Alan in Belfast: The Addams Family – will young love lead to the macabre family’s breakup? (St Agnes’ Choral Society at Grand Opera House until Saturday 6 May)

The 13-piece band strike up the overture and audience members of a certain age, who remember The Addams Family serial on Channel 4 (mid-1980s) or ITV (mid-1960s), click their fingers in time to the familiar tune. A severed hand meanders across the stage and a solemn family appear at the wrought iron gates of a cemetery.

The gist of the plot of the musical is that the daughter of the family, Wednesday Addams, has fallen in love. It’s pretty serious and Lucas is coming over for dinner and bringing his out-of-state parents. What could possibly go wrong in this high stakes encounter between the eccentric family who live in a gothic mansion in the middle of a New York public park and what seem to be a more tame family from Ohio. Could it be lead to the breakup of the Addams family?

Martin McDowell’s Uncle Fester emcees proceedings, an ebullient presence anytime he’s on stage. Aideen Fox shines in the role of Wednesday, owning the character’s deadpan demeanour, believably twisting her adoring father around her finger, and knocking every song out of the (Central) park. Daddy Gomez (Allen Gordon) fawns over the household matriarch Morticia (Lorraine Jackson) with the pair’s tango in the second a real highlight of Ann Marie Morgan’s choreography. Gordon and Jackson are vocally strong and Laura Kerr’s direction keeps them at the centre of attention, driving the story forward in scenes that could otherwise have become quite busy with the thirty or more ghostly ancestors dancing around in the background.

Andrew Reddy’s costumes deserve a mention: Wednesday’s tunic dress amplifies how her family defy cultural norms, while the Morticia’s elegant ballgown neatly transforms for the second act dancing.

The quality – and cost – of amateur productions is extraordinary. Set, sound and lighting are all to the standard you’d expect in a touring show passing through the Grand Opera House. But the programme also points to the community effort that makes a production like this possible. The months of weekly rehearsals produce quality performances. The choral pedigree of the society is apparent in the confident vocals and rich harmonies of both the principal cast and the ancestral ensemble. There’s also an army of people managing the props, wardrobe, make-up and welcoming the audience front of house. And how appropriate that local undertakers – Healy Brothers – were sponsoring the show!

The story embedded in the musical (by Andrew Lippa, Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice) is absent of the satire that cartoonist Charles Addams injected into his original macabre creation. Instead, the musical is almost wholly written for the laughs that can be found in the awkward encounter between the morbid Addams household and the differently weird outsiders who come to visit. Which makes for an entertaining show, and St Agnes’ Choral Society certainly squeeze a lot out of the material that is available in the book, lyrics and music. The flight choreography could be tightened up as the week goes on: Fester really needs better arm movements and something to do when he’s drifting towards the moon, one of the more bonkers elements of the story that really should have been cut in the last decade.

The success of the recent Addams’ spinoff show Wednesday on Netflix may have a lot to do with the selection of this musical for St Agnes’ Choral Society’s latest production. But they certainly have the performers and the panache to pull it off the entertaining romp which continues at the Grand Opera House until Saturday 6 May.

Oh, and can someone tell Morticia that the Paris Sewers really are worth visiting! We brought home a (toy) rat and discovered a Northern Ireland connection!