a footballer.

Then Oliver wanted to become a physiotherapist before his mind wandered back to the stage.

He got his big break just recently when he understudied and played Elder Price in the musical comedy The Book of Mormon in the West End.

Oliver played the lead role 60 times before he found out he had got the part of Lucas Beineke in The Addams Family in October.

He said: “It’s great because having been in The Book of Mormon for the last two years I’ve been in London.

“It’s been hard sometimes for friends in Warrington and family members to make the journey to see me because of the expense of hotels and travel.

“So to be coming to The Lowry where they can easily see me is amazing. I really can’t wait for it.”

So after the 1960s TV show and 1990s films what can theatre goers expect from the stage version?

Oliver added: “Charles Addams wrote these cartoons and created these characters in the 1930s for The New Yorker.

“So it is all those characters you love but in our story Wednesday (Carrie Hope Fletcher) is grown up.

“Wednesday is 18 now and has fallen in love. It is a feeling she has never felt before.

“She’s fallen in love with a normal boy from Ohio and I’m that normal boy, Lucas.

“It’s about how she struggles with that and she confides in her dad and they agree to have one normal night where they invite the Beinekes around for dinner.

“It’s a bit like Meet the Parents with all those sorts of things that go wrong.

“We’re the relatable family because we react how you and your family would react to going around to the Addams family mansion with ghosts and all sorts of weird and wonderful things.

“The Thing makes an appearance and there are 10 lead characters but also 10 ensemble members. They’re called the Ancestors. They’re previously Addams family members who have died and are now ghosts.

“They move things so are very much involved with the set as well.

“The audience have been absolutely loving it. It’s such a family friendly show.

“It’s such a spectacle and even though there are adult jokes they will fly straight over the kids’ heads.

“The music is wonderful as well. Myself and Wednesday have the pop songs, Gomez (Cameron Blakely) is a Spanish character so his music has that Spanish and Latin feel and Morticia (Samantha Womack) has the big Broadway numbers.”

Oliver is also the first to portray new character Lucas which he say is its own reward.

He added: “It’s so much fun playing Lucas because with the Addams family themselves the audience come with a preconception of how they should be portrayed because of the films or because of the TV series.

“But Lucas is a new character so I had more freedom. He’s attracted to Wednesday and he’s attracted to the darkness.

“From the outside he’s all happy and all American with neat hair and a big smile but he has that appreciation of the darkness.

“It intrigues him so I had to get that in there.”

• The Addams Family is at The Lowry in Salford Quays from August 29 to September 9.
• For tickets visit thelowry.com or call the box office on 0843 208 6000