The creepiest and kookiest family to ever haunt the television was recently reborn on the Broadway stage, making for a spooky, yet humorous night of theatre.

The Addams Family, which premiered in 2010, is a musical based on the original comic strip by Charles Addams. The musical, which is firmly planted in the macabre, features torture devices (the rack), a family reunion in a graveyard and magic potions.

The premise of the musical is simple: Wednesday Addams is all grown up (she's in her early 20s) and she wants to introduce her family to her boyfriend ... who just so happens to be normal. What follows is the Addamses trying to fake normalcy, with varying degrees of failure, and Wednesday showing up to the family dinner in a yellow dress in lieu of her Goth-tastic black dress.

Sara Gettelfinger, 34, who plays the role of Morticia — the mother, said the situation with Wednesday creates a boiling point between Morticia and her husband Gomez's relationship when it's found out that Gomez had prior knowledge of Wednesday's boyfriend.

"When the play begins Gomez is the only one that Wednesday confides in," Gettelfinger said. "In terms of Gomez and Morticia's relationship, this is a couple that is incredibly close, incredibly passionate and they don't keep secrets from one another. So as the play progresses, things get rather complicated because in this particular situation Gomez not only kept a secret from Morticia, but a pretty major secret."

Gettelfinger said she prepared for the iconic role of Morticia by blending what people expect from the character with her own sensibilities.

"I try to really work from my own blueprint as far as what I can bring to the role based on what my sensibilities are" she said. "It ended up being a really interesting process as far as exploring Morticia as being a very sexy, independent, unique woman but at the same time a mother and a wife who's just doing the best she can to have a successful family life."

When preparing for the musical the actors were told to study the vintage comic strips by Charles Addams, which appeared between 1938 and 1988 in The New Yorker.

"I think it was a really smart way to get us familiarized with the characters and see what a lot of their characteristics were, about who these people were without being influenced by another actor's performance," Gettelfinger said.

The Addams' eerilybeautiful house was another element that had to be introduced into the mix. The house needed to be elegant, yet look haunted.

"It is really beautiful and vast," Gettelfinger said. "And even though we use quite a bit of drops, the artwork and the coloring really gives you the impression of the grand old house."

With so many creative outlets for the Addams Family, it is little wonder that they've been able to amass quite a few dedicated fans. While some remember the original comic or the TV show, others saw the movies and played the video game. But have the die-hard fans been showing up for the musical?

"Absolutely," Gettelfinger said. "Especially around Halloween we had many people that would come to the theater and their families were dressed in costumes. We've been fortunate because there are a lot of people that are really big fans that have really enjoyed it. We've had a lot of enthusiasm and people have had a good time."

Pictured: Cortney Wolfson (Wednesday) and Patrick D. Kennedy (Pugsley) in THE ADDAMS FAMILY. (Photo by Jeremy Daniel)

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Other Theatre Events / By Nicole Rico

By 1956 Elvis Presley was already a full-blown rock icon, Johnny Cash was a country star, Carl Perkins was a famed performer and Jerry Lee Lewis was a rising rock rebel.

The young singers all had one thing in common: they started at Sun Records in Memphis, Tenn. All these soon-to-be legends initially recorded under the tutelage of label owner, and legend in his own right, producer Sam Phillips.

One fateful December night the four rockers all, coincidentally, happened upon Sun studios. This is when a groundbreaking recording session took place and the legend of the Million Dollar Quartet was born. After that night (Dec. 4, 1956) the guys never recorded together again. The true story is now a Broadway production and hits Wharton Center Jan. 10-15.

British-born actor Martin Kaye plays the role of Jerry Lee Lewis, who is known for hits like "Great Balls of Fire" and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" — both are featured in the production

"It's the greatest jam session of all time with the greatest super group of all time," Kaye said. "This show has really raw rock ‘n' roll music. It's got rock ‘n' roll, gospel, country and rhythm and blues. Its 23 songs people love. You really get to feel that you're a fly on the wall."

The musical also includes the tunes "Blue Suede Shoes," "Fever," "That's All Right," "Sixteen Tons," "I Walk the Line," "Who Do You Love?," "Matchbox," "Folsom Prison Blues" and "Hound Dog," to only name a few.

