BWW Reviews: THE ADDAMS FAMILY Still Kookey After All These Years

They're creepy and they're kookey, mysterious and spooky, they're all together ookey -THE ADDAM'S FAMILY. *Snap*Snap*

The music starts and the audience snaps at the same time. We all know the opening song from watching the television show no one needs the musical director cueing us. THE ADDAMS FAMILY is based on the cartoons and television shows that were spawned from the inspiration and imagination of cartoonist Charles Samuel Addams. The story in the musical is very similar to the move "Addams Family Values" in that there is a love interest for Wednesday Friday Addams (Jennifer Fogarty). The story in the musical is original in that Wednesday actually gets engaged and asks her father Gomez (Jesse Sharp) to keep it a secret from Morticia (KeLeen Snowgren).

The book authors Marshall Brickman & Rick Elice and music and lyricist Andrew Lippa did a fantastic job of keeping the same type of humor that those of us who grew up with the television show remember. I was laughing through most of the show.

The production was high quality. The sets were very grand and lacked vibrant colors. The puppeteering included some of the characters that would have been missed: Cousin It, Thing, as well as Uncle Festor's dance with the moon. And the costumes were amazing, even the ghosts had wonderful designs. To be honest though, I did want Morticia's purple and black lace dress. The costumes gave a nod to the television show's style of costuming. I appreciated the tinge of nostalgia that Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott's designs inspired.

THE ADDAMS FAMILY was very fun. Some of the humor is a bit adult, but it is not blatant and all in good fun. And the moral of the story is always about family and how important family is.