The Addams Family was the most popular high school musical production this year, according to the latest rankings from the Educational Theatre Association.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: "The Addams Family" musical made its debut on Broadway in 2010. The story of a weird, ghoulish family that loves all things death, in song and dance.</s>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: The reviews were mostly bad. The New York Times reviewer said, while watching the show, quote, "a strangled voice inside you keeps gasping help - get me out of here."</s>ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: It was on Broadway for less than two years.</s>ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Has anyone ever told you, you move like a corpse?</s>ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Thank you.</s>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: Well, now those creepy and kooky family members have found new life on the high school stage. In the latest high school theater rankings from the Educational Theater Association, "The Addams Family" tops the list. This year it was performed all over the country. In February, it was on at Morristown High School in New Jersey.</s>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As Gomez Addams) And now we summon our beloved ancestors. Why do we do this?</s>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) Because living or dead, family is still family.</s>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As Gomez Addams) Yes. And how do we do this?</s>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: (As character) By dancing on their graves.</s>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As Gomez Addams) Yes.</s>ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: Cue the worm on stage and then a big ensemble dance number - everybody dressed like ghosts.</s>ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: The actual plot tells the story of Wednesday Addams, the daughter of the family. She's grown up, fallen in love and arranged for her love interest's family to meet her rather morbid family.</s>NATE YOUNG: (As Gomez Addams) The intoxicating smell of the graveyard. Once a year, we gather beneath our family tree to honor the great cycle of life and death.</s>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: This was another production at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg, Pa., which ran in April. Student Nate Young played Gomez Addams.</s>NATE YOUNG: (Singing, as Gomez Addams) When you're an Addams, you need to have a little moonlight. When you're an Addams, you need to feel a little chill.</s>ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: The show has it all - lots of Halloween-y makeup, outlandish foreign accents, drama, laughs, big dance numbers.</s>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: Unlike The New York Times theater critic, parents of the performers loved "The Addams Family" musical productions this year, at least that's what an unscientific review of Facebook posts tell us. Could be parental pride or maybe it's just the scrappy enthusiasm of the high school stage that makes everything better.</s>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: NATE YOUNG AND UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (Singing, as Gomez Addams and character) When you're an Addams...</s>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (Singing, as character) You need to have a taste for death.</s>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: YOUNG AND UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (Singing, as Gomez Addams and character) Who cares about the world outside and what it wants from you? When you're an Addams...