Zachary James, Broadway's 'Lurch,' Will Join THE ADDAMS FAMILY Tour in Dallas

Full casting has been announced for the upcoming national tour of The Addams Family, a new musical based on the bizarre and beloved family of characters created by legendary cartoonist Charles Addams, which will make its North Texas premiere October 2-21, 2012, presented by Dallas Summer Musicals at the Music Hall at Fair Park. Tony Award nominee Douglas Sills and Sara Gettelfinger will star as Gomez and Morticia in a principal cast that also includes Tony Award nominee Martin Vidnovic as Mal Beineke, Gaelen Gilliland as Alice Beineke, Blake Hammond as Uncle Fester, Pippa Pearthree as Grandma, Patrick D. Kennedy as Pugsley, Curtis Holbrook as Lucas Beineke, and Cortney Wolfson as Wednesday.

For the Dallas engagement only, the role of Lurch will be played by Zachary James, who created the role in the original Broadway production.

Portraying the ancestors are Sara Andreas, Lauryn Ciardullo, Steve Geary, Victoria Huston-Elem, Megan Jimenez, Patrick Oliver Jones, Lizzie Klemperer, Michelle Marmolejo, Christy Morton, Brad Nacht, Jonathan Ritter, Murray Rundus, Roland Rusinek, Matthew Schmidt, and Geo Seery.

Single tickets, priced from $15-$75, are on sale at The Box Office, 5959 Royal Lane, #542 in the Preston/Royal Shopping Center in Dallas. Tickets are also available by calling Ticketmaster at 1-800-982-ARTS or online at www.ticketmaster.com. For groups of 15 or more, please call 214-426-GROUP.

The Addams Family features an original story and it's every father’s nightmare. Wednesday Addams, the ultimate princess of darkness, has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family. A man her parents have never met. And if that weren't upsetting enough, she confides in her father and begs him not to tell her mother. Now, Gomez Addams must do something he's never done before - keep a secret from his beloved wife, Morticia. Everything will change for the whole family on the fateful night they host a dinner for Wednesday's "normal" boyfriend and his parents.

The Addams Family national tour features a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, and music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa. The production is directed and designed (sets and costumes) by Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch with production supervision by Jerry Zaks and choreography by Sergio Trujillo.

The production features lighting design by Natasha Katz, sound design by ACME Sound Partners and puppetry by Basil Twist. The production also features music supervision by Mary-Mitchell Campbell, music direction by Ben Whiteley, orchestrations by Larry Hochman, dance arrangements by August Eriksmoen, hair design by Tom Watson, make-up design by Angelina Avallone and special effects design by Greg Meeh.

In a prolific career spanning six decades, Charles Addams created several thousand cartoons, sketches and drawings, many of which were published in The New Yorker. But it was his creation of characters that came to be known as The Addams Family that brought Addams his greatest acclaim. With a unique style that combined the twisted, macabre and just plain weird with charm, wit and enchantment, Addams’ drawings have entertained millions worldwide and served as the inspiration for multiple television series and motion pictures.

The Addams Family, which began performances in March 2010 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre and ran through December 2011, immediately became one of Broadway’s biggest hits. Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune described the production as “classic, full-tilt, fast paced, old-fashioned musical comedy!” and John Simon of Bloomberg News called it “Uproarious! A glitzy-gloomy musical entirely worthy of the macabre drawings by Charles Addams.”

The North American tour of The Addams Family premiered in New Orleans in September, 2011, and has played over 350 performances to date. Richard Ouzounian of the Toronto Starr called the production a “wackily entertaining musical…that moves with breezy style and an open heart,” and Robert Trussell of the Kansas City Star praised it as “first class (with) unexpected pleasure at almost every turn.”

The Addams Family tour is produced by Stuart Oken, Roy Furman, Michael Leavitt, Five Cent Productions, Stuart Ditsky/AdamDitsky, Stephen and Mary Jo Schuler, Eva Price, James L. Nederlander, Stephanie P. McClelland, Pittsburgh CLO/Gutterman/Deitch, Vivek Tiwary/Jamie deRoy/Carl Moellenberg and Mary Lu Roffe, by special arrangement with Elephant Eye Theatrical. International productions have been announced for Australia (March, 2013) and Argentina (June 2013).

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