They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky. They're all together ooky—The Addams Family. Buh-da-da-dum. Snap, snap.
That pesky little ear worm will be familiar to viewers of the 1960s TV series The Addams Family, about the deliciously death-obsessed Addams clan. The show, which featured characters like the hunched and hairless Uncle Fester and Lurch, the family's Frankenbutler, was a cult classic.
New life has been breathed into their story in The Addams Family: A New Musical which is having its Canadian premiere at Neptune Theatre. In it, the ghoulish parents Gomez and Morticia discover that their gothy 18-year-old daughter Wednesday has fallen in love with a regular "warm-blooded" boy. Disaster ensues when the love-birds' families meet.
"What's really beautiful about this story is that the Addams Family, who are supposedly the freakish ones, end up seeming kind of normal in comparison to the 'normal' family," says Rob Torr, the Toronto-based actor who plays Gomez. "Despite their weirdness, the Addams' are the ones with the old-fashioned family values. The other family turns out to be the dysfunctional one."
Torr promises that the audience will enjoy the show on many levels: as a surprisingly touching story, a quirky comedy and a first-rate musical. "Andrew Lippa belongs to the new generation of theatre composers. His music is so contemporary.
"But there's also an element of classic vaudeville that George"—Pothitos, the show's director—"does really well. It makes for a really incredible show.
The Addams Family
Through May 31
Neptune Theatre, 1593 Argyle Street
