Just the mention of the words The Addams Family conjures up the perfectly kooky and creepy theme song of the old TV show. Now those classic characters are hitting the musical stage at the Granada next week with the Broadway National Tour of The Addams Family: A Musical Comedy.
Gomez, his beloved Morticia, and their daughter Wednesday will sing and dance with devilish delight on May 6-7 in this new set of Addams family adventures, where Wednesday has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family. The action takes place when the “normals” of the boyfriend’s family meet the Addamses for a family dinner.
I had the chance to connect with Melody Munitz, the actress who plays Wednesday Addams, and learn a little more about the show.
What’s your prior experience with The Addams Family? Did you watch the Netflix show or the old TV show before joining the cast?
Before joining the cast of The Addams Family musical, I had a blast digging into all the previous iterations of the Addams Family on screen and in print. I had known about the creepy, kooky, family for many years before I was cast in this National Tour, since the beloved family is pretty pervasive in our society, but during the audition process and then over the course of the three months between when I found out that I got the role of Wednesday and when we began rehearsals this past fall, I made it my mission to really explore the depths of the history of this family. From looking at every original Charles Addams cartoon published in The New Yorker going back to the 1930s up through watching the most recent Wednesday Netflix TV series, I consumed all the Addams material I could find online and across many libraries. It was fascinating and inspiring to see how this family has been cemented through decades of Addams media.
Wednesday is such a fun, quirky character. Is there anything about her that particularly appeals to you? And is there anything about her that you personally really relate to?
I adore Wednesday. Her and I have very different demeanors and personalities, but stepping into her shoes and into her world over these many months and all over the country continues to be so much fun and such an honor.
The thing I have come to love and appreciate the most about Wednesday is how true to herself she is. Though she’s so unusual and stands in such contrast to what society would want her to be as a young woman, she holds fast to her identity and is a real beacon of authenticity. I suspect that this is why so many people, and especially so many young women (increasingly so these days with the popularity of the Wednesday Netflix series) are so attached to this character. Beyond her fun goth aesthetic, wit, and dark humor, she also has this strength of character that is extremely intriguing.
I personally relate to how methodical and detail-oriented Wednesday is. In my life offstage, I also work in the sciences, and so embodying a character onstage who navigates her life like one large science experiment — formulating hypotheses and carrying out a detailed set of steps to test if her family and her fiancé’s family can get along, hoping for a specific outcome and redirecting as she gathers additional data and draws conclusions — feels familiar to me, and is an absolute blast.
What do you want Santa Barbara audiences to know about The Addams Family musical?
A night seeing The Addams Family is sure to be a night of equal parts humor and heart. This show is truly hilarious (filled to the brim with witty one-liners!) and it’s bursting with catchy tunes one after the next … and beneath all the musical comedy tells a story that will leave you feeling hopeful and renewed as you reflect on the power of love and acceptance. Bring your family, and come join our family, at The Addams Family!
The Addams Family: A Musical Comedy is at The Granada Theatre on Tuesday, May 6, and Wednesday, May 7. Both shows start at 7:30 p.m. See ticketing.granadasb.org/events.
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