Full Disclosure – There Are No Normal Families

Feb 16, 2025 by Two Sues On the Aisle

By Two Sues on the Aisle, Susie Rosenbluth and Sue Weston

Charles Addams was a cartoonist who created The Addams Family in 1938. They were an unusual family fascinated by death, torture, and the supernatural. In the 1960s they charmed audiences in a television series, followed in the 1990s by movies, a Broadway show, and in 2022 a NetFlix show, Wednesday. Wednesday was a quiet child fascinated by the macabre. In the NetFlix series, she is expelled from school for dumping live piranhas into the school’s pool. These eccentric non-conformists continue to captivate audiences because as their iconic theme song reminds us “They’re creepy and they’re kooky. Mysterious and spooky.”

This February, as part of their Broadway series, The New Jersey State Theater brought The Addams Family musical comedy to New Brunswick. The show revolves around Wednesday’s desire to introduce her family to her boyfriend from Ohio (and his family). The play is written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa.

This laugh-out-loud show captures the essence of the Addams family’s eccentricities and reminds us of the power of love.

The Characters

The Addams’ are a flamboyant wealthy extended family who live off the grid in a gothic mansion in the center of Central Park. Gomez (Rodrigo Aragon is the head of the household, a Castilian with a proclivity for dueling, and is passionately in love with his wife, Morticia (Renee Kathleen Koher). Morticia is from a long line of witches but is best known for her long jet-black hair, her form-fitting black gown, and tango dancing. They have two children Wednesday (Melody Munitz), a pale, dark-haired, girl fascinated by death who dresses in black, and Pugsley (Logan Clinger), who likes all forms of torture and makes full-size racks. The extended family includes Uncle Fester (Chris Carsten) pudgy, good-natured, and naïve, with a flair for the unusual (like fishing using dynamite), and Lurch (Jackson Barnes), the butler who is a towering mute, Grandmama (Gomez’s mother) who enjoys her potions, Thing, a disembodied hand, and Cousin Itt, who is small and hairy.

Based on societal norms, this loving family would be viewed as misfits. We enjoy their idiosyncrasies like Morticia removing the petals from fresh flowers before placing the stems in a vase. They share a delight in embracing the darker side of life with a “joie de vivre.” We secretly wish our lives were as colorful and carefree.

The Plot

Wednesday is in love with a boy from Ohio. She wants their families to meet before announcing that they are engaged. She shared her secret engagement with her father but made him promise to keep it a secret from Morticia, (something he had never done).

The Addams family notices changes in her personality and is concerned – dressing in yellow (instead of black), thinking about going to Disney (twice), and lollipops. Her boyfriend, Lucas Beineke (David Eldridge) is crazy for her, willing to die for her. Lucus asks blindfolded Wednesday to shoot an apple off his head with her crossbow, claiming his love will guide her aim, and if not, he would be the last thing she saw (how romantic, and foolish).

Meanwhile, the Beineke family has issues of their own, but nothing that a little truth serum can’t fix.

Universal Themes

The show explores love and relationships. Presenting extremes, the Addams family is spicy filled with passion and trust contrasted with the traditional conservatism Beineke family. The Addams hold nothing back, while the Beineke’s have lost their impulsive fun-loving nature to the obligations of raising a family.

Everything is revealed during Full Disclosure, an after-dinner game. Each guest drinks from the chalice and tells a truth that no one knows. Pugsley had added Grandmama’s serum to make Wednesday’s true self come out. But instead, Mrs. Beineke drank from the chalice. She loses her wishy-washy rhyming passivity; the transformation is hilarious.

The Addams Family shows us that no family is truly normal. But that telling the truth can be freeing, providing a healthy foundation for a relationship.

A Fun Show

The Addams Family is full of surprises and packed with laughs. It is relatable across generations, the audience, young and old alike joined the “Da-da-da-dum, snap snap!” of the theme song. The Addams Family was a musical comedy triumph, the performers were amazing, singing and dancing their way into our hearts. The show runs two hours and 35 minutes with one 15-minute intermission.

Unfortunately, shows at The State Theater are very short duration – they are here for just one weekend. The next show in The State Theater Broadway series is Dear Evan Hansen running from March 28 – 30.