The Addams Family musical ‘a long time coming’ for local theatre

“I just know we’re going to have a final product that’s going to knock people’s socks off,” says Tim Murphy, the director of the upcoming musical comedy, “The Addams Family.”

The cast and crew of the Musical Comedy Guild’s latest production is inviting residents to get into the Halloween spirit at the end of the month.

The Addams Family was originally slated to run in May 2020 before the pandemic disrupted plans six weeks prior to opening night.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Murphy says. “This has been in the works for over three years now. It’s been a real labour of love.”

Since announcing plans to give the show another try several months ago, Murphy and his team faced a significant number of changes after their choreography lead and seven cast members from the 2020 production couldn’t rejoin because of new commitments, leaving the director feeling a bit stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“It got to the point where we had to decide whether to try and remember what we had already done, or in some cases just start from scratch again,” he says. “Some of the stuff remained the same, and we recognized other things would just be easier to teach the new people certain things and start over.”

“Once we recast the show, it’s just been a matter of putting the pieces back together,” he adds.

A spin-off from the Addams Family television show, the musical focuses on Wednesday Addams, now a grown teenager, who invites her normal boyfriend and his parents over for dinner at the Addams Family household. Wednesday has pleaded with her family to have just one normal night, and despite their best efforts to become a typical family for once – everything goes wrong.

Like the musical’s plot, Murphy says the path to pulling off the show has been anything but normal, but he explains some recent momentum has propelled them into an incredibly promising position.

“There’s a lot of newbies coming into this show, but a lot of veteran performers as well,” he says. “In the last two weeks, they’ve really gelled. The team effort has been incredible. The cast is ready to go.”

Cast members are shifting their practices into the community theatre today after practicing out of the former St. Ignatius Church for the last several months – a family-owned church run by the Tridicos.

“They are so gracious for allowing us to rehearse there,” Murphy says. “They’ve even allowed us to store our sets and props in there. They’ve been angels to us.”

The Addams Family cast and crew have a week and a half devoted to practices and rehearsals before opening night on Oct. 27.

Now that the team is able to practice on the real stage, Murphy explains a lot of the focus shifts to the more technical aspects of the show.

“There’s a lot of special effects and crazy props in this show,” he says. “There are plants that eat and swallow things, monsters that come out from under beds, rockets that take off – the team is having a field day.”

Mike Blair from 705Live Sound Co. is doing the sound for the show, and he’ll be responsible for 23 cast members’ mics in his first engagement with community theatre.

Murphy promises that audiences will enjoy catchy music and wild dance routines, along with plenty of laughs thrown in along the way.

“It’s perfect timing to come just before Halloween,” he says. “Audiences are guaranteed to have a spook-tacular time.”

The Addams Family runs from Oct. 27 to 29 at 8 p.m., and Oct. 30 at 2 p.m. at the Sault Community Theatre Centre in White Pines. Tickets can be purchased at the SCTC box office in the Station Mall, at the doors, or online.