The Addams Family Dramaturgy

By Christa Tandana

Do you remember that cartoon show The Addams Family? Is the theme song stuck in your head now?

Well, guess what? The ghoulish cartoon about the beyond abnormal family has been transformed into a musical which is now on Broadway, starring Nathan Lane as Gomez and Bebe Neuwirth as his wife Morticia!

Before it was even a television series, The Addams Family was an original single-panel cartoon that appeared in The New Yorker Magazine in the 1930s. It was created by an American cartoonist named Charles Addams. These cartoons were about a not-so-typical American family. But as far as they were concerned, what was normal?

The cartoon evolved into a television series in 1964 which lasted for two seasons. The original characters in the cartoon were nameless, but Charles Addams was asked to come up with the names for them for the television show. The bizarre family did not get their own cartoon show until 1973. After this, the family went on to star in other cartoon shows, tv movies and films and have been part of pop culture history.

The most recent of The Addams Family is now on the Broadway stage. The musical opened on April 8th, 2010, and was recently announced to hit the road on a national tour in September of 2011.