TEXARKANA, Texas - Macabre family shenanigans and good fun are on tap for Texarkana Repertory Co. as they return to the stage with "The Addams Family."
To be presented Oct. 1-3 and 8-10 at Stilwell Theatre on the Texarkana College campus, "The Addams Family" is based on the beloved characters from Charles Addams, whose cartoons appeared in The New Yorker.
Friday and Saturday shows start at 7:30 p.m., Sunday shows at 2 p.m. The dates were moved back two weeks from the original plan.
A 1960s TV series also popularized the family: husband and wife Gomez and Morticia, plus their children Pugsley and Wednesday, Uncle Fester, Grandmama and Lurch, the butler.
This comedic musical follows the family as they deal with both Wednesday falling in love and the family patriarch, Gomez, keeping a secret from his Morticia. Ultimately, they host a dinner party for the boyfriend and his parents.
For TexRep, the production marks a return to the stage since the COVID-19 pandemic began - "the great comeback," said director Michael Cooper. "Starting the 30th season a year-and-a-half late."
The delay meant there needed to be some tweaking of the cast with some students graduating and a Pugsley whose voice changed, but the leads pretty much stayed the same, Cooper said.
"They couldn't be more excited," the director said about the cast. They're on top of their game and it's all going well, he said.
As to the musical, Cooper describes it as a lot of fun with great music by Andrew Lippa and all the characters we expect.
"Wednesday has told her dad, Gomez, what is going on but not Morticia because she thinks Morticia would just ruin everything and get in the way. Gomez doesn't tell Morticia and he has never kept a secret from her in his life. Things go pretty crazy from there," Cooper said of the plot.
Clever lyrics capture the ghoulish ways of the Addams family. Even Uncle Fester falls in love.
"You have stuff like Pugsley is very upset because Wednesday tortures him, and so he has a song about what if she never tortures me anymore," Cooper said. "It wouldn't be the same."
For Cooper, it's pretty easy to slip back into the old director's shoes, he said.
"It's the longest I've gone in my life without doing theater, and so there was a bit of can I get my groove back. And then of course there's a bittersweet feeling to the entire thing knowing that this is my first show of my last season," Cooper said. "And there are people in the show who have been part of things forever."
He puts it this way: "There's some emotion there that I keep hidden deep inside."
However, it's also a lot of fun. He's never worked on a show for so long. They were close to starting up the staging before the world shut down last year and TexRep had to postpone the production.
Cooper's cast includes Chris Polson as Gomez, Amanda Talbot as Morticia, Michael Wells as Uncle Fester, Bennie Phillips as Grandmama, Abby Farren as Wednesday, Logan Allen as Pugsley and Culen McElhannon as Lurch.
"I think it's really, really funny and it's just a good time, and couldn't we all use a good time right about now and head back into the world," Cooper said.
(Tickets are $15, or $12 for seniors and students and $5 for Texarkana College students with a valid ID. Get tickets at Texrep.org.)