As summer escapist fare with a subversive sepulchral streak, "The Addams Family," fittingly, kills it.

Over the weekend, the 2010 musical opened Broadway Rose Theatre Company's 26th season. The Tigard company usually goes big. But this blockbuster production of glorious, funereal-shaded eye candy -- 10-foot-high sets, puppet monsters, a hydraulic effect and a huge cast of ghouls -- rivals multi-bus road shows at the Keller Auditorium. (Add to this the dozens of detailed costumes. We're talking bespoke bathing suits for the zombies.)

Before writers Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice (the team behind "Jersey Boys") plopped Charles Addams' fearsome family onto the boards, they appeared in comic panels in magazines, a 1960s TV series, and movies in the 1990s. Brickman and Elice's script strings out a plot as thin as hair on a mummy's head, and every song in Andrew Lippa's score will be forgotten by the time the air conditioner cools your car seat on the drive home.

Show tunes succeed because of performances, not melodies. And there's a full bench of first-rate belters. For example, Morticia (Lisamarie Harrison, sewn into Morticia's signature vampress gown) opens Act II with the gallows confection "(Death Is) Just Around the Corner." For those tortured by younger siblings, "Pulled," a lungblaster from Wednesday Addams (Molly Duddlesten), is anthemic turnabout.

In fact, the entire eccentric Addams clan and their foil family of "normals" are so likeably realized by the cast you never want to leave this realm where black is the old, new and forever black.

Line of the night: "Life is a tightrope, my child. And at the other end is your coffin. Better?" says Morticia, trying to cheer up