The national tour of “The Addams Family,” based on the beloved cartoon by Charles Addams, will be arriving in Dallas, Texas this October. This 3-week run at the Music Hall at Fair Park is part of the Dallas Summer Musicals season. Following Dallas, the show will hit Seattle, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Tempe, and will close in Costa Mesa in December.

The touring cast features a number of Tony-nominated actors including Douglas Sills as Gomez and Martin Vidnovic as Mal Beineke. The rest of the principal cast includes Sara Gettelfinger as Morticia, Gaelen Gilliland as Alice Beineke, Blake Hammond as Uncle Fester, Pippa Pearthree as Grandma, Patrick D. Kennedy as Pugsley, Curtis Holbrook as Lucas Beineke, and Cortney Wolfson as Wednesday. Wolfson joined the national tour straight from the Broadway cast, where she understudied the role. Wolfson has previously been seen in “Les Miserables.” For the Dallas show only, Zachary James will play the role of Lurch, which he originated in the Broadway production.

The musical tells the story of Wednesday Addams, the “ultimate princess of darkness” who has “grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family,” according to BroadwayWorld.com. The twist? The Addams family decides to “host a dinner for Wednesday’s ‘normal’ boyfriend and his parents.” The producers refer to this plot as “every father’s nightmare.” Over his three decades of artistry, Addams’ characters have become widely known to people all over the world, and quite popular.

Charles Addams became a published artist in 1933 when his cartoon was published in The New Yorker. Throughout his career he created thousands of cartoons, sketches and drawings. Most notably was his creation of the Addams family, in a “unique style that combined the twisted, macabre and just plain weird with charm, wit and enchantment” according to BroadwayWorld.com. “The Addams Family” first became widely known as a television show in 1964. The show was made into a movie in 1991, starring Anjelica Houston, Christopher Lloyd and Christina Ricci as Wednesday.

The tour, directed by Phelim McDermott, features a production team including a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, choreography by Sergio Trujillo, production supervision by Jerry Zaks, lighting design by Natasha Katz, sound by ACME Sound Partners, puppetry by Basil Twist, orchestrations by Larry Hochman, and music direction by Ben Whitely. The team also includes hair and makeup design by Tom Watson and Angelica Avallone, respectively, and special effects by Greg Meeh.

“The Addams Family” first opened on Broadway in March 2010, running for about a year and a half at the Lunt Fontanne Theatre. The show received nothing but positive reviews throughout its run.

The musical was described by the Chicago Tribune as “classic” and “fast-paced.” According to John Simon of Bloomberg News, the show was “a glitzy-gloomy musical entirely worthy of the macabre drawings by Charles Addams.”

The show began its North American tour in New Orleans in September 2011, and has since played over 350 performances. In the upcoming years, international productions of the musical are scheduled for Australia (March 2013) and Argentina (June 2013).