You know the snapping. Even if you haven't seen the movies or the Broadway show, that four-note harpsichord riff is burned into your brain. It’s iconic. But when you’re talking about The Addams Family Jr musical, you aren't just looking at a shorter version of a hit show. You’re looking at a weird, wonderful, and surprisingly complex beast that middle schools and community theaters across the country are currently obsessed with.
Honestly, it’s a lot.
People think "Junior" means "Easy." That is a massive lie. While the runtime is trimmed to about 60 or 70 minutes, the vocal demands and the sheer logistical chaos of the "Ancestors" make this one of the harder shows in the MTI (Music Theatre International) catalog for young performers. It’s a show about being "normal," which, as Gomez Addams points out, is a bit of a moving target.
What is The Addams Family Jr musical really about?
The plot deviates from the 1960s TV show and the 90s films. It’s based more closely on the Charles Addams cartoons—those dark, single-panel drawings from The New Yorker. The "Junior" version specifically follows the book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa.
The stakes are simple: Wednesday Addams, the princess of darkness, has grown up and fallen in love with a "normal" boy from Ohio named Lucas Beineke. She invites his parents over for dinner. Chaos ensues. Gomez is trapped in a lie because Wednesday told him about the engagement but swore him to secrecy from Morticia. If you know anything about the Addams marriage, you know that keeping a secret from Morticia is basically a death sentence—and not the fun kind they usually enjoy.
The music is the real challenge
Don’t let the "Jr" tag fool you. Andrew Lippa’s score is dense. You’ve got Latin rhythms in "Maneuver," vaudeville vibes in "What If," and then these sweeping, legitimate musical theater ballads like "Pulled."
"Pulled" is the song every young soprano wants to sing, but it’s a beast. It requires a belt-to-mix transition that can be vocal sandpaper if a kid isn't trained. It’s the moment Wednesday realizes she actually likes cute things, which is her version of a mid-life crisis at eighteen. Or thirteen, depending on how you cast it.
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The Ancestors: The secret weapon of the show
In many junior musicals, the ensemble is just "there." They stand in the back and fill out the sound. Not here. In The Addams Family Jr musical, the Ancestors are dead relatives from various time periods—cavemen, flappers, 18th-century chefs—who are summoned from the grave and then stuck on stage because Uncle Fester locks the gate to the crypt.
They act as a Greek chorus. They’re on stage for almost the entire show. From a directorial standpoint, this is a blessing and a curse. You get to involve 20, 30, even 50 kids. But you also have to figure out how to keep 50 kids in "dead" makeup from fidgeting while Gomez and Morticia have a heart-to-heart.
I’ve seen productions where the Ancestors are used to move furniture, which is clever. If the table needs to move, a dead Victorian twin just slides it across the floor. It keeps the "magic" alive without having stagehands in black t-shirts ruining the vibe.
The "Full Disclosure" problem
The climax of the first act (or the middle of the Jr show) is a game called "Full Disclosure." Everyone drinks from a sacred chalice and reveals something they’ve never told anyone. This is where the script gets a bit tricky for schools.
The original Broadway show had some... let's call them "adult" jokes. The Junior version sanitizes a lot of this, but it keeps the core tension. Alice Beineke, Lucas’s mother, accidentally drinks a potion and goes from a rhyming, sunshine-obsessed housewife to a woman revealing the deep-seated misery of her marriage. It’s a heavy moment for a middle schooler to play, but when it’s done right, it’s the best part of the show.
Why the costumes will break your budget
You can’t just put the kids in jeans.
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- Gomez: Needs a pinstripe suit that fits like a glove.
- Morticia: Needs the iconic hobble skirt (which is actually hard to dance in).
- Lurch: Needs lifts or at least very high-soled boots.
- The Ancestors: This is where the money goes. Every single one needs a unique, period-accurate costume that has been "ghost-ified." Usually, this means lots of grey, white, and tattered lace.
If you're a drama teacher, you're either spending three months at Goodwill or you're renting a package, which isn't cheap.
Misconceptions about the Jr version
One of the biggest mistakes people make with The Addams Family Jr musical is trying to mimic the 90s movies too closely. Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston were icons, sure. But the musical is its own thing. Gomez in the musical is a bit more neurotic. Morticia is a bit more insecure about her age.
Also, the "Junior" version cuts some of the best songs from the full production. "The Moon and Me" is usually there (Fester’s love song to the moon), but "In the Arms" is gone. The pacing is frantic. Because it's condensed, you lose some of the character development between the Beinekes. You have to work twice as hard in the acting beats to make the audience care about the "normal" family, otherwise, they just seem like boring obstacles.
Performance Rights and Restrictions
MTI is pretty strict. You can't just add songs from the movie or the TV show. If you're licensing The Addams Family Jr musical, you’re stuck with the script they give you. You also can't change the genders of the leads without specific permission, though the Ancestors are usually a free-for-all for casting.
Interestingly, many schools choose this show because it has a high ratio of female-to-male roles. While Gomez, Fester, and Pugsley are traditionally male, Wednesday, Morticia, Grandma, and Alice are powerhouses. Even Lurch can be played by anyone with the right height and a deep enough grunt.
Practical Steps for Staging or Auditioning
If you're looking to put this on, or if you're a parent of a kid auditioning, here's the reality:
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For the Audition:
Don't sing "Pulled" for your audition. Every single person will sing "Pulled." Find something else by Andrew Lippa or something from a similar "darkly comedic" show like Beetlejuice or The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Show that you can handle the comedy. Gomez needs to be able to fence (usually) or at least move with grace. Wednesday needs to be able to look dead inside while singing a high E.
For the Production:
Focus on the lighting. Since the set is often a single house or graveyard, lighting is what changes the mood. You need lots of purples, deep blues, and "sickly" greens. If the lighting looks like a standard high school gym, the illusion dies immediately.
The Makeup Trap:
Don't go too heavy on the white face paint. Under stage lights, it can make the kids look like featureless blobs. Use greys and contours to create the "dead" look. And for the love of everything, use setting spray. You don't want Gomez having white smudges on his black suit after he hugs Wednesday.
Dealing with Grandma:
In the Jr script, Grandma's identity is a bit of a running gag—nobody is quite sure whose mother she actually is. Lean into that. It’s one of the few bits of meta-humor that always lands with an audience.
Ultimately, The Addams Family Jr musical works because it’s about the one thing everyone relates to: the terror of introducing your weird family to your "normal" friends. It turns out, the Addams aren't the weird ones. The people who pretend to be perfect are the ones you have to watch out for.
Get the snapping right. If the audience doesn't snap along during the overture, you’ve already lost them. But if they do, you're in for a very fun, very weird hour of theater.
What to do next
If you are a director, start your costume plot now. Don't wait until tech week to realize you don't have a 1920s flapper dress for a ghost. If you're a performer, start working on your "Addams Walk." Everyone in the family should move like they’re in a slightly different reality than the rest of us. Study the original Charles Addams drawings; they have more character inspiration than any of the movie remakes.