The Addams Family: High School Musical

ENSWORTH presents

High School Musical March 5–7, 2020

In 2009, I had the joy of seeing a pre-Broadway Chicago tryout of The Addams Family. I loved much about it and found some things too bizarre even for the Addams crew. I vividly remember picking up my tickets that afternoon at the theatre for the evening’s show and passing three gentlemen energetically talking about the show as they entered the theatre. They were the show’s creators, and at that stage, they were changing the show daily. They would watch the show nightly with 1,500 audience members, gauge their reactions, then alter the show to strengthen it. This continued until they hit Broadway. If you happen to catch any of the early versions on youtube, you will note much has changed.

What has not changed is the humor and love of the Addams family. When the original musical was created, the Addams estate charged the artists with creating an original story inspired solely by the original one-panel comics, not the television series. And so they did! The show has wit, passion, love, and quirky ancestors returned from the grave. All the wacky characters with all their beloved oddities grace our stage, and there is plenty of weirdness and humor. But a show like this doesn’t work without heart, and this show has it. At its core, The Addams Family is just that—a family. While I hope you laugh (and maybe shudder, at times), I also hope you invest in the story of this family, at a moment of letting go, when the roles of parents and children shift. We all experience these shifts, and so must the Addamses.

It is little wonder to me that The Addams Family has ranked as the most-produced high school musical for the past few years, and I am pleased we present it for you tonight. As bizarre as our Addams friends may seem, I hope they shed light on the human experience—an experience (if we’re lucky) of wonder, trust, empathy, and unassailable devotion to and from those we call our family.

Shawn Knight Director