What can a musical about America’s spookiest family teach us about our own families? A lot, says Pat Rundell, director of a new stage production of The Addams Family: A New Musical Comedy.
The world first met the Addams family in The New Yorker magazine in 1938. Charles Addams’ single-panel cartoons depicted a nameless, gothic family whose close-knit nature, coupled with peculiar values, turned the notion of normality on its head.
Featuring a cast of 45 of Victoria’s top talent, The Addams Family will again be brought to life for Kaleidoscope Theatre’s Halloween-time yearly fundraiser. Inspired by the original cartoons and TV series, Rundell has worked to create a show true to the Addams’ black-and-white origins.
“For this show, I went back to a lot of the original drawings from The New Yorker from the ’30s, and Charles Addams had a lot of input on the original sitcom,” says Rundell. “I still pull a lot of inspiration from the films, so fans of the films will still see some familiar things and some flashbacks and nods, but I really wanted to be true to who Charles Addams wanted the Addams family to be.”
The first and most iconic The Addams Family adaptation was the 1964Đ66 television sitcom, opening with the familiar harpsichord and finger-snapping theme. The 1991 film, starring Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, and Christina Ricci, was a popular remake, and it was followed by a 1993 sequel.
Ad campaigns, a 1999 TV series still in reruns, and the highest-selling pinball game of all time have kept the Addamses a part of popular culture, notes Rundell, a longtime fan.
“There’s still a lot of love for the family,” he says. “I think the Addamses are still relevant and still very prominent in pop culture.”
After comics, TV, pinball, and films, we finally get to meet the Addamses in a stage musical. But how do the family’s macabre sensibilities survive a translation to live musical form on stage?
“Very well,” says Rundell. “The musical is extremely funny, but it’s very… touching at the same time. It’s very kooky, you know the old theme song: ‘They’re creepy and they’re kooky, mysterious and spooky, they’re altogether ooky.’ That really comes through in the musical; it’s something really kooky, but with a kind of tongue-in-cheek dark side at the same time.”
In this new story, the Addamses face a common family milestone: their daughter Wednesday is all grown up, and she’s bringing home her first boyfriend with his parents to meet her family. The issue at hand? Formerly grim Wednesday’s new man, Lucas, is from a perfectly average, ordinary family. Will her morbid and sophisticated parents ever approve of these typical Midwesterners? Just as importantly, couldn’t her family just act normal for one evening?
“The Addamses are a little bit… different,” explains Rundell. “So it’s very nerve-wracking for Wednesday because she knows that her parents won’t approve. Lucas’ parents are very different from who the Addamses are. They go to church every Sunday and are a very typical, all-American family.”
From Rundell’s first suggestions to select the show, which originated on Broadway in 2010, and right through production, staging this macabre clash of cultures has been a welcome experience for the director, cast, and crew.
“We had a lot of fun getting it created and a lot of fun assembling the costumes, building the larger-than-life set pieces…” he says. “Everyone has jumped on board and they’re very excited about it.”
The play is creepy, kooky, mysterious, and spooky, but also fun, funny and heartwarming. With an enthusiastic team behind it, Rundell hopes the audience will take something away from the production.
“It’s going to be a great show, and it’s a fundraiser for the company, so I really want them to have a great time, learn a bit about Kaleidoscope, and take away the meaning of what family is,” he says. “This musical is all about family and unconditional love.”
The Addams Family
Friday, October 31 to Sunday, November 2
$25 and up, McPherson Playhouse
kaleidoscope.bc.ca