To paraphrase Addams Family patriarch Gomez, “Ah, the intoxicating sounds of a silly musical!”
With a nod and comedic style that echoes the venerable TV classic and the film adaptations of the early 1990s, The Addams Family brings on the twisted, ironic humor and adds witty music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, offering a feast of wild characters and a story that amuses and warms the heart. Of course, New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams began showing the world his twisted family in the late 1930s, but it was due to the ’60s TV show and later film adaptations that pop culture writ large embraced this family hiding in plain sight in Central Park, marching to their own beat.
McLean Community Players chose the spooky month of October to present this tuneful and terrifyingly funny show to audiences ready to be tortured with fun and scared silly. Perfect timing!
Director Jake C. Schwartz truly understood the assignment, casting a wacky band of talented thespians who embrace the arch style of humor and the darkly humorous milieu of the show.
Present, of course, are the recognizable family members we all love: father Gomez, mother Morticia, eldest daughter Wednesday, younger brother Pugsley, as well as their Grandma, and the kookiest of all, Uncle Fester, Gomez’s brother. And who could forget their nearly silent butler, Lurch — the lumbering and kind-hearted zombie.
Adding to the Addams tribe in the silly plot of the show are the myriad ancestors who are supposed to make an annual visit from their crypt to celebrate the entire family — “living, dead … and undecided.”
But Uncle Fester informs the assembled dearly departed kin they are stuck above ground until true love triumphs, especially because teenaged Wednesday has fallen in love with — pause for dramatic effect! — a boy from Ohio — “a swing state!”
It is on this premise that the show’s comedic engine is fueled as Gomez and Morticia maneuver parenting a love-struck teen and her destructive and jealous little brother. Meanwhile, Fester has his own romantic entanglement (he has a crush on the moon), and Grandma adds moments of macabre and homespun humor along the way.
Schwartz has been able to cast a group of actors who seem to have been born to play their roles, and all excel at the campy style provided by Lippa’s score and the darkly droll book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice.
Leading the ensemble are Apollo Yong and Leah Chiaverini as Gomez and Morticia. Yong brings loose-limbed skills to enhance his double-takes and over-the-top reactions. As his vampiric and sardonic bride, Chiaverini revels in the dead of her deadpan delivery. Their manic energy infuses the scenes they lead, and their musical skills are perfectly in tune with the show. Solo moments for each of them, such as Gomez’s “What If” and Morticia’s “Just Around the Corner,” are highlights, but their duo turn “Live Before We Die” and their leading of the inevitable “Tango de Amor” are standouts.
The petite Sophie Page makes for the perfect Wednesday, complete with a strong belting voice that handles her musical numbers skillfully. Page embraces her role’s acerbic delivery as well. Riley Hogan displays a mix of petulant attitude and vulnerability as Pugsley, the explosive-loving kid brother. Page and Hogan’s performances in such songs as “Pulled,” “What If,” and “Crazier Than You” were first-rate.
Note: Hogan portrays Pugsley on October 16 (evening) and October 17 (matinee). Samantha Regan takes on the role on October 17 (evening) and October 18 (matinee).
Providing goofy charm and quirkiness for days, Michael Blinde embodies the bald and big-hearted Uncle Fester as if the role had been written for him. Like a doppelgänger for TV’s original Fester Jackie Coogan, Blinde handles his comic turns and musical duties like a seasoned song and dance man. His turn, along with the ancestors, in “The Moon and Me” warms the heart.
Representing the real world — visitors from Ohio — who are no less quirky and have their own issues, Andres Del Campo, Marissa Liotta, and Nate Eagle play the Beineke family. Del Campo makes a compelling lovesick boy, while Eagle is the uptight father figure who has lost his taste for the wild side of life. Liotta, as rhyme-loving Alice, nearly matches any of the Addams family with eccentric energy. When she accidentally gulps down the special potion Pugsley prepared to zap his sister, Liotta’s Alice cuts loose in a musical tour de force that blows the roof off the theatrer, letting out her pent-up inhibitions and letting loose a huge, lyrical belt.
Grandma, played by Loren Blinde, and Dino Vergura, as Lurch, round out the central family unit with many moments of comedic relief and more than a few surprises.
Schwartz and his collaborators and cast have also tailored the array of Addams ancestors to form a wide-ranging variety of clever family members, each one brought to undead life with verve: Salem Witch (Haley Viar), Bride (Maggie Rocha), Flapper (Jackie Rogers), Caveman (Mason Goldberg), Court Jester (Zach Burgess), Cowgirl (Shannon Hardy), Swing Dancer (Grace Miller) and a Princess (Emily Barrett). Unique ancestors popped up as a Suffragist (Kate Clark), a Ring Leader (Jessica Ferebee-Doyen), a Pokémon Trainer (Anthony Pairo) and — complete with a lightsaber — a Jedi (Jeffrey Mouritzen). The hair and makeup designs for the entire cast, especially the ancestors, gave them a wonderful look, provided by Erin Sanders.
The ancestors and the entire cast executed Melanie Campbell’s delightful choreography effortlessly. G. Weiss costumed the show with a memorable, offbeat style that complemented the characters, dead or alive. The Addams mansion was effectively simple, with sets and lighting designed by Adam Renner and Sam Jensen, respectively.
The cast has able and precise support from music director and conductor Sam Weich and the 12-piece pit orchestra, always well balanced between the actors onstage and the accompaniment. The sound design and amplification of the performers were also superb, providing clarity throughout the performances.
MCP has hit the nail in the coffin perfectly this time, with a director and a cast that embraced the style and substance of this tuneful show. And programming it in October is impeccable timing to “move toward the darkness” and revisit those “mysterious and spooky” members of the Addams clan.
Running Time: Two hours and 30 minutes with one 15-minute intermission.
The Addams Family plays through October 18, 2026, presented by McLean Community Players, performing at The Alden Theatre, located at 1234 Ingleside Ave, McLean, VA. Tickets to reserve seating cost $25 for adults, $20 for seniors 65+ and students, and $18 for McLean Tax District Residents and groups of 10 or more. Tickets can be purchased at the door before the show, online, or by emailing mcleanplayersva@gmail.com.
The Addams Family
Music and Lyrics by Andrew Lippa
Book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice
