The Addams Family are known for being creepy, kooky, and altogether ooky. Fortunately, while composer Marc Shaiman embraces the Family’s iconic traits, his score shows just enough restraint to prevent the film from being too over the top.
It would be easy to recreate the Addams Family as a kitsch satire of gothic proportions, leaning too heavily into the supernatural and nonsensical. But 1991’s film adaptation of the 1964 TV series is so much more: a surprisingly effective tonal mixture, including whimsy, macabre, romance, and family drama. It emphasizes the zany and paranormal as much as it does the love between Gomez and Morticia or the search for a member of the Family thought to be long lost. This combination gives Shaiman ample space within which to work.
The main theme is a surprisingly refined, grandiose waltz. It captures the aristocratic sensibilities of the Addams Family well, with a flowing dark elegance that still manages an undertone of lightheartedness. Even in its more bombastic permutations (reminiscent of Danny Elfman’s work on The Nightmare Before Christmas, which actually came out two years later) it acts as a grounding foil to animated hands, superhuman abilities, and seances (among many other things). If Shaiman completely leaned into these elements, the weight would simply be too much and the whole film would collapse into caricature.
However, Shaiman does indulge himself now and again. The best example is “Mamushka,” a three and a half minute horah-like traditional dance with Raul Julia’s Gomez Addams singing a constant stream of comedy lyrics (written with the help of classic comedy duo Betty Comden and Adolph Green). It is the score (and the film) at its most silly and ridiculous, with the entire Addams Family taking part in this Balkan dance, including acrobatic flips and knife tricks that are bolstered by the family’s naturally superhuman characteristics. Though the film never takes itself too seriously, and doesn’t necessarily need a moment of levity, the segment helps release any tension as it sheds any stakes or worries and dives into chaotic, decadent fun.
Shaiman’s quirky yet macabre score to The Addams Family makes for the perfect transition toward the Halloween season.
