There are Methods to the madness.  Take for example, YES! It is Poetry month and there is such a smattering pf poetry in this production, could it be by chance?  I do not think so…

First, I love unexpected – I LOVE the perverse and the unexpected.  I LOVED the Addams Family theme song, LOVED the Addams Family original series, loved every single quirky character that came across the screen with the Addams Family.

I have to also say having the privilege of seeing so many students in a progression of so many roles, actually helped emphasize the awesome opposite roles I witnessed on this first night of The Addams Family at Woodbridge High. Instead of jumping right into listing every character by name and the specific things that stood out to me, I am putting that on the backburner and urging you, if you know any students at WHS, then go see The Addams Family – because it will show you an opposite side personality of the person you see everyday in school – LOVE LOVE LOVE.  

I realized this opening night showed me that sometimes the opposites help you see the normality that actually exists in all of that.  Not sure that makes any sense at all, but it is so so true.  The truths about relationships, full disclosure, that life is about celebrating the dark as well as the light, being able to see something opposite of what you are used to seeing, to realize what you are familiar with.  It all sounds goofy, but not at all, and seeing The Addams Family brings it all home. I love the fact too that these students were not born to see the original and yet – their on stage performances helped portray the very opposites and similarities that The Addams Family represented. 

On the way home, literally, I was hearing a cherished student’s voice from Korea as we went back and forth talking thanks to the miracle of technology, and discussing her adventures into making Utube videos that have her recover from fears I never knew she had when we were alongside each other in Mexico, I did in fact see the last few years of my life, flash in front of me, but not due to any impending disaster (thank goodness). Her personal hurdles and confronting them and wanting others to relate, connect and  overcome. 

I marveled at living a life in small town Seaford, escaping to a country and city as large as Mexico City, and the life I never would have dreamed of living among some of the highest populations in the world, and returning to a small town design and seeing a performance among students I did not even know three years ago, so much that was so unknown to my just three years ago, and at the same time relishing the ability to see the contrasts on these students’ roles based on seeing their roles just a year ago, and knowing I am seeing them change in front of my eyes.  

You can realize so much if you are given the chance to see differences in the common which is what we are so used to seeing- The Addams Family cast helps bring that home with some awesome scores throughout the musical, some great interpretations of the various numbers – and the super fact and witty remarks that some don’t grab due to the pace of the musical, and it all works.  It all works great as being a quirky, totally different yet, deep  down, dead on target messages.  Every single character has that something that will make you remember long after the initial performance.  Isn’t that what we all need out of life as well?

There is much The Addam’s Family brings to light, through revealing the dark – and doing it so very well.