Next weekend, “The Addams Family, A New Musical Comedy” will come to life at the South Arkansas Arts Center stage — which is beginning to resemble a haunted mansion.
The antics of “The Addams Family, A New Musical Comedy” will be brought to stage in the hilarious spring production slated to run March 3-5 and 9-11.
Rehearsals are under way and the characters are quickly coming to life as the actors learn their lines and practice singing and dancing scenes.
That lovable family of creepy kooks is alive and well and living in their super-spooky mansion in Central Park. The Addams family, led by the elegantly gaunt and seemingly undead Morticia and her ever-devoted husband, Gomez, is in turmoil. Their daughter, Wednesday, now 18, finds herself falling in love — a sensation that is unsettling for both her and her family of endearing misfits.
When the teen invites her new boyfriend, Lucas Beineke, over with his “normal” family to get better acquainted with the Addams household, comic chaos ensues. Cartoons make good fodder for the Broadway musical mill and there have been many- “L’il Abner,” “Annie” and ‘You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown” to name a few. But there are no shows derived from a single-panel cartoon except for “The Addams Family.”
They originally appeared as an unrelated group of 150 single-panel cartoons, which were published in The New Yorker, between their debut in 1938, and their creator Charles Addams’ death in 1988. They have since been adapted to other media and merchandising, including television series (both live and animated), books, soundtracks, films, video games and this hilarious live musical comedy.
The characters were undeveloped and unnamed until the television series production. The ‘evilution’ of Charles Addams’s eccentric family began long before the television and film interpretations made them icons of American popular culture. Addams first created Morticia, Lurch and The Thing, though he hadn’t named them at the time, or even conceived of a family unit. (When he did name the deadly matriarch, he was inspired by the Yellow Pages listing for ‘Morticians.’)
Other characters were born and developed in a multitude of Addams’s cartoons over the next 26 years, before the cheerfully creepy clan debuted on ABC television. As The New Yorker’s star cartoonist from the 1930s to the 1980s, Charles Addams practically invented dark humor in America. His cartoons found comedy at the intersection of the bizarre and the everyday, featuring ordinary people harboring exotically morose tendencies. Over the course of his lifetime, Addams illustrated 68 covers for The New Yorker and contributed more than 1,300 cartoons to the magazine, inspiring everyone from The Far Side cartoonist Gary Larson to film director Tim Burton.
Charles Addams’ most enduring creation, “The Addams Family,” reflected American values in a funhouse mirror, showcasing the paranoia, the darkness and the sweetness of suburban life. But as creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky as the characters are, they have nothing on Charles Addams himself.
In his heyday, Charles Addams was a celebrity, the type of person everyone wanted to know. Director Alfred Hitchcock once made a pilgrimage to Addams’ front door, just to catch a glimpse of him in his natural habitat. Popular lore had it that the cartoonist was a regular patient at New York State sanitariums and that he preferred his martinis garnished with eyeballs. And while many of the stories about Addams were exaggerated, there’s no doubt he had a penchant for the peculiar.
Instead of a standard coffee table, Addams used a Civil War-era embalming table. He also kept a collection of antique crossbows above his sofa and he used a young girl’s tombstone (“Little Sarah, Aged Three”) as a perch for his cocktails. Addams’ fascination with the macabre began early in life. Even as a child, he loved to explore graveyards. At the age of 8, he was caught breaking into a creepy Victorian mansion near his home.
His cartoons live on, largely because they tap into something in the American psyche. People connected — and still connect — to Addams’ fascination with the dark side of humanity. On the page, Addams’ characters were distinctly more wicked than their TV counterparts. In a Christmas drawing from The New Yorker in 1946, the family is seen on the roof of their dilapidated Victorian mansion, tipping a pot of boiling oil on the carolers below. Readers loved the cartoon so much that the magazine printed it on Christmas cards.
Although most of the humor derives from the fact that they share unusual interests, the Addamses are not evil. The Addamses are an eccentric, wealthy, artistic clan who delight in the macabre and are seemingly unaware or don’t care that other people find them bizarre or frightening. They are a close-knit extended family and they are generally friendly and hospitable to visitors despite the visitors’ horror at the Addamses’ peculiar lifestyle.
Gomez Addams (Matthew Cordell) is the patriarch of the family and the younger brother of Uncle Fester. He is a caring and enthusiastic father and is deeply in love with his wife, Morticia. He usually spends his time with unusual activities in the home, mostly accompanied by Uncle Fester.
Morticia is the matriarch of the family. Like her husband, she is very much involved with the raising of her children, and returns the amorous attention she receives from her husband. Her hobbies include art and taking care of the plants. She can be described as a vamp and is commonly seen wearing black Gothic dresses. Gomez’s nickname for Morticia is “Tish.” The part of Morticia Addams is played by Haley Phillips, who has graced the SAAC theatre as Velma in “Chicago” and other shows, and she is more than happy to bring Morticia’s straight-faced, morose persona to life.
“I grew up watching the Addams Family on TV. The challenge with Morticia is that people already know her,” Phillips said. Playing a character that people know requires an actor to stay within the confines of those established ideas, while still trying to make the character fully human and relatable in their relationships and reactions to other characters.
