"THE ADDAMS FAMILY THE MUSICAL" OUT OF THIS WORLD FUN

                                       GOMEZ AND MORTICIA ADDAMS

Nowhere can you find a more eccentric and macabre clan, one who combines horror and humor more successfully, who craves the bizarre and have no idea of normalcy, than the Family Addams.  Created from the fertile and fermented mind of American cartoonist Charles Addams, they made their debut in 1938 and are still going strong, despite the fact that their originator died in 1988.

As cartoons, a television series, both live and animated, movies and video games, they have now graduated to the professional stage as a musical no less.  The Connecticut Cabaret Theatre in Berlin is giving them a hoot and a holler and a whole lot of hilarity weekends until Saturday, August 30 and you're cautiously and cordially invited to their mysterious mansion..if you dare!

With book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice and music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, "The Addams Family The Musical" surely puts the "fun" in dysfunctional family first.  The patriarch of the group is Gomez, played with starch and suaveness by Doug LeBelle, who

  

has enjoyed a loving relationship, one based on trust and fidelity, with his wife Morticia, a skeletal and shapely Rachel West-Balling.  When their daughter Wednesday, a serious deadpan faced Kaite Corda, confesses she has fallen in love and asks dad to keep it a secret from mom, Gomez has an attack of conscience.  He loves Morticia and Wednesday, but he has to hurt one of them to help the other by keeping a secret, an unnatural deed.  He chooses his daughter and Wednesday invites her new love interest Lucas, a hopelessly infatuated Jonathan Escobar, and his clueless parents (Kevin Reed and Sandra Lee) to dinner and, as predicted, the family meeting doesn't go as planned.  From the moment their zombie-like butler Lurch (Chris Brooks) answers the door, chaos ensues.

With the crazy Uncle Fester, a jovial Bobby Schultz, a misguided Grandma, a potion pedaling Kristin Ceneviva, a conniving brother Pugley, a torture-loving David Rosenthal and a bevy of assorted ghosts (Susan Emond, who also doubles as Cousin It, James J. Moran, Jessica E. Rubin, Carleigh Schultz, William Moskaluk, Erika Pocock and Linda Kelly), the graveyard park is poised for problems.

Songs, led by new musical director Sean Lewis, are snappy and fun, especially "When You're An Addams," "Wednesday's Growing Up," "Secrets," "Full Disclosure" and "Just Around the Corner."

Artistic Director Kris McMurray has captured the pulse of this positively practically perfect production.  The entire cast is on target, especially if you're aiming at them with a crossbow. For tickets ($30), call the CT Cabaret, 31-33 Webster Square Road, Berlin at 860-829-1248 or online at www.ctcabaret.com.  Performances are Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m., with doors opening at at 7:15 p.m.  Bring goodies to share at your table or plan to buy refreshments, dessert and drinks, on site.

Start snapping your fingers, take a deep intoxicating whiff of the graveyard, wear black is you're alive, white if you aren't and enter the Addams family manse.  Be sure your life insurance premiums are up to date first.