Review: Your Family, My Family, THE ADDAMS FAMILY MUSICAL At Toby's In Columbia

A cartoon in the newspaper in 1934 was the birth. A television series in the 1960s was the beginning. We’re somewhere in the midst of the middle, because it seems as if this intellectual property isn’t interested in dying anytime soon.

Named after their original creator, Charles Addams, who by all reports was friendly, charming and not particularly spooky, mysterious or kooky, the Addams Family is at this point iconic and beloved, not to mention as pervasive as kudzu. With numerous television and movie renditions, both live action and animated, and even seven (yes, seven) video games, that there should and would be an Addams Family musical was practically a foregone conclusion. 

The Addams Family, A Musical Comedy, book is by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, is based on the characters created by Charles Addams. Andrew Lippa is the composer behind A Little Princess, Big Fish and he created additional material for You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown. The Addams Family Musical has seen productions all over the USA and worldwide. As a very family-centric family show, it’s a natural fit for Toby’s in Columbia.

The script is funny, and somewhat creepy and macabre. It doesn’t go as far as I expected it to either way. The songs are plot-relevant, without any stand alone numbers for playing on the radio. Brickman and Elice bring the character-balanced approach I enjoyed in Jersey Boys to The Addams Family Musical. There are strong female leads and supporting characters. As a script, it earns a solid B+ from me.

Toby’s sometimes goes more opulent, sometimes more environmental, sometimes more implied with sets. This set, by Scenic Designer Shane Lowry, isn’t packed with heavy furniture and ornate candleabrae to convince us we’re in a gothic mansion. It hints at it instead. We’re greeted by beautifully detailed collages on the walls, each representing one character. We find lovely stained glass windows in some of the scenes, and rollaway headstones marked with amusing ancestral names. The cast consists of the core family, Morticia, Gomez, Wednesday, Pugsley, Uncle Fester, Lurch and Grandmama, plus three visiting characters, and, in lieu of an Ensemble, The Ancestors. The Ancestors spend the entirety of the show being very actively dead. Their makeup designs, by Janine Sunday plus the wigs and hair, designed by Jayson Kuebert, are spectacular. The costumes, coordinated by Sarah King and Janine Sunday, are stupendous great fun. Spanning centuries of humanity, representing Addamses back to caveman days, the Ancestors are a visual feast, individually and as a group. 

As for the iconic family, each actor is perfectly cast, and not only looks and sounds the part, but goes all in to physicalize the character they play. I love MaryKate Brouillet and Jordan B. Stocksdale as Morticia and Gomez Addams. They create an excellent tableau whenever they’re together onstage, which is often. Wednesday, for plot reasons, is no longer a little girl, and Lydia Gifford plays her with young-adult impatience and passion. Pugsley is played by one of two actual children, and Colton Roberts does an excellent job as the gruesome youngster. His character also has been adapted in service of the plot.

Shawn Kettering as Uncle Fester really captures the gleeful innocence of the character. Lurch is played by the delightfully comic Adam Grabau with enormous grace. As Grandma, David James deploys his usual wry delivery and sassy tone. As the show’s impetus Lucas Beineke, Jackson Miller is earnest and engaging. Jeffrey Shankle is capably stuffy as Mal Beineke, Lucas’s father. Playing Lucas’ saccharine mother, Alice, Anna Phillips-Brown is absolutely magnificent. Her voice and energy are tremendous, and since I saw her in Escape To Margaritaville, I’ve hoped to see her in a lead role. 

Director Mark Minnick conducts this extremely talented cast as if it were an orchestra. The vocal inflections, pauses and the timing are honed to a fine point. The interaction and placement of the Ancestors- sometimes employed as furniture- is entertaining and adds to the visual spectacle. Naturally, one expects excellent musical backing at Toby’s, and gets it, from Ross Scott Rawlings, conductor and First Keyboardist. On woodwinds, Steve Haaser adds to the spooky atmosphere. 

The script doesn’t call for showy, self-aware dance numbers in the ‘traditional Broadway musical’ sense, but Director and Choreographer Mark Minnick creates elegantly integrated cast movement that is entrancing to look at throughout the whole evening. It may be some of the most engrossing blocking I’ve seen in awhile, as I completely neglected to take notes during Act II. 

If you like the Addams Family in any form, you’ll be pleased to share this iteration with your own family. Toby’s has always been very much about family, and supports sharing the love of theater with young people. Despite, or perhaps because of, its macabre nature, the embedded message of THE ADDAMS FAMILY is about radical acceptance and inclusion, and always has been, from long before “inclusion” was a buzzword. Every member of your family, weird or not, can enjoy this positively creepy show.

As far as disease-transmission preventative measures go, masks are always welcome at Toby’s, though not currently required. 

Photo (Lto R): Lydia Gifford, Jordan B. Stocksdale, MaryKate Brouillette as Wednesday, Gomez and Morticia Addams

Photo Credit: Jeri Tidwell Photography

See The Addams Family, A New Musical through  10th, 2024 at Toby’s Dinner Theatre in Columbia , 5900 Symphony Woods Road, Columbia, MD 21044 

Tues- Sat Doors 6 PM, Buffet 6-7:20, Show 8 PM; Sunday Brunch 10:30 doors & buffet; showtime 12:30; Sunday evening doors & buffett 5:00 PM, Showtime 7 PM

$79-86.00 adults; $60-$63 children

Toby’s Box Office  is open Monday- Saturday  10:00am- 8:00pm, Sunday  10:00am – 7:00pm.

Please call the box office at 410-730-8311 to purchase tickets. Toby’s has no online ticket purchase option through their own website, though you can purchase tickets from Ticketmaster if you’re unable to do it over the phone with the extremely helpful and accommodating staff at Toby’s.

Final Factoid: When developing the original 1960s television show, actor John Aston helped name his character Gomez Addams. Chas Addams hadn't named the characters in his newspaper catoons.

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