REVIEW: Wonderfully Nostalgic, THE ADDAMS FAMILY THE MUSICAL Is A Delightful Escape

Tuesday 14th July 2026, 7pm, Hayes Theatre, Potts Point NSW

Inspired by Charles Addams’ characters, THE ADDAMS FAMILY THE MUSICAL is a delightfully “kooky” homage to the source material and the subsequent television and cinema legacy with a ‘wholesome’ plot that reminds us that beneath the dark and ‘spooky’ they were a loving and supportive family with concerns common to most people.  16 years on from Marshall Brick and Rick Elice (both book) and Andrew Lippa’s (music and lyrics) work had its Broadway premiere, this work has a timelessness, even with the New York centric references.

Many people are likely to have some memory of the macabre Addams Family.  First seen in in 1933 when Charles Addams’ single panel gag cartoons were first published in The New Yorker, there have been multiple television series, the first in 1965, various animated series, comic books, multiple movies, and more.  THE ADDAMS FAMILY THE MUSICAL brings the story back to the core family from the cartoons with a few references to later characters.  Wednesday Addams (Jenny Guigayoma), the eldest child of Gomez (Marcus Rivera) and Morticia (Erika Heynatz), has fallen in love with the more conventional Lucas Beineke (Alexander Tye).  Uncle Fester (Evan Lever), a hopeless romantic, has decided to do whatever it takes to ensure the two get their happily ever after, even if that means enlisting the help of the family’s dead ancestors (Mae Li Cowell, Paloma Renouf, Jayden Prelec, Nathan Fernandez, Kayla Ingle-Olson, and Joey Phyland), but it soon becomes clear that the Addams family, for all their quirks, aren’t as dysfunctional as their guests from Ohio, Lucas and his parents Alice (Teagan Wouters) and Mal (Rory O’Keefe). 

Anchoring the work in its illustrated origins, Production Designer Dann Barber has created a wonderfully detailed monochrome set.  Trope l'œil drawings transform the walls into a gothic mansion while the featured furniture of coffins are given additional features with the ‘sketched’ adornments and even the stage ‘curtain’ turning the Hayes into a proscenium stage is drawn to appear textured, until the airconditioner turns the flat cutouts of tassles.  Barber’s costuming carries on the black and white cartoon theme with a differentiation between the living and dead through the dominance of blacks and charcoal for the living and whites and light sooty greys for the ancestors. The blandness of the Beineke’s is reinforced with their conservative costumes which highlight how unique each of the Addams’ costumes are, from the ancestors from different periods in history, and the family whose attire is informed by the comic. 

Director Julia Robertson has bought together the 16 strong cast to deliver a fabulously fun and energetic performance that has multiple layers of comedy throughout.  The attention to detail with the supporting characters, particularly the awareness that manservant Lurch (Elliot Aitken), who wears a representation of the mansion, is too tall to safely leave through some ‘doorways’ and steals the scene when the audience realise that that he’s embarrassed to be staying while Gomez has a crisis of conscience but is trapped by virtue of his rigidity. While the disembodied hand, Thing, was not added to the family until 1954, Roberton has ensured that it is remembered, both pre-show as Lurch has it scoot around the stage on a remote-controlled car, and throughout the show with the assistance of the ensemble.  Robertson acknowledges that much of the audience will have memories of the various ‘franchise’ productions, whether it be television, books or movies, so plays into that connection while ensuring there is enough for someone less familiar with the family to follow the plot.  Robertson ensures the pace and presentation of the work play into the absurdity of Charles Addams’ original work while still making sure that the family are ultimately seen as loving and caring of each other, even if they may express their love through multiple plots to eliminate or severely injure each other. 

THE ADDAMS FAMILY THE MUSICAL is a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with the original weird family and the expression recalling the printed origins makes for a piece with lots of surprises as the design and direction tackle plot points with creativity.  A strong ensemble work while also bringing strong newcomers to the Hayes stage, this is a fun way to escape the real world for a while and reconnect with absurd, silly and fun.

The Addams Family | Hayes Theatre Co

Photos: James Reiser

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