‘Normal is Overrated’: West Hartford Community Theater Gets Creepy and Kooky with ‘The Addams Family’

Published On: November 1, 2026Categories: Arts, Entertainment, Happenings, Lifestyle, Reader Contributed
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‘The Addams Family’ will be presented by WHCT for two weekends in West Hartford.

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Normal is overrated – at least according to West Hartford Community Theater’s next production. This fall, WHCT invites audiences into the delightfully dark, decidedly unconventional world of The Addams Family, the hilarious musical comedy based on the iconic characters created by Charles Addams. Performances run Nov. 6-8 and 13-15, 2026.

In The Addams Family, Wednesday Addams has grown up and fallen in love – and, perhaps most shocking of all, her boyfriend is a perfectly ordinary young man from a perfectly ordinary family. When Wednesday confides in her father, Gomez, and asks him to keep the relationship a secret from Morticia, the famously devoted husband finds himself caught in an impossible dilemma. Everything comes to a head when Wednesday invites her boyfriend and his parents to dinner at the Addams home, bringing two very different families together for one unforgettable evening.

Beneath the cobwebs, ghosts and gallows humor, The Addams Family tells a surprisingly relatable story about parents and children, marriage, growing up, and learning to embrace the people we love for exactly who they are – even when who they are is anything but normal.

“Every family is a little strange. The Addams family are just more honest about it,” says Naomi Scheinerman, West Hartford Community Theater Board Member. “There’s something wonderfully relatable underneath all the darkness and absurdity of this show. Families change, children grow up, and the people we love don’t always follow the path we imagined for them. The Addams Family reminds us that maybe ‘normal’ isn’t something we need to aspire to in the first place.”

Several members of The Addams Family cast at the West Hartford Halloween Stroll. Oct. 24, 2026. Photo credit: Ronni Newton

Leading WHCT’s Addams clan are Ryan Binder as Gomez Addams, Sarah Hayes as Morticia Addams, and Taylor Dunn as Wednesday Addams. They are joined by Zach Demko as Wednesday’s boyfriend, Lucas Beineke, with Janet Aldrich and David Walls as his parents, Alice and Mal Beineke. The production is directed by Michael Robb, with music direction by David Jarkey and choreography by Jen Bunger.

With a cast of local performers, memorable musical numbers, plenty of laughs and just the right amount of macabre, WHCT’s The Addams Family celebrates everything that makes families different – and suggests that perhaps normal really is overrated.

The Addams Family runs for two weekends, Nov. 6-8 and Nov. 13-15, 2026. For tickets, performance times and additional information, visit westhartfordtheater.org.

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West Hartford Community Theater, Inc. (WHCT) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to providing opportunity and access to programs and the performing arts for West Hartford and the surrounding communities.

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