Addams Family Still Kooky at the Kravis

[SNAP SNAP}
They're creepy and they're kooky
Mysterious and spooky
They're all together ooky
The Addams family
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[SNAP SNAP]
Their house is a museum
When people come to see 'em
They really are a scream
The Addams family
--Addams Family there song

Grandma, Pugsley and Uncle Fester
(Courtesy Kravis Center)

By GERRY BARKER
North Palm Beach Life

Over 60 years has passed since "The Addams Family" TV show premiered on ABC in 1964 (it actually originated in 1938 as cartoons The New Yorker, created by Charles Addams). America fell in love with its spooky and kooky characters: Gomez, wife Morticia, daughter Wednesday, Pugsley, their son, Uncle Fester, Grandma and their servants, Lurch and Thing. That same campy, creepy family is still delighting audiences in a national touring production, which made a stop -- appropriately enough -- on Halloween night at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.

In this version, the plot revolves around Wednesday, who is all grown up and fallen in love with Lucas, who hails from a "normal" family. Wednesday doesn't know how to break the news to her mother. Gomez knows, which sets in a motion his conflicted feelings of loyalty between wife and daughter. Can a dinner in the Addams stately mansion prove "normal" and "creepy" can coexist?

The cast provides plenty of laughs, even injecting some temporary references, like a jibe at RFK Jr. in a campy romp that will delight fans of the TV show and make new fans of the characters. A special shoutout to Grandma, who steals every scene she's in. If only Lurch could have shown us to our seats, it would be perfect.

The Addams Family runs through Nov. 2 at the Kravis Center.
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