“Morticia isn’t a role that’s difficult for me to relate to because she’s a wife and mother and I am, too. I can use the established ideas as the base for playing Morticia, and as long as I establish her general demeanor in the beginning of the show, I can have her react and relate to others in a way that the audience understands and accepts. The danger, I think, in playing an iconic character is that it would be easy for the character to appear flat or one-dimensional. The actor still has to do an actor’s work, developing the character and analyzing each situation, each line,” Phillips said.
Wednesday is the intelligent daughter of Gomez and Morticia and the sister of Pugsley. She can be described as a girl with low enthusiasm who enjoys torturing her brother with dangerous objects, though in a friendly atmosphere. Unlike its other versions, she is the taller of the two children. Wednesday is trademarked by her pigtails and blue dress, and often carries her headless doll, Marie, (who she considers one of her best friends) with her.
Hali Pinson, who will be playing Wednesday Addams, is also a veteran of the SAAC stage, having played Lizzie in last summer’s “110 In The Shade.” “I really like how Wednesday goes from being this dark, intense girl to suddenly becoming this bubbly, almost giggly young woman because she’s found a guy who’s as crazy for her as Gomez is for Morticia. Wednesday really has no boundaries. I don’t have to worry about looking silly or going too far because when you’re an Addams, you live life how you want, no matter what. Plus, getting to tote around a crossbow for most of the show is pretty cool. I have never done a role this intense before and in this short amount of time,” Pinson said.
Pugsley (Carmelo Brown and Connor Stinson) is the son of Gomez and Morticia and the brother of Wednesday. He is described as slightly dimwitted but lovable. He has a close bond with his sister, but likes to terrorize her. Uncle Fester is Gomez’s bald, older brother with ghostly pale skin who takes a special interest in blowing himself up. He commonly joins the children with their unusual plans, taking it to the limit, and also spends a lot of his time inventing and creating formulas in the basement lab.
Like the others in the cast, Gary Hall, who will be playing Fester, has watched the Addams Family from childhood. Fester is the part that he auditioned for and he is looking forward to recreating his goofball antics. “I can’t wait,” he said. “Fester is actually quite intelligent despite his appearance to the contrary. We have a few things in common, as we are both balding and have a sunny outlook. And, I get to fall in love with the moon! Who does that?”
Grandmama (Beth Callaway and Pam Callaway) is Morticia’s mother, Uncle Fester and Gomez’s mother-in-law, and the grandmother of Wednesday and Pugsley. Granny is a witch with psychic powers, expressed through a crystal ball and does not get along with Uncle Fester. Granny is always trying to find a boyfriend, but she never succeeds.
Lurch is the blue-skinned butler for the Addams family. He is very tall and strong, which intimidates most guests, although he is, in fact, sweet. He almost never talks and usually responds by mumbling in a deep voice. Lurch is one of Wednesday’s best friends.
Roland Bradfute, who is playing Lurch, had this to say about his unusual character, ”I was first introduced to the Addams family way back in the mid-60s. My character is Lurch, the ominous, dark, imposing, gentle, menacing, friendly giant. He is the most interesting character, in my opinion. Some may think that I should have no problem getting into character or relating to the mind of the half dead, but it is a bit of a process. Lurch had a lot of living before entering his present state. This history had a pronounced impact on his current attitudes and ‘thoughtless’ processing. It is the base for his propensity of intermittent gentleness, his intense loyalty and his fierce protective nature towards those he once ‘loved,’ which is in contrast to his detached, fearless aggression and indifference to life or death. This juxtaposition in traits allows him to break your neck and rip out your heart with his left hand while tenderly cradling a frightened baby bird in his right.”
As with every musical, the score is extremely important in helping to develop the character’s persona on stage. This show, being a “musical comedy,” has the extra responsibility of bringing the comical feel to the music, as well. At the very beginning of the show, one can hear the distinct sounds from the cartoon theme that most viewers will recognize, written by Vic Mizzy, and it is heard throughout the other songs during the show. The instruments are very reflective of these unique and oddball characters.
When Morticia enters, you can often hear sultry strings to mimic her graceful movements. Gomez has music that is full of flare and pizazz to emphasize his dramatic personality. Wednesday has music that is full of percussion and determination as she begins to turn into her own person and become an adult.
Hannah Bowen, music director for the show, said, ”As every character enters, we can hear a distinct reflection of their personality and the amazing people in the cast have such wonderful voices that reflect this. Haley Phillips as Morticia uses her husky alto to bring forth this character as opposed to Matthew Cordell, who has a bright tenor voice to give Gomez a sense of showmanship. You will fall over yourselves laughing to hear Roland Bradfute’s rumbling bass voice as the perfect Lurch. We cannot wait to show off our musical talent,” she said.
“The Addams family is just your “average” and “normal” family. What family doesn’t have their own collection of antique torture devices? And, just like the Addams, we hope for “darkness, grief and unspeakable sorrow,” right? This type of tongue and cheek humor is what you will find throughout this musical comedy that is fun for the entire family.
The box office is now open for tickets to “The Addams Family, A New Musical Comedy,” sponsored by SAMA Healthcare, Teague Auto Group and Southern Bancorp. Tickets are $5 for students, $25 for non-members and $15 for SAAC members. Call the SAAC office at 870-862-5474 between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. or come by the office located at 110 E. Fifth St., El Dorado.