*click click*

They're creepy and they're kooky, mysteriously spooky, and now, on their first ever UK tour, Andrew Lippa's The Addams Family musical has arrived in Salford.
Taking the well-known characters, but with a completely new story, the show follows a now-grown-up Wednesday Addams, who is holding a secret - she has fallen in love with a "normal" boy. Only letting Gomez know, she begs him not to tell Morticia until "a little family dinner", during which her family will meet his parents. As you would expect, hilarity ensues.

The show made it's Broadway premiere in 2010, starring Nathan Lane, and though it was nominated for 2 Tonys that year, it wasn't a big critical hit, so I was interested in what would come out of this production, particularly as this tour is the first time that the show has been done in the UK. Well, to be honest, it was a bit of a mixed bag. Sometimes out of the bucket came a sweet surprise; the next you had your finger caught in one of the Addams' booby-traps.

I'll make a start on the story, which I think is the show's biggest problem. It revolves around 2 central ideas that EVERYBODY has been through: meeting a partner's family for the first time, and family quarrels and make-ups. And while it does bring some relatable and heart-warming scenes, it can feel a bit like Lurch - not very stable, in that it's smart one minute and a bit soppy the next (in that respect, a bit annoying in that it cannot make up its mind) - and also a bit predictable.
It meant that any lesser company could well have made a complete cheese-fest of it. Thankfully, the company ran with it and made it their own.

As the "Princess of Darkness" Wednesday Addams, Carrie Hope Fletcher knocked it out of the park vocally, with songs like Pulled (which is deinfintely now in my singing-lesson file) and Crazier Than You, who she shared with Oliver Ormson's Lucas. (And it was nice to finally see Carrie full-stop, as by the time I got to see Les Mis and Chitty, she had left both productions.)
However, I feel it was really the men who stepped up to the plate. Dickon Gough made a hilarious Lurch, providing some great physical comedy - and a big surprise at the end.
I also adored stand-up Les Dennis as the crazy Uncle (turned narrator and matchmaker)  Fester, and I can guarantee you will find The Moon and Me absolutely adorable.
But the stand out performance for me was DEFINITELY Cameron Blakely (Into The Woods) as the patriarch of the family, Gomez. An amorous Latin lover besotted with his beloved Morticia, his comic timing was sharper then his épée, and absolutely hilarious. My mum (who came to see the show with me) was a big fan of the Addams Family TV show, and she pointed out that Blakely was the closest to the Gomez she knew from the show... High praise indeed.

And so it goes like a see-saw with this production: the costumes and make-up looked brilliant, and certainly make the characters look the part, from the Addams themselves, to the different ancestors who make up the ensemble; but their choreography was a bit clunky (I know they're meant to be ghosts/corpses, but this was taking the cheese). Some of the songs were memorable, including the opening number When You're An Addams; but others were really forgettable.

If you're an Addams Family fan, as long as you realise this is a completely new story, and different representations to what you may be used to seeing, then this is still one for you. If you're looking for a fun night out, this may also be a check-out. It does have its good moments; just don't be prepared to be blown away into the tornado that forces the Beineke's (Lucas' family) to stay the night a casa Addams....