Local theater buffs are about to get creepy and spooky at the Granada Theatre.
San Benito County Stage Company’s latest production – “The Addams Family” – premieres Friday, on Halloween, and runs on weekends through Nov. 15.
Kristy Burchard, the producer for the show, said organizers were particularly excited because rights to “The Addams Family” – promoted as a new musical comedy – became available just this year.
“We were really fortunate to get the rights to it,” Burchard said.
Burchard summarized the storyline, which centers on Wednesday Addams as an 18-year-old who has fallen in love with a normal guy. With Uncle Fester as narrator, much of the tension surrounds Gomez Addams having to keep a secret from his wife, Morticia, while other central characters include the 102-year-old grandma who uses natural remedies, Burchard said.
Additionally, there is a five-piece ensemble band that plays “eerie, dissident chords.”
Those involved with the musical also will be doing some “fun stuff” with video, while there is one possible downside to any impatient cast members.
“It’s going to take a long time to put makeup on,” Burchard said regarding the 27 cast members being joined by nearly as many support staff members on the crew.
With the Halloween opening, Burchard said there could be an added element, too.
“We’d like people to come in costume on opening night,” she said.
SHOW DETAILS:
San Benito Stage Company presents “The Addams Family.” This musical is performed by local teens ages 13-19 and opens at the Granada Theatre on Fifth Street in Hollister on Halloween, Oct. 31, and will run three consecutive weekends – at 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays – while closing on Nov. 15. Tickets are available in advance at San Benito Bene and Postal Graphics. For more information you may call (831) 636-6810.
SHOW SYNOPSIS:
Hundreds of years ago, the Addams family ancestors came from the old country and settled on a plot of land in what is now New York’s Central Park. This was, of course, long before it was a park. As the story begins, The Addams family has gathered – where else? – in the family graveyard, to celebrate life and death in a yearly ritual to connect with their past and ensure their future. They seem at peace, not just with each other and their inimitable, unchanging Addams-ness, but with their dead ancestors, too – who emerge from their graves on this night each year to join in this celebration of continuity. But, at the end of the ritual, Fester blocks the ancestors’ return to their graves. Those unchanging Addams family values are about to be tested. Fester enlists their help to set things right, just in case a new family secret goes terribly wrong. What’s the secret? Wednesday Addams, that irresistible bundle of malice, has grown up and found love. So what’s the problem? The young man, Lucas Beineke, is from Ohio, and his parents are coming to dinner to meet the family. Two different worlds are about to collide. Will love triumph, or will everyone go home vaguely depressed?
Gomez and Morticia are understandably leery. Wednesday is their baby, even if she is eighteen. Wednesday begs the entire family to act as ‘normal’ as possible when Lucas and his parents arrive. She loves her family just the way they are, but they clearly fall outside the realm of what the Middle-American Beinekes are used to, and Wednesday is afraid that, if his parents don’t approve of her, they’ll take Lucas back to Ohio, and she’ll never see him again. Like any unconditionally loving family, the Addams’ promise to do their best to oblige, while, lost somewhere in Central Park, young Lucas asks his parents to resist any judgments and all catastrophic conflicts, so both families can enjoy one normal night.
As you can imagine, there is nothing normal about the night and all the couples seem to be having problems getting along with their own spouses, let alone getting to know the other family in the process. That “One Normal Night” has been a night of darkness. Everything’s changed. And the new, extended family understands: The unknown may be frightening, the darkness overwhelming, but if we don’t run from it, we may see our mysterious, miraculous lives finally illuminated. If we move toward the darkness, we might find love and acceptance.
For when it is dark enough, we can see the stars.
