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BUCHANAN — Buchanan Community Schools students are preparing for their first musical performance of 2025.

The Buchanan High School Drama Club will be performing “The Addams Family Musical” in the BHS Auditorium at 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $8 for students and $10 for adults. 

The musical, written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, is based on Charles Addams’s original New Yorker cartoon, which has inspired several movie and television adaptations.

“This is the first musical the high school has done in a while so when I was picking the show I was really looking for something that I thought the students and community would have fun with,” said Co-Director Katie Persak. “The characters of this show really fit the students we have in our program this year and it’s a great show for us as we continue to grow.”

Directed by Persak and Kim Oleson, Buchanan students will depict the familiar characters Gomez, Morticia, Fester, Wednesday, Pugsley, Lurch and more as Wednesday falls in love with a “normal” young man.

“This musical includes all the favorite characters of the family, some Addams family ancestors from beyond the grave, and a few new characters who get to meet the family for the first time,” Persak said. “I think that people who are fans of all of the movies and tv shows will really like this new story about Wednesday growing up and falling in love and how the family comes together to handle it.”

Persak said the students quickly embraced the show.

“I tried to keep it a secret from them as long as I could so when I finally announced the show I they seemed very excited for it,” she said. “I think that excitement really shows in how well they’ve prepared their characters.”

In total, approximately 30 cast, crew and band members have worked tirelessly to bring The Addams Family to life.

“Our full cast has 17 members playing the different roles of the family including some ancestors as our chorus,” Persak said. “In addition to this we have a crew of seven dedicated kids backstage who are helping us with set pieces, props, lights, and sound. I’m really proud of the work we’ve all done to put this together.”

Persak is looking forward to seeing her students’ hard work pay off when the curtains rise starting Thursday.

“The thing I’ve enjoyed most in this production is getting to work with these incredibly dedicated students,” she said. “Productions like this are so much fun when everyone is working together to make it the best it can be. I’m so proud of them and of the show we’ve made together. It’s been great to see new friendships forming among the cast and I really hope these experiences will stay with them like my own high school theater experiences stayed with me.”