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OOKY KOOKY: This atmospherically lit detail from Graeme Nicoll's set design for Musical Theatre Gisborne's production of The Addams Family sets the tone for a good night out.Picture supplied

They're creepy and they're kooky,

Mysterious and spooky,

They're altogether ooky,

The Addams Family . . .

So when Lucas Beineke (Mike Seymour) from the regular world and crossbow-toting Wednesday Addams (Tirzah Rolfe) fall in love and want to marry, you bet it gets weird for the conservative Beinekes when they visit the Addamses for dinner.

But with imminent changes in the family as Wednesday grows up, Gomez (Peter Derby), her pencil-moustached, sartorial, sword-fighting father with a whiff of brujeria in his background, struggles to comes to terms with that.

And at some point he has to break the news to his arch, crimson-taloned wife, Morticia (Amanda Maclean).

Their house is a museum

When people come to see ‘em

They really are a scream

The Addams Family.

Despite the weird family members that include comically ghoulish Fester (Paul Stuart) and Wednesday's destructive brother Pugsley (Rosie West), not to mention creepy butler Lurch (Sabian Coomber-Nickerson), the Addams and Beinekes learn a lot about living from each other.

But they have a dark night of several singing and dancing souls to get through to get there.

Musical Theatre Gisborne's Belinda Campbell-directed production splatters laughs across unexpected themes with great song and dance routines, some fine solos (Fester's crooning to the celestial love of his unlife will blow you away), live music from the onstage band and another fine set design by Graeme Nicoll. The show runs until Saturday . . .

So get a witch's shawl on

A broomstick you can crawl on

We're gonna pay a call on

The Addams Family.

The Addams Family, Lawson Field Theatre, until Saturday, 7.30pm. Tickets from i-SITE or . Adults $47.50, 65+ $42.00, child (under 14) $27.50.