Renee Koher, who plays Morticia Addams in the Arizona Broadway Theater’s production of The Addams Family, knew she wanted to star in musicals since she was 14 years old.
Koher’s childhood was filled with music, from singing with her grandmother to setting up little plays in her backyard with other neighborhood kids.
“By the time I was in junior high, I knew I really loved musical theater. I knew this is what I wanted to do with my life,” she said.
Koher attended the Hartt School of Musical Theater at the University of Hartford to get her bachelors in fine arts, her inspiration being her high school music teacher, she said.
“He was always so supportive of me, and at times when the other music teachers weren’t as supportive, he was always there,” Koher said. “He always inspired me to continue to sing and continue to do different styles of music too.”
Koher said her favorite part of being a performer was being able to connect with the audience.
“We touched people. We made people think and feel. And have emotions. And connected to them. And I think that’s one of the most incredible parts of being in the theater,” she said. “We’re not on a screen. We’re right in front of you … so they know what we’re feeling and we know what they’re feeling.”
Brad York plays Gomez Addams in the musical and is also the director of marketing at the Arizona Broadway Theater said Koher is “authentically intense,” and someone who puts more pressure on herself to be perfect than what is expected of her.
“She’s genuinely invested in everything she does. And probably takes things for herself more seriously than maybe people put on her,” he said.
After getting the role of Morticia Addams, Koher said she did research on the various portrayals of the character throughout the years. Koher hoped to combine the sensuality of the portrayal of Morticia in the movies and the quirkiness of Morticia in the TV shows while making her “a real woman with real problems and real feelings,” she said.
“It’s the small things like the fluidity of Morticia’s movements or the way she plays with her eyes” that brings the essence of Morticia Addams out on stage Koher said.
Corinne Seaver is a student of Koher and said Koher always puts 100% into every performance and wants the audience to feel the character from “the minute she steps on stage.”
“She’s already in character two or three minutes before she goes on stage,” she said.
A large part of Morticia’s character is her love for her husband Gomez and her role as wife and mother. Koher and the actors that play Gomez work hard to mimic the same chemistry on stage, York said.
“When we flirt as Morticia and Gomez, I really feel like I’m flirting as Morticia and Gomez. When we kiss, I feel like it’s really Morticia and Gomez giving a powerful performance,” York said. “I think there’s a playfulness between us that is authentic to what our personalities are like off the stage,” he added.
In addition to acting and performing, Koher works four jobs. When she isn’t on stage, she is teaching voice lessons, booking shows, and works for a dance studio and catering company.
“You have to do theater because you love it. Not because you think you’re going to get a big check at the end of the day,” she said.
Koher recalled her proudest moment when she performed the titular role in Mary Poppings. “After the show, the kids who loved Mary Poppins came and hugged me and told me how much they loved her … it felt so good knowing that I did a good job for these people,” she said.
Koher said despite the fun and the glamor, the life of a performer is exhausting.
After a few years of performing, Koher took a break after a show in Alaska and spent six months as a canoe guide.
After picking up performing again for a few more years, Koher went to work in a ski lodge in Utah.
“My philosophy … is that you have one life, so you do as much as you possibly can in that one life you were given,” she says, “[taking a break] was never about not loving performing, it was about my feeling of wanting to experience everything.”
Throughout her years of performing, Koher said she learned that “If you give 150 million percent of your soul. You will move people. You will inspire others.”
The Addams Family will be at The Herberger Theater from July 12-28. Tickets are on sale at The Herberger Theater’s website.
Contact the reporter sgarg32@asu.edu.