Kaye said this Million Dollar musical isn't a faux rock concert; it's the real deal with authentic live performances.

"There's no track, everybody is playing their own instruments and singing their own songs," Kaye said. "It's all live. I know in Jersey Boys they don't actually play their own instruments, they kind of pretend and they have an orchestra that plays it for them. For that reason, we stand out."

For those who've yet to acquire a taste for Broadway, but love raucous rock ‘n' roll shows, Kaye said this production has been pleasing both audiences.

"The finale is a mini concert of all four artists and it's quite the treat," he said. "Even if you're not into theatre, if you like music you should just wait until the end because it's quite a concert."

Fans of the Sun Records roster that were never able to witness these rockers live now have a chance to get the feel of the magic. Kaye said he feels this production is spot on.

"We get those fans in - the Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash fans — it's great," Kaye said. "Afterwards they feel like they've really been a part of that little snippet of history and really experienced that night with the artists they grew up listening to. I think we do a good job of sounding and getting some of the character traits they're famous for."

Aside from ample rocking, the story also tells a dramatic, and sometimes humorous, story through dialogue — all taking place inside the recording studio, aside from a few smoke breaks on Sun's sidewalk. Kaye said the production "isn't just a string of hits."

"You've got these four different dynamics," he said. "If you think of them like brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis is at the beginning stages of his career, he's the youngest brother and the comedy aspect of the show. He's trying to get under everyone's skin, trying to wind people up. Johnny Cash is like the oldest brother, Carl Perkins is bitter and Elvis Presley is the golden boy.

"Some of the things didn't actually happen that night, but they did happen," he added. "For example, Johnny Cash leaving Sun Records, they put that in to the show to create a little drama, which it really works."

Today, the only living member of the quartet is Lewis. Kaye said even in his old age, Lewis was able to cause a stir when he appeared at a Broadway performance of the show.

"Last year he went to see it on Broadway, he got on stage and sat down at the piano," Kaye said. "They had to walk him onstage because he's had three strokes now so he's very frail -- then he played ‘Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On.'

"It was really funny because halfway through the song he got up slowly and picked his leg up and kicked the stool behind him like he always would," he added. "He's 76 years old now, so it was very slow and not as dramatic as it used to be — but the audience went crazy."

In any performance, it is out of the ordinary to see the things that create the illusion.

The audience is not meant to see the actor portraying a character, but the character him or herself moving through a world that's as vibrant as the performance.

It is the act of immersion that allows viewers to look into and experience a world that has taken on its own life. This is accomplished most obviously through the acting, especially in smaller venues. But to complement and enhance the actors there are other elements that must blend and draw in the viewers' mind.

To accomplish this requires a little bit of what it takes to get to Broadway: practice (and planning). Melissa Kaplan, Lansing Community College's performing and fine arts coordinator, said production for main stage events at LCC can start anywhere from six months to a year before the actual show begins.

"We're working on the spring production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams and we selected that play this past fall," she said.

For reference, the play is set to run for five days in mid-March next year. Even if one assumes the low end number of six months, the math comes out to about one performance for every 36 days of production.

This time is filled with meetings and interpretations, ideas and logistics. Designers and directors take the time to find common vision within the parameters of the stage and budget. It is a process described by LCC theatre lead faculty Andy Callis as, "trying to find unity in all the elements."

"The designers and director help to tell the story," Callis said. "And each designer is communicating a different aspect of whatever medium they have."

For Callis, who has directed dozens of plays, it's a matter of finding what fits through the act of subtraction.

"I tell my students, ‘If you're doing a Disney movie and all of a sudden Bugs Bunny shows up, that's something that doesn't belong,'" he said. "What you're trying to come up with is a vivid concept so that you can eliminate what doesn't fit."

It is a way of thinking that echoes a sentiment of the Renaissance-era artist Michelangelo. He is said to have remarked, "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free."

This "addition by subtraction" requires a delicate interplay of individuals such as Ashley Brian, LCC's costume designer and shop manager. Brian's day-to-day activities in the shop might be somewhat more mundane — fabric and clothes still need cleaning and upkeep when not in use — when it comes to actual productions Brian said she is more than aware that each play requires a varied approach.

