ICYMI: 'Addams Family' Play Runs Thursday to Saturday at Coleytown School

Editor’s note: This article was originally published on March 25. We’re republishing it here in case you missed it:

“The Addams Family,” Coleytown Company’s latest theatrical production, with kids in the cast and support from Broadway professionals, will run this Thursday through Saturday, March 26 to 28, at Coleytown Middle School.

In the play, the creepy Addams Family must confront the ghastly news that daughter Wednesday is getting married to a “normal” young man.

The show features an incredible original set, a fabulous score “and dance numbers so good that they’ll raise the dead,” according to a news release from Coleytown Company.

Benjamin Frimmer, director of Coleytown Company, is working with seasoned theater professionals on the show. Many of them have Broadway credits, including Adam Riegler, the show’s assistant director, who was in the original cast of “The Addams Family” on Broadway.

Riegler’s work on this year’s show includes character development with the Coleytown Company cast. He said in the news release that he’s “been working to try and give the actors a deeper understanding of their characters, a process which I think is advanced for a middle school production, but adds a new dimension to the show that is very professional.”

Riegler says the cast is “a great group of kids who work as hard as most professionals” which has helped allow the production to present “complex illusions and tricks from the Broadway show have been reimagined in ways that work for this stage, while still looking great.”

Working on the show is a total of 80 students (64 cast members and 14 students in the tech crew).

Set design is by Peter Barbieri who has years of experience in Broadway productions. Frimmer says that Barbieri has “come up with an amazing design that includes a fully revolving mansion and skyline. Not only will the show look beautiful,” but his “work allows us to run one of the few fully operating middle-school tech programs in the country.”

“The Addams Family” is based on the characters created by Charles Addams as a cartoon in the New Yorker in 1938. Fifty years ago this year it became a popular television series, and there have been two “Addams Family” feature films.

The announcement from Coleytown School describes the show this way:

“The show explores universal themes, such as familial relationships, love, finding one’s true self and ultimately acceptance. Its story unfolds as Wednesday Addams has fallen in love with Lucas Beineke, a decidedly respectable young man from a ‘normal’ family.” On the surface, the Beinkes are absolutely nothing like the macabre and kooky Addams clan.

“What dreadful things will happen when the two families meet over dinner for the first time? Through mysterious, magical twists and turns we find out that despite appearances, the Addams and Beineke families have much more in common than they every could have imagined. Though Wednesday attempts to conform from ‘goth’ to ‘girl-next-door,’ the show will challenge audiences to ‘define normal’ for themselves.

So don’t you dare miss this musical comedy … it’s a ghast!”

The play will be presented at 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, as well as at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Coley Middle School Auditorium, 255 North Ave., Westport.

Tickets are $12 plus a processing fee and can be bought online or, subject to availability, at the door up to 45 minutes prior to curtain.