Dark is okay when brilliantly hilarious

It starts with the famous harpsichord strains and percussive finger snaps. Then Thing, the hand, scuttles across the stage.

The Addams family appears. In a graveyard. A couple of them look sort of regular, if Goth is your thing. Mother Morticia (Jennifer Byrne), severely glamorous with long, black hair and plunging neckline; her husband Gomez (Aaron De Jesus), distinguished in a sharply styled suit; son Pugsley (Rivers O’Neal in Friday’s performance), a stickler for explosives; and Wednesday (Malia Monk), who carries a crossbow instead of a Coach bag. But Grandma (Sydia Cedéno) is a white-haired, wild-eyed apparition; Uncle Fester (Jim Borstelmann) is bald, round with a white face, in love with the moon; Lurch (Ellis Gage), the butler, looks like Frankenstein. Benign, but strange. This family revels in the intoxicating smell of a graveyard. What a crew!

Prepare to laugh frequently and loud (my stomach hurt) in this sparkling production of The Gateway’s “The Addams Family Musical Comedy,” in Bellport, as these leads—plus The Ancestors, six dead relatives summoned out of the crypt who shadow the Addams Family with hilarious, wordless, gestures, stationary busking and full-tilt dancing—play their roles to the hilt.

When the company launches into the “We’re the Addams Family” opening number, one of the lyrics is putting some poison in your day. But they also sing of love, passion, and humor, emphasizing their uniqueness with a line dance, bunny hop and the twist. The cast’s joy in being strange is so shiningly out there, it’s contagious. The number got loud cheers.

(There were a lot throughout the show.)

About the ancestors: Keira Ballan as a pirate, Kelly MacMillan as a 19th-century courtesan with Jose Contreras as a cave man, Eric Daughterman as a nobleman, Chance Ingalls as a pith helmet adventurer are the marvelous, comedic, dancing and singing additions.

They can’t return to their dead status again until successfully conspiring to get Wednesday and her sweet square, Lucas (an adorable Jared Goodwin with great pipes), from Ohio, married.

The set is amazing. The Addams Family lives in a mansion on two acres in Central Park and the park scenes are right out of Disney: starry night, full moon, old-growth trees, lacy branches and Manhattan skyline in the distance. The story revolves around whether Morticia finds out from Gomez—after he promised Wednesday to keep a secret from Morticia—that her daughter wants to marry normal. His family from Ohio is coming to dinner.

The production numbers are imaginative and gleeful, like this one. Little birds pop out from the wall tweeting where Wednesday tortures her brother on a rack (he loves it; Rivers O’Neal is a spirited, annoying brother) and sings about changing from dark to… softer. She unwittingly grabs one of the warblers too hard and oh, dear, it’s dead in “Pulled.” Malia Monk plays Wednesday expertly with her withering stare, but that yearning to be in love. Great voice.

Jim Borstelmann’s ebullient Uncle Fester is a hilarious treasure, whether gleefully prancing through vaudeville steps or singing “The Moon and Me,” and… flying up to his beloved! Sydia Cedéno (formerly Abuela Claudia in last season’s “In the Heights’) is fab as the eccentric 102-year-old Grandma, with a pet rat. Feisty, she even hikes up her skirts and says, “Call me Cougar!”

Lurch, ah Lurch, played by Ellis Gage, is a master in lurching, but also timing. (He also sings. Wow!) Watch him when he meets and admires Alice Beineke. That would be poem-spouting Crystal Kellog, who accidently drinks Grandma’s potion and rips open her dress letting loose to “Waiting.” (More cheers.) Gil Brady plays her husband, grumpy Mal Beineke, who eventually redeems himself at the end.

The “Tango De Amore” dance scene is gorgeous, with Morticia and Gomez. Jennifer Byrne said she’d hoped to emulate Angelica Huston, who played Morticia in the movie and nailed it—ramrod straight, imperious, dry sense of humor, but also kind.  Her voice range is alto, mezzo-soprano, soprano. Aaron De Jesus as Gomez is perfect; his earnest passion for Morticia is something all women wished they had. Wonderful voice, whether it’s exasperation, despondency or love.

Ten stars for the orchestra; kudos to music director Andrew Haile Austin. They had to bundle a bass in the pit.

Snappy dialogue, fast-paced jokes, great dancing thanks to director/choreographer Keith Andrews and associate choreographer Kelly MacMillan.

Get warm with this wonderful show. It’s playing to Feb. 16. Tickets at www.thegateway.org.