The Addams Family: A New Musical

The University of Idaho Department of Theatre Arts presents “The Addams Family: A New Musical.” There will be seven shows, starting with a preview night at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24, at the Hartung Theatre, 625 Stadium Drive, Moscow. Click here to view the program.

About the Production

“The Addams Family,” a comical feast that embraces the wackiness in every family, features an original story and it’s every father’s nightmare: Wednesday Addams, the ultimate princess of darkness, has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family — a man her parents have never met. And if that wasn’t upsetting enough, Wednesday confides in her father and begs him not to tell her mother. Now, Gomez Addams must do something he’s never done before — keep a secret from his beloved wife, Morticia. Everything will change for the whole family on the fateful night they host a dinner for Wednesday’s “normal” boyfriend and his parents.

Craig A. Miller, director of “The Addams Family” and a U of I Theatre faculty member who recently performed in “Every Brilliant Thing,” said this production strikes a balance of honoring the iconic characters and creating new interpretations. 

“So much about these characters is so iconic, you really do have to balance what has come to pass with any new interpretations that we might want to bring to life in telling of this version of the Addams Family story,” Miller said. “I think our production strikes the right amount of iconography and new, so they will clearly recognize their favorite Addams characters, but with a fun and creative flare.”

Kari Wilsey, a senior Theatre Arts BFA student, said she is striving to play the character of Morticia in her own unique way.

“She is such an iconic figure, and I have had a lot of fun crafting my version of her,” Wilsey said. “No one is ever going to play the same Morticia, and I want to bring all of the qualities that will make my Morticia unique and worthwhile.”

While Wilsey has acted in numerous shows in the department, including “Amelie,” “Go Dog, Go!” and “Orlando,” first-year Cale Wilponen is acting in his first U of I Theatre Department production as Pugsley Addams.

“Through this process, I have been able to learn a lot about this theatre department’s processes and also the processes of professional theatre,” Wilponen said. “I’m incredibly thankful for the opportunity to be able to get this experience with the U of I Theatre Department, and I hope to be able to continue throughout my next four years.”

In addition to the nightly magic “The Addams Family” will create for audiences, the department is hosting a special Halloween event during the 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 31, performance.
“As a special addition to ‘The Addams Family’ experience, if audiences come to the Halloween night performance, there will be pre-show trick-or-treating in the lobby with some fun characters and a costume contest on stage at intermission with amazing prizes,” Miller said. “Best of all, everyone will get to meet and have photos with ‘The Addams Family’ cast of characters — in full costume — in the lobby after the performance.”

“The Addams Family: A New Musical” is full of wacky fun for the whole family.

“My hope is that audiences walking out of The Addams Family will be saying to themselves, ‘Normal?! What does that even mean?’” Miller said.

History of The Addams Family

The Addams Family is a property that dates back nearly a century. In 1933, cartoonist Charles Addams got his start as a professional cartoonist drawing single panel comics for the New Yorker. His off-beat, slightly macabre sense of humor made an impression on readers.

In 1938, Addams drew the first comic in what would later become The Addams Family. It is a simple comic depicting an enterprising vacuum salesman attempting to sell to a tall slender woman with dark hair in a dilapidated Victorian mansion, with a Frankensteinian butler by her side. Addams would return to these characters again and again, adding new family members and solidifying the ethos that has guided the family all this time. They have an unending love and devotion to their family, only matched by their love of the dark, twisted, and the macabre.

Charles Addams’s strange spooky cartoon captured the imagination of readers everywhere. Their identity became inextricably linked to the strange cartoonist that drew them. These unnamed characters became “Addams’s family,” his creations, his kin, and ultimately his namesake.

Then in 1964, with Charles Addams’s help, ABC created a sitcom version of the family, giving them names, solidifying their personalities, and introducing staple characters like the helpful disembodied hand of Thing and the small, hirsute, Cousin Itt. While only airing for two seasons, the show’s 64 episodes made an indelible mark on pop culture. It catapulted the off-beat New Yorker cartoon into national icons of the gothic and alternative.

Since then, they have never been far from the spotlight. From reunion specials to animated movies, video games to major blockbusters, failed TV pilots to a massively successful Netflix TV show, The Addams Family has endured all this time. Audiences everywhere have shown that they have a permanent place in their hearts for the devoted, loyal, and “altogether ooky” Addams Family.

By Dramaturg Blake Watson