It’s not quite Halloween, but the kookiest, spookiest family are in town for this funny and good-hearted musical tale featuring Charles Addams’ macabre characters.
Wednesday has fallen in love with Lucas, a boy from a ‘normal’ family and invited him and his parents to dinner, intending to reveal their marriage plans. She confides in her father Gomez, who is then torn between his love for his daughter and his marital vow of no secrets between him and his wife Morticia.
Meanwhile Uncle Fester has got wind of the romance and is blackmailing the ghostly Addams ancestors into helping seal the deal (or they won’t be allowed back in their crypt), and young Pugsly is worried his sister’s new beau will distract her from torturing him.
Lucas Fox is fun to watch as Gomez, the exuberant but tortured patriarch, and Nina Taylor is a wonderfully dead pan Morticia. Her dark comedy number, Just Around The Corner, is a highlight of the show.
The cast of ancestors seems a little too large for the Playhouse stage at points, but it does enable some nice set pieces including Fester’s lunar love song The Moon and Me, and the busy and lively setup of Full Disclosure.
The latter gives Becka Jillings the chance to let rip in her role as mousey mother Alice, when her accidentally spiked drink sees her lose her inhibitions and inadvertently reignite her flagging romance with buttoned-down dad Mal (Will Mugford).
They are united with Wednesday (Emmie Wright) and Lucas (Eddie Bays) in the sweet and silly Crazier Than You which helps, with a bit of help from the ancestors, to put things back on the right path.
There are snappy supporting performances from Meg Bays as Pugsley, and James Bell as the slowly gurning Lurch – and he has a few vocal surprises up his stilts too. Leo Oakley is an enjoyably cheeky Fester, breaking the fourth well as occasional narrator.
It’s a fun and entertaining show, and while they may have drained Boots of black hair dye, the comedy isn’t really all that dark, making this a show not just about but for families.
- Sound Ideas presents The Addams Family continues at Norwich Theatre Playhouse until Sunday 4 October 2026. Tickets £26.50.