From Westfield to Matawan: The Addams Family Comes Home to New Jersey

Spotlight Players brings everyone's favorite wonderfully unconventional family to the stage November 6–15.

New Jersey has given the world plenty of interesting characters. Bruce Springsteen. Frank Sinatra. Tony Soprano. And, perhaps most appropriately for the season, a family that considers a dungeon a perfectly reasonable home improvement.

Yes, the Addams Family has Jersey roots. And this November, they're making themselves right at home in Matawan.

Long before Wednesday became a Netflix sensation, before the Hollywood films, and even before the famous television series, there was Charles Addams, a young cartoonist growing up in Westfield, New Jersey, with a wonderfully peculiar imagination.

Addams found inspiration in the Victorian architecture and old cemeteries around his hometown. A Gothic Revival house on Elm Street, which he passed on his way to school, helped inspire the imposing mansion that would eventually become home to Gomez, Morticia, Wednesday, Pugsley, Uncle Fester, and the rest of his delightfully macabre creations.

In 1938, his wonderfully strange family began appearing in The New Yorker. Nearly ninety years later, they're still making us laugh, occasionally making us uncomfortable, and reminding us that the most interesting people are rarely the most conventional.

And now, they're coming back to New Jersey. Not that they ever really left.

A Family Dinner. A Terrible Secret. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

In The Addams Family: A New Musical Comedy, Wednesday Addams has grown up and done something truly horrifying.

She's fallen in love.

Worse yet, the object of her affection is a perfectly pleasant young man from a respectable, ordinary family.

For Gomez and Morticia Addams, this is a development considerably more disturbing than anything lurking in the family crypt.

When Wednesday confides in her father and asks him to keep her romance a secret from Morticia, Gomez finds himself caught between the two women he loves most. And when Wednesday invites her boyfriend and his parents to dinner, an already complicated situation becomes an evening of spectacularly uncomfortable revelations.

Naturally, the entire Addams household gets involved.

There's Pugsley, who's less than thrilled about his sister's newfound maturity. Grandma, whose wisdom is questionable at best. Lurch, whose silence speaks volumes. And Uncle Fester, whose romantic life proves that love truly does come in unexpected forms.

What follows is a musical comedy about family, relationships, growing up, and the rather inconvenient truth that even the strangest families have surprisingly ordinary problems.

From the Funny Pages to Broadway

The Addams Family made its Broadway debut in April 2010 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, starring Nathan Lane as Gomez and Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia.

With a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, the writing team behind the Tony Award-winning Jersey Boys, and music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, the musical introduced an original story that allowed audiences to see these familiar characters in an entirely new light.

The production received mixed reviews from Broadway critics, but audiences were considerably more enthusiastic. The musical went on to enjoy a substantial Broadway run and has since found an enthusiastic following among regional, community, and educational theatres.

Perhaps that's because beneath the gallows humor, outrageous personalities, and wonderfully peculiar family traditions, there's something unexpectedly relatable about the Addams’

They're fiercely loyal. They love one another without reservation. And they have absolutely no interest in changing themselves to make the neighbors comfortable.

Frankly, we could all learn something from that.

There's Something Wonderfully Addams About Community Theatre

This November, Spotlight Players brings that eccentric household to life in Matawan, continuing a tradition of local theatre created by people who believe there's something special about sharing a story with their community.

And The Addams Family is a particularly fitting choice.

For all its supernatural eccentricities, this is a story about the people we love, the secrets we keep, and the uncomfortable business of accepting that our families don't always turn out exactly as we imagined.It's also a reminder that being different isn't necessarily something to overcome. Sometimes, it's the most interesting thing about us.

So whether you grew up watching the original television series, fell in love with the films, discovered Wednesday through Netflix, or simply appreciate a good musical comedy, there's a place for you at the Addams family table.

Just don't ask what's for dinner.

Join the Family This November

THE ADDAMS FAMILY: A NEW MUSICAL COMEDY

Presented by Spotlight Players

Performance Dates

November 6, 7 & 8, 2026
November 13, 14 & 15, 2026

Location

Spotlight Players
First Presbyterian Church of Matawan
883 Route 34, Matawan, NJ

Tickets

Come for the music. Stay for the comedy. Leave feeling considerably better about your own relatives.

The Addams Family features a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, and is based on characters created by Charles Addams.

Presented through special arrangement with Theatrical Rights Worldwide. All authorized performance materials are also supplied by Theatrical Rights Worldwide.