They’re creepy and they’re kooky, mysterious and spooky, they’re altogether “ooky” – the Addams family! And Dancap Productions is bringing them to Toronto!
The Broadway musical The Addams Family, based on the macabre drawings of the bizarre and beloved family created by cartoonist Charles Addams, runs at the Toronto Centre for the Arts from Nov. 16 to 27, starring award-winning actor Douglas Sills as Gomez.
Sills says this musical version has two plotlines. The first revolves around Morticia (Sara Gettelfinger) and his 20-year-old daughter, Wednesday, portrayed by Cortney Wolfson.
Wednesday has fallen in love with a young “normal” man whom she invites to dinner. She approaches her father about the news that she wants to marry and asks him not to tell Morticia until after dinner.
“So, the “A” storyline is about Gomez and Morticia dealing with a secret between them, when their marriage was founded on the premise that they would have no secrets from each other,” says Sills.
“Morticia does recognize something is up. Gomez struggles, having made a promise to the second most important woman in his life not to tell the first most important woman in his life what is going on until after the dinner.”
The other storyline is about the two families coming together and what happens when a family that appears to be traditional meets an eccentric family. “What you come to realize is that they’re not very different at all, that the so-called ‘normal’ family is actually very unusual and idiosyncratic underneath,” Sills says. “And the Addamses, who might appear more eccentric on the outside, are very normal in the way they have to cope with child rearing and marital relationships, and all the things that go along with living.”
Sills feels the key to the longevity of the Addams family’s story is America’s fascination with the macabre.
“People love reversals of morality,” he says. “What’s so wonderful about the Addamses is that it is not so gruesome, as it is kooky, with a humorous element to it. When Charles Addams originated his single-panel cartoons, the characters didn’t even have names. People were drawn to the everyday situations depicted, but done with the reversal of all things dark being good. I think people were incredibly charmed.”
He says that some people will come away realizing there are no outsiders and that there is no true normal, while some will walk away just having had a really fun time. The actor thinks audiences will enjoy the magical moments thanks to the memorable stage effects.
The Detroit native, who splits his time between New York and Los Angeles, garnered Tony and Drama Desk nominations, as well as the Los Angeles Ovation Award for The Scarlet Pimpernel on Broadway and on tour. Before embarking on The Addams Family tour, the Broadway veteran was in Chicago for the tryout of the new rock musical White Noise.
Sills is no stranger to television and film, either, appearing in films such as Deuce Bigalow and Funny About Love, and on TV in Murphy Brown and Will & Grace, to name a few.
Sills says that being Jewish has had a tremendous influence on his career. “Jewish culture is incredibly reverent towards philanthropy that definitely feeds into the arts and towards artistic achievement,” he says.
“There was a lot of music played in the house, my mom took us to a lot of theatre and we would watch movies together. My mother would act with great respect towards the actors that would be performing. Just as you respect a learned person in the Jewish household, the same is true for successful artists.”
For tickets to The Addams Family, visit www.DancapTickets.com or call 416-644-3665 or toll-free 1-866-950-7469.