The kooky, spooky existence of the Addams Family will be bought to life on the stage of Damascus College as cast and crew tackle the "beast of a show" full of fun, comedy and a healthy dose of sentimentality.
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Premiering Wednesday night, the show, which runs for two and a quarter hours, is one of the longest that Damascus has tackled for many years.
Director and Damascus performing arts coordinator Andrew Seeary said the original Broadway production of the show ran more than three hours, but the pared-back touring version had found great favour with high schools around the world.
"It's quirky, inventive and funny and leans into the notion of family and all of its shapes and size, trials and tribulations, joys and triumphs," Mr Seeary said.
"The Addams Family is not only fun and upbeat, but at its core is very sweet and sentimental. It's a story about growing up, letting go, following dreams, hurting and healing. What could be better show for this moment?"
Students from all year levels at the college have been rehearsing since term one to bring the show to life.
"Because I always start on these things ridiculously early, we knew we were doing the Addams Family in November and because I panic, I started working on it in November planning, designing and drawing even while I was down the beach on holiday," Mr Seeary said.
Before the end of term one the cast had already polished the eight-minute opening number and its "full on" choreography then worked to learn the rest of the show during term two.
"This is in many ways a much more complicated musical than we have done in the past," Mr Seeary said.
"Because of the nature of the beast being the Addams Family, what's needed to pull this off is puppetry, haze, smoke, intricate set pieces, gravestones, crypts, the mansion."
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He said the popularity of the Addams Family had boomed again recently on the back of the Netflix series Wednesday.
"It's interesting looking at the access point for the Addams Family. As a child I was seeing the original, but by then even it was in a re-run, then you've had all the film franchises and animations that came up, and the latest is Wednesday. What has excited a lot of the kids was the Netflix series Wednesday."
The musical's plot unfolds when Wednesday Addams brings the sweet, farm boy she has fallen in love with home to meet the family. In one fateful night, secrets are disclosed, relationships are tested, and the Addams family must face up to the one horrible thing they've managed to avoid for generations - change.
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