They’re creepy and kooky
Mysterious and spooky
They’re all together ooky
The Addams Family
(The Addams Family television show theme)

That pretty much describes anyone who’s not acquainted with the Addams Family, be it from the 1960’s black-and-white TV program or the several Hollywood remakes. They’re a family that’s well, different. They embrace gloom, despair and the general darkness of life, eschewing sunshine, flowers and anything well, happy.

But in a morbid-funny way.

And now put to music.

Currently at Meadville’s Academy Theatre “The Addams Family – A Musical Comedy,” showcases the fun side of weirdness.

Just in time for the Halloween season.

The show begins with Wednesday (Alyssa Whalen), the dour, only daughter of Gomez (Jordan B. Wolfe) and Morticia Addams (Anne Conti) revealing to her father that she’s fallen in love and wants to get married. And not with anyone her family would approve of. After all, Mal Beineke (Eric Ziegler) is “normal.” (Well, as normal as you or I.) And so are his parents: poetry-spouting Alice (Emily Olszewski) and uptight businessman Lucas (Ben Kuhn-Syed).

The problem? Wednesday wants her parents’ permission. Confiding this Gomez, who’s not necessarily sold on the idea, he knows that Morticia will be the toughest “nut” to crack, so to speak.

So what better way to spring it upon her mother then with a dinner with the Beinekes at the Addams house-of-horrors home?

Along with Wednesday’s brother, Pugsley (Adam Reagle), a masochist, who derives pleasures from his sister’s various tortures, a cranky, potion-pusher “Grandma” (Jennifer Bemis), a very tall, silent, zombie-like butler, Lurch (Kevin Geyer), and Gomez’s brother, Uncle Fester (Evan Gleason), a bald, black kiltwearing whatizzit, what could possibly go wrong?

Directed and choreographed by Julia Kemp, the musical contains several sprightly tunes: “When You’re an Addams,” “Live Before We Die/Tango de Amor” as well as the tender “Wednesday’s Growing Up” and Uncle Fester’s goofball love song, “The Moon and Me.”

With the ghostly “Addams Ancestors” cast performing silently in most scenes, the main cast handles its acting chores with fun and flair: from Whalen’s spooky “Wednesday” who’s afraid of something she can’t quite fathom-love-to Wolfe’s sword-wielding-ever-lusty-for-his-wife, “Gomez,” to Conti’s “Morticia,” a gloomy model for Goth girls everywhere, to Gleason’s “Uncle Fester,” the show’s ecentric narrator.

And let’s not forget the Beinekes: Ziegler’s “Mal,” Olszewski’s “Alice” and Kuhn-Syed’s “Lucas,” who demonstrate to the audience it’s okay to occasionally let your “freak flag” fly.

A show for the entire family, “The Addams Family” exhibits that it’s okay to be a little weird. In fact, maybe it’s “weird” to be too “normal?”

Okay, if you haven’t discerned from the review above how much I enjoyed show, how about this: I plan to definitely see it again before it closes!

Don’t miss this spooky Halloween “treat!”

***Gregory Greenleaf

The Addams Family – A Musical Comedy continues through October 19. For more information, visit www.TheAcademyTheatre.org

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