‘Addams Family,’ from Norfolk’s Hurrah Players, to kick off Halloween vibes

Halloween is in the air.

The holiday might be a month away, but spooky decor is already popping up in windows and on lawns everywhere. Plump pumpkins are for sale at grocery stores all over.

A second season of “Wednesday” is streaming on Netflix, and in Norfolk, The Hurrah Players are preparing for their ghoulish production featuring the iconic characters.

The family theater company will open its 41st season at the Wells Theatre with the Broadway hit musical “The Addams Family,” running Oct. 3-5.

Derren Bey, left, and Ava Saunders will portray Pugsley and Wednesday Addams in The Hurrah Players’ production of “The Addams Family” at Norfolk’s Wells Theatre in early October. (Courtesy of The Hurrah Players)

The show is based on cartoonist Charles Addams’ macabre characters who make up the magical and comically dark members of the Addams family.

In the musical, teenager Wednesday Addams, played by Ava Saunders, brings home a new love interest: a nonmagical, straight-laced boy from Ohio. He and his family are nothing like the Addamses, and when the two families meet, hilarity ensues.

“It’s just the biggest show we’ve done in quite a while,” said Hugh Copeland, founder and artistic director of The Hurrah Players.

With a cast of 30 actors, the production features three intricate sets depicting Central Park, a graveyard and crypt, and the Addams family mansion, including its tall spiral staircase.

“And the costumes!” Copeland said. “Oh, Lordy!”

The Hurrah Players’ stars of the show: Ava Saunders as Wednesday Addams, left, Gina Mancuso as Morticia, Victor Spence as Gomez and Derren Bey as Pugsley. (Courtesy of The Hurrah Players)

A large ensemble of over a dozen supporting actors playing the ancestors of the Addamses will be coated in gray stage makeup and cloaked in ghostly white attire.

“This show, really is,” Copeland added, “it is a big one!”

Colin Warren-Hicks, 919-818-8138, colin.warrenhicks@virginiamedia.com

If you go

Where: The Wells Theatre, 108 E. Tazewell St., Norfolk

When: 7 p.m. Oct. 3, 2 and 7 p.m. Oct. 4, 2 p.m. Oct. 5

Tickets: Start at $30

Details: hurrahplayers.com

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