Hayden Davis and Andrea Davis will reprise their 2019 roles as Pugsley and Grandma Addams in the pre-Halloween production of the musical “The Addams Family” at the Pickleville Playhouse in Garden City.
GARDEN CITY – While the reprise of “The Addams Family” musical at the Pickleville Playhouse this fall retains most of its crowd-pleasing 2019 cast, director Derek Davis has still thrown his audiences a couple of curve balls.
Derek Davis himself will return as Gomez, the debonair but wildly off-center titular head of the spooky Addams family. As before, the director’s real-life wife – Whitley Osborne Davis – will again portray his stage wife, Morticia. The irresistible Kenzie Davis is also back as the love-struck but still slightly homicidal Wednesday.
Coming out of left field, however, is the selection of Pickleville veteran Slater Ashenhurst to play Wednesday’s dim-bulb love-interest Lucas. Ashenhurst is well-known to Bear Lake summer audiences for his portrayals of the villainous Jacques Javier in the Davis clan’s musical melodramas. While it might seem that playing Lucas would be Ashenhurst’s first turn as a comedic straight-man, it probably won’t turn out that way given the actor’s propensity for hysterical improvisation.
The towering James Case will be returning to the Pickleville stage with his deadpan but hilarious impersonation of Lurch, the Addams family’s undead butler.
Also back for the pre-Halloween production are Hayden Davis as the precocious masochist Pugsly, Andrea Davis as the demented Grandma Addams and Shayne Taylor as Lucas’ stuffed-shirt father.
Joining “The Addams Family” for the first time are Angie Call as a downtrodden wife with hidden depths and Dan Call as the moon-crazed Uncle Fester.
Rounding out the cast as corpses who can still shake a leg are returnees Tristan Berg and Joshua Goodrun-Green and newcomers Georgia Bowman and Summer Farnsworth.
During its musical melodrama production this summer, the Pickleville Playhouse pioneered drastic precautions to protect the health of audience members while performing through the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Those same guidelines will be observed during the upcoming run of “The Addams Family.”
Per the guidance of the Bear River Health Department, all groups of ticket holders will be seated 6 feet apart in the auditorium and will be seated individually to ensure minimal contact with other patrons.
The cast members will wear face coverings when they are offstage and audience members are advised to do the same.
Tickets and concession items will be handled with latex gloves and gallons of hand-sanitizer will be available for use by audience members.
“The Addams Family” will have an extended run from Sept. 25 to Oct. 24 in order to accommodate audience demand while still observing all state guidelines for indoor gatherings.
Tickets for show are already on sale online.