"I'll go through and read the script and note if script denotes, say, the color of [a] dress," Brian said. "Then I research the time period to figure out what the character looks like on stage. I then go through, tweak my drawings and show them to the director. Then we build the costumes."

From there it's a mixture of guest designers and "trips to Goodwill," Kaplan said. This is especially true for smaller theatres with limited resources. Sometimes a little bit of creative problem solving is required.

"In the summer we do three plays back-to-back-to-back and we used individual sets for each of those," Kaplan said. "That was really difficult. We might have started out with a play that was very realistic and end with a play that was really abstract."

The solution, she said, was to build a basic set design that would serve all three plays at once. It wasn't specific to a living room or a front porch, but it combined essential features to offer "a place to add or take away pieces to create the worlds," Kaplan said.

And that, according to Callis, is part of the trick in theatre: Leave things up to the audience's imagination.

"You have to turn limitations into strengths," Callis said. "The designers at Stratford did it really well just with lighting and sound. Shakespeare would have 30 or 40 different scenes, but through lighting, sound and a few props they made it work. Even though not everything is in front of you, you see it in your mind's eye."

Let the eye wander over the scenery, the costumes and the light or shadows. Take a moment to enjoy each piece of the whole. And after that, let it blend into the background.

For event dates, visit: www.lcc.edu.

Photos by Courtney Baker. Top: Performing arts Professor John Lepard directing a play rehearsal in the Black Box Theatre. Above, right: Costume shop student employee Tracy Weller uses a serger sewing machine to mend a large sheet of fabric used for various costumes, and James Miner of the LCC Prop Shop created what is known in the industry as a “flat.”

Rock of Ages, which premiered in 2006, is a Tony-Award-winning musical built around epic ‘80s rock hits by power house bands like Journey, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar, Styx, REO Speedwagon and Foreigner. It's not your typical musical and the story will also soon be a feature film, in production now from Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema, set for theatres in June 2012.

The fictional story takes place in 1987 when Drew Boley, an aspiring rock star, begins working at a bar on the Sunset Strip and falls in love with Sherrie Christian, an aspiring actress named after the hair ballad "Sister Christian."

Some of the tunes performed — by a stellar live rock band - include Poison's "Nothin But a Good Time" and "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," the Damn Yankee's ballad "High Enough," Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It," White Snake's "Here I Go Again" and the "Final Countdown" by Europe — to only name a few.

In this touring production the lead role of Drew is played by actor Dominique Scott, a 23-year old Miami native. With the show's classic rock five-piece band, Scott said the atmosphere is very laid-back and casual, much like the ‘80s rock venues these characters would've been head-banging at.

"It's a very unique show, it's a Broadway musical but it's also a rock concert," Scott said. "It's actually a beautiful blend of the two. When you go into the show immediately you walk into the theatre and there's music blasting through the speakers. The show starts with a guitarist coming down and just ripping one of the most incredible guitar solos in your face — he melts faces.

"There's a lot of energy in the show," Scott continued. "It's grounded because there's a great story, it's two people falling in love and people can relate to that, but it's very much about the music and about the fun time you have when you go to a rock concert. By the end of the show everybody's on their feet dancing, it's very much a party."

The plot of Rock of Ages may be fictional, but Scott said it's easily something that could've happened at a place like the Rainbow Room, a legendary Los Angeles venue.

"It's something that definitely could've happened back then. Also, it's a story that people can relate to in life in general," Scott said. "When you're young having all these big hopes and aspirations and then being challenged by them — that's what I think is charming about the show, it's real life situations. Along with all the glitz, glamour and rock music and everything, it's something really truthful and honest that people can relate to."

The story in Rock of Ages begins with the classic "right place at the right time" success story, but then quickly goes awry when things don't work out the way Drew had hoped.

"He gets a big break but things don't go over so well," Scott said. "He meets a girl that he really falls in love with, but the thing about Drew is that he doesn't have the confidence or the know-how to go about expressing his love for this girl ... he's a pretty shy guy and so he ends up losing her to one of the big rock stars in the club."

In the end Drew gets a taste of stardom, but when reality hits, he must make tough life decisions involving money and his eternal love for Sherrie — queue the epic performance of Steve Perry's "Oh, Sherrie," which helps close out this epic rock tale.

Other Theatre Events | By Nicole Rico