Smack dab in the middle of the week, this seems like a good time to talk about Wednesday Addams.
You might remember her as a little girl with a furrowed brow and a taste for torture. But now she’s grown up and she’s changed her ways — to the dismay of her parents, Morticia and Gomez.
“She’s perky” … “She’s bubbly” … “She’s optimistic,” they fret, as cast and crew prepare to present “The Addams Family, a musical comedy” July 21 through Aug. 6 at the Music Box Dinner Playhouse in Swoyersville.
“She’s thinking about butterflies and dressing in yellow (instead of her usual black),” director Sarah Pellegrini said, noting with a laugh that these alarming (to the Addams family) developments are due to Wednesday falling in love with Lucas, a young man from a “normal” family.
If you’ve never been introduced to the Addams Family on their hit black-and-white television show from the 1960s, or in the 1991 movie starring Christina Ricci as Wednesday and Angelica Huston as Morticia, or on the streaming series that debuted in November starring Jenna Ortega as Wednesday, maybe you’re wondering what it is that makes the ghoulish group somewhat …. extraordinary.
“They like darkness and pain and all kinds of abnormal things,” said Julz Martin, 19, of Mountain Top, who portrays Wednesday at Music Box. “But what brings them together is love.”
“There’s a really sweet moment in the show, between Gomez and Wednesday,” Pellegrini said. “He’s happy that she’s found someone to love, but he’s missing the little girl she used to be.”
Hmm. She used to be the kind of little girl who scared off door-to-door preachers and sealed her little brother into a wall.
But none of that prevents her boyfriend, Lucas, from falling for her.
“The way I’m presenting him, Lucas is a social outcast himself,” said Zander Feist, 19, of Wilkes-Barre. “He’s poetic and romantic and he’s attracted to Wednesday even though they’re from entirely different universes. It shows the power of two people in love.”
So, what does Lucas think of a household full of potential in-laws who seem to resemble every scary entity from a vampire to a witch to a Frankenstein monster?
“He’s unnerved,” Feist said. “Pugsley (Wednesday’s brother) and Morticia are probably the scariest ones, to Lucas. But his attitude is, ’ You know what? Here I am in this environment and I’m just going to embrace it.’”
For insight into the young couple’s relationship, Feist and Martin said, wait for the song “I’m Crazier Than You,” which leads to a blindfolded Wednesday using a crossbow to shoot an apple off Lucas’ head.
Other elements to watch for?
The Addams family ancestors, outfitted by costume designer Eyanna Gruver, will represent ghosts from various periods of history, from a cave man and a Renaissance woman to a flight attendant.
And when cast members take a bow, Pellegrini said, you can expect fully choreographed song and dance, and perhaps the chance to catch a wedding bouquet.
The director said she’s enjoying working as part of an all-female production team, which is a first in Music Box’s 42-year history.
“We travel in a pack,” assistant director Jess Ross-Steltz said cheerfully. “I love working with these people.”
The creative team includes Jess Shafer, Becky Phillips, Abby Martino, Eyanna Gruver, Jessica Werbin, Eden Stella, and Ericka Palladino.
The production will run July 21 through Aug. 6 at the Music Box Dinner Playhouse, 196 Hughes St., Swoyersville, with Friday and Saturday shows at 8 p.m. and Sunday shows at 3 p.m. A buffet dinner is served 90 minutes before curtain, and the bar opens 2 hours before curtain. For reservations for either dinner and show, or show only, call 570-283-2195 or email reservations@musicbox.org/.
