What’s lurking beneath ‘Wednesday’s’ popularity
Audiences can’t look away from the star’s deadpan charm, but themes of family and acceptance keep them hooked.
Within three weeks of airing, “Wednesday,” the series based on the teenage daughter of the Addams family, became the most watched show of all time on Netflix with over 252 million views. Season two — the first half of which aired Aug. 6 — is keeping pace, garnering 50 million views in its first five days.
The show’s popularity goes beyond a goth family’s novelty or Tim Burton’s signature style. It resonates because it addresses timeless themes of family and acceptance, said Robert Michael Sanders, the director of the spring 2025 production of “The Addams Family” musical by Metropolitan State University of Denver’s Theatre Department.
“The show has this message that just happens to resonate now, where everybody is embraced for their differences,” Sanders said. “It sounds cheesy, but it’s about acceptance, and the world doesn’t have a lot of that right now.”
From the beginning, “The Addams Family,” which premiered in 1964, has been about bringing together different types of people, Sanders said. Even though they’re weird, they accept everyone else and “are the epitome of people being open-minded.”
What’s more, everyone who engages with the family takes away something different. For members of the cast, self-confidence and familial bonds took center stage.
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Similar to the Netflix series, the play revolves around Gomez and Morticia Addams’ only daughter, Wednesday, who falls in love with someone who doesn’t share her family’s macabre sensibilities. Breakout star Chloe Price, 18, who played Wednesday, said what really appealed to her is Wednesday’s demeanor.
“I love how Wednesday is very comfortable being different,” Price said. “It wasn’t something that ever needed to change for her, and I really like that because a lot of women in media are portrayed in a similar way but Wednesday is really different from the norm.”
Price was familiar with the “Addams Family” characters prior to the play and admires Jenna Ortega’s take on Wednesday in the TV series. She noted that additions to Wednesday’s character, such as playing the cello and writing a novel, helped to modernize the role.
“I also really love how (Wednesday) has those moments where her emotions and her feelings really show through,” Price said.
Perhaps that’s why the role, her first outside of high school, was a natural fit. “So much of (Price) is in the role,” Sanders said. “It’s less somebody trying to act like Wednesday and so much of her. She’s able to be very stoic and yet very emotional at the same time.”
While the musical numbers take full advantage of the family’s peculiarities, including their “taste for death,” Price emphasized that the play’s staying power stems from its focus on family. “It works because no family is perfect,” Price said, adding that the show demonstrates how everyone has a weird side to them, and family members should love each other no matter how they express themselves.
Chrisnel Akele, who played Gomez, couldn’t agree more. He had been Gomez’s understudy in high school, and though the MSU Denver senior wasn’t planning to join another Theatre Department production at the time, he couldn’t resist. Gomez has always appealed to him because the character has such strong family values, he said.
“This play is about family and how you rely on each other for support,” Akele said. “And the moment (family) is gone, you just get lost quite easily.”
Akele helped guide some of the younger cast members, such as Price, by having fun and allowing their relationships to shine on stage. Samantha Atchison, who played Morticia, praised Akele for helping her let go while learning the tango.
“Partnered dances are always the most difficult because you have to entirely trust that the other person will catch you if you fall,” Atchison said. “I had to learn to relinquish control and trust Chrisnel to literally have my back.”
The bonds the students formed made their performances especially powerful, Sanders said, adding that so many of the cast members “just blew the doors off.” He had no reservations about whether “The Addams Family” would be a crowd-pleaser, especially given its parallels with the Netflix series.
“Even though there are some contemporary themes in there, this play is about embracing the weirdness,” Sanders said, “and figuring out what your path is moving forward.”
Learn more about Theatre and Dance at MSU Denver.
