The black comedy musical, The Addams Family, currently at the Hayes Theatre, is a full-scale musical theatre production that somehow fits onto a tiny stage that works a treat.
Everyone’s favourite characters are there: Gomez, Morticia, Wednesday, Pugsley, Grandmama, Uncle Fester and Lurch, with a guest appearance from Thing.
Add a half a dozen ‘dead’ Ancestors, and bring the hapless ‘normals’ Lucas, Alice and Mal Beineke into the mix, and you have a recipe for a couple of hours of classy theatre complete with musical, dance highlights and laughs.
Inspired by the 1930’s Charles Adams cartoons for the New Yorker, and later the television show, these ghoulish and macabre characters would later appear in film and stage versions, and would become some of the most loved family members you may not have wished to have.
A highly adaptive monotone set is home to the various scenes, as the family introduce themselves with When You’re An Addams, before a manifesto from Fester that segues into Gomez pondering Wednesday’s Growing Up, which lays the foundation for the musical’s two acts.
Wednesday (Jenny Guigayoma) is growing up, and has met Lucas Beineke (Alexander Tye) while out shooting squirrels and is smitten. She wants to bring him and his family home to meet her family so she can announce her intention to marry him, and swears Gomez (Marcus Rivera) to keep it secret from Morticia (Erika Heynatz).
What follows is a total farce played out within the skewed reality of the Addams greater family, aided by the Ancestors, as the ill-equipped Ohio-based Alice and Mal Beineke (Teagan Wouters and Rory O’Keeffe) are forced to navigate many new norms to save Lucas from marrying into this family of kooks.
Gomez is played by the excellent Marcus Rivera as the patriarch who navigates his family across the centuries, and in many ways is its beating heart, if the Addams have such a thing.
Erika Heynatz stuns as the droll, imperial and elegant Morticia, playing her as dry as a double martini and with a voice that stuns in its depth and range.
Guigayoma’s Wednesday has a major role as she is the instigator of what unravels, and her quest to find some humanity in her circumstances is heart warming, as are her vocal chops.
Cast against gender, Georgia Oom plays Pugsley as a goth and is entirely believable as she pushes the family’s tolerances with her, even for them, antisocial stance.
As Grandmama, Deborah Galanos is unrecognisable, but is the connection between the Ancestors and the current family with her wonderful dithering entertaining.
Evan Lever pops up in many scenes, some where he is not wanted, but all is forgiven as he sings the plaintive The Moon and Me to explain why he has fallen in love with this celestial body.
Elliot Aitken’s Lurch greets us as we walk in, prowling the stage with a backdrop proclaiming The End. At first we take him as a mute presence, but he later surprises by singing parts with the full company.
As Lucas, Alexander Tye takes gormless to a new level until a pivotal moment where he proves his love for Wednesday. Parents Alice (Wouters) and Mal (O’Keeffe) proves that even normals can have a heart, great singing voices and dance moves.
Full credit to the mute Ancestors who do great hands and tableaus in the scene where they double up as old Addams family furniture. A live band of seven musicians, under the conductorship of Zander Gall, gives this show added class, but at times their middle range orchestration feels that it drags on the score.
Direction under the watchful eye of Julia Robertson is one of constant motion and forward movement that allows each of the Addams Family and the Beineke’s to shine in both song and dance numbers.
The black and white production design by Dann Barber is striking and makes great use of coffins as adaptive furniture, complimented by Jasmine Rizk’s classy lighting. Likewise, Chaii Ki Chapman’s sound design is also faultless. Choreography by Shannon Burns shows how good and creative she is in using the stage area and even manages to include the Ancestors is many numbers.
As staged by Joshua Robson Productions, The Addams Family is another class production at the Hayes, which for a long time now has been presenting highly creative full theatre ready shows for a fraction of the cost to the pubic.
The Addams Family
Hayes Theatre Co, 19 Greenknowe Avenue, Elizabeth Bay
Performance: Wednesday 15 July 2026
Season continues to 9 August 2026
Information and Bookings: www.hayestheatre.com.au
Images: The Company of The Addams Family – photo by James Reiser | The Addams Family and Ancestors – photo by James Reiser | Georgia Oom as Pugsley and Jenny Guigayoma as Wednesday – photo by James Reiser | Teagan Wouters, Alexander Tye and Rory O’Keeffe – photo by James Reiser | Erika Heynatz as Morticia and Marcus Rivera as Gomez – photo by James Reiser
Review: John Moyle