The Addams Family comes to Littlehampton

Performances are Thursday, December 9, 7.30pm; Friday, December 10, 7.30pm; Saturday, December 11, 2.30pm and 7.30pm; and Sunday, December 12, 2.30pm.

The show is being produced and directed by Tori Monroe, with musical direction from Karen Haslam and choreography from Ben Cassan, based on characters created by Charles Addams.

For tickets call 07703 562256 or email [email protected] or visit www.bit.ly/addamsfamilymusical

Tori is delighted to get back to business: “We are based in Worthing but our performances are in Littlehampton and we’ve got a cast from both for this one. In fact, we have got people in the cast all the way from Bognor through to Brighton.

“The company is focused on productions predominantly. We do teach drama classes as well but that is a side line really. Our main focus is on productions and we do two productions a year. We have been going since 2003. I started it just because I love performing and I love working with children. I was a nanny and I wanted to bring the two elements together.

“I have got a theatrical background. I have done a lot of theatre work and that was my passion but also the children and so I brought the two things together. Back in the day, nearly 20 years ago, I printed some flyers off and just put them around where I lived and the following week I had 40 children join. You wouldn’t be able to do that now! We have had to change over the years with all the regulations and so on.”

They have found their performance home in the Windmill Theatre: “We love it there and we won’t be moved! It is just such a lovely theatre. It is quite big but not too big so that it is scary. What is lovely is that it has raked seating so wherever you sit you have got a great view. We thought about going to the Connaught or the Pavilion but they are just too big and would be too scary for the children.

“We’re really happy where we are. The people that run it are just like family. They’re really lovely. Obviously we had no productions last year and we were not allowed to do lessons. We did some lessons online but it’s obviously not the same. The whole idea with this is that it’s about face-to-face contact which is why we love working in the theatre in the first place. It is to be with people. But we did manage to do our doorstep panto last year which was amazing.

“We got together the cast for my best friend’s wedding anniversary and we all went dressed up as Disney characters, and people were coming up to us asking if this was our job. We just said yes, and so we started the doorstep panto. We had to stay right down at the end of the pavement and we had to socially distance from each other as well. It was tricky, but it was absolutely worth it. It was so lovely. It felt like we were really bringing something to the community. We did personalised 15-minute pantos.”

But now, at last, they are back on the stage properly: “When we started we were doing the big musicals, but the Windmill wasn’t doing pantos and so we started doing pantos, which we love. But I wanted to get back to musicals. As a company if you are doing pantos for a long time you get known as a panto company, and I wanted people to start taking us seriously again.

“The Addams Family is a great show. The music is really challenging compared to panto, but the lady that has been doing our musical direction is just amazing. To sing together again as a group when you haven’t sung for two years takes some doing. You use it or you lose it, and she has had to get all the voices back again.”

It’s a cast of 35 with the youngest aged seven among ten children in all: “Usually we are about 30 children and ten adults, but it is the other way around for this one. The lead characters are all adults and the children bring the cute factor!”