October 25, 2026
With Halloween just a few days away, I decided that I needed to kick the season into gear. So what better way to celebrate the eerie season than taking in a little local theater? A few years ago the community theater in Sherman got a wild hair and put on a local production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show for Halloween. However, things had tamed down a bit for the current season, and in effort to send off a Halloween vibe for the month of October the local thespian crowd had thrown together The Addams Family Musical for our community artsy, theatrical enjoyment!
Trying to get my wife Margaret off the couch for any kind of entertainment that doesn’t require a remote control is a bit chilling in its own right. A mere few years ago, we couldn’t wait to see any kind of live theater, whether it was local amateurs or traveling professionals. One year we even broke down and scraped up enough cash to buy season tickets to the Dallas Summer Musicals, which is NOT a nickel and dime venture mind you. Even though this local theater’s ticket price was only around twenty-five dollars, I was still feeling a frightening chill as I approached my wife to ask her if she wanted to take in the local musical effort. To be honest, I had already decided that I was going to take in the musical regardless if she chose to come with me or not. With a sigh that felt as chilly as the fog from John Carpenter’s movie THE FOG the little wife decided that she’d join me in supporting the local art scene for the evening.
The little hometown theater was packed for the Thursday evening, and the two teenage girls seated next to us seemed all giddy as if they were off to the senior prom. I’m not sure if teenagers even go to proms anymore, but they seemed overjoyed none the less. To kick off the spooky vibe, the theater’s lobby was loaded with creepy stuff, including a fake rat on the usher’s podium. I’m guessing it was fake. I didn’t see it move anyway, but the big cardboard cutout of the Addams Family’s famous butler Lurch made me ask Margaret, “So how many people here are old enough to know who that is?” By now Margaret had no interest in making small talk, so I tried to talk to the teeny boppers seated next to me, but apparently the young ladies found me as annoying as my wife did. Okay, I get it. Just be quiet and get ready for the show!
Margaret and I saw some stage production of the Addams Family a few years ago in some small theater down by Dallas, but this one was totally different. In this play, the Addams Family breaks out in song! Of course, we all joined in with the production by snapping our fingers to that catchy opening Addams Family theme music that everyone in the audience seemed to know. Yes, even the two youngsters sitting next to me were snapping away. Unlike most Addams Family sagas, this one is a little different in the fact that daughter Wednesday is all grown up and engaged! The simple plot of the play revolves around Wednesday being in love and wanting her fiancé’s parents to meet her family. So all of us who know anything about the Addams Family already realize where this story is heading.
To bring the Addam’s family to life we’ve got the family butler, Lurch who acts mostly dead throughout the play while releasing the occasional growl here and there. To liven things up a bit, the family’s son Pugsley Addams dances around the stage breaking out into the occasional song which mostly centers around how he wishes to keep his big sister at home so she can torture him. Then there’s Uncle Fester who tosses in plenty of good cheer as only a large, bald man who looks a bit like a medieval monk can. We’ve also got Grandma Addams who seems to be toting around enough drugs to keep the entire Woodstock nation floating. As always though, the stars of the show are the happy couple, Gomez and Mortisha Addams! And everyone is brought together in song!
I’m not sure how local the actor who played Gomez is to our community theater, but the guy certainly had the theatrical chops to pull off the part regardless where he calls home. The guy launched into his character in pure Addams’ style, complete with an accent and a little sword play thrown in while dishing out the romantic charm that Gomez always seemed to possess whether he was played on TV by John Astin or on the big screen by Raul Julia. For an added bonus, he pulled it all off while singing and dancing. Indeed, there was plenty of dancing to be had, especially when the ancestors took the stage. The ancestors, of course, being a bunch of ghosts from here there and everywhere. These ghoulish dancers ranged from a woman girl dressed like a 1920’s flapper to a caveman, but regardless what century they were from (or millennium)) they all had the moves!
The guy who might have stolen the show was the dude who took on the role of Uncle Fester. You’ve got to respect any wannabe actor who looks in the mirror and says, “I’d make a good Uncle Fester in the Addams Family.” Although I’ve watched the Addams Family movies and TV series I don’t remember Fester’s love interest in the moon, but apparently, the guy had a lunar love and kept referring to the moon as his girlfriend. Sounds like a personal problem. What really blew everyone’s mind though was when Lurch broke out into song, transforming his grunts and growls into a deep baritone, operatic voice to end the play. Those on stage even seemed to be a bit surprised by such.
My favorite character though was the moody daughter Wednesday. Although there were plenty of great voices to be heard on stage, it was the young lady who took on this role that was really packing the vocal chops! Her bio in the playbill said she had studied theater in New York City, so I was starting to wonder just how community related she was to this community theater. Regardless if she hailed from a small town in Texas or regularly performed on Broadway, I was so impressed with the woman’s talent that I made an effort to fight through the lobby after the show to shower her with praise. Actually all I said was, “You have a great voice.” Instead of running from me and alerting security, the girl merely thanked me for the compliment.
The crowning moment of the evening though happened when I asked my wife if she had a good time. “Oh yea!” she answered. “It was better than I thought it would be.” In my wife’s world, such a compliment is of the highest of praise.
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