Actors from the community perform six shows of “The Addams Family”

Actors from the community will perform in North Central College’s Summer Musical Theatre, featuring the new musical comedy “The Addams Family,” with book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice and music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa.

Six performances will be staged at 7:30 p.m. July 10-11, 17-18 and at 2 p.m. July 12 and 19 in North Central’s Pfeiffer Hall, 310 E. Benton Ave. Tickets are $18/adults and $12/students and senior citizens; call the North Central College Box Office at 630-637-SHOW (7469) or visit northcentralcollege.edu/showtix.

Susan Craig-Olsen is the show’s director and choreographer. A professional actor for more than a decade, she has been a teacher, director and choreographer in the area for some 15 years. Ross Berkley, a 2005 North Central graduate in choral music education, gives musical direction.

“The Addams Family” musical centers on characters created by Charles Addams for The New Yorker magazine, as early as 1933. Eventually tweaked for a television series in the 1960s and groomed for movies in the 1990s, the characters are the same odd, but lovable family members.

When Gomez and Morticia’s daughter Wednesday brings a boy home for dinner, she begs them all to be “normal” for just one night. Hilarity ensues! Craig-Olsen says, “More than that, this show is about relationships—ones we can all relate to. The moral of the story: Embrace the sad along with the happy in order to truly live.”  

The cast for “The Addams Family” features community residents as singers, dancers and these principal roles (Wednesday and Alice are double cast):

Gomez Addams: Keith Carlson of Naperville and 1995 North Central graduate
Morticia Addams: Becky Messerschmidt of Glen Ellyn
Uncle Fester: Mark Johnson of Naperville
Wednesday Addams: Alex Oechsel and Taylor Oechsel of Naperville
Pugsley Addams: Blake Barnickel of Plainfield
Mal Beineke: Chris Oechsel of Naperville
Alice Beineke: Kathy Musselman of Woodridge and 2006 North Central graduate, Jen Prerost of Naperville and 2001 North Central graduate
Lucas Beineke: Brian Warren of Glendale Heights and 2014 North Central graduate
Grandma: Lisa Stach of Downers Grove
Lurch: Stuart Vance of Naperville
The Grimm Reaper/Ancestor Cowboy: Justin Smusz of Bolingbrook

“The Addams Family” is the one of three musicals this summer at North Central College. The final musical of the summer is “The Music Man” directed by Brian Lynch and presented July 31, Aug. 1-2 and 7-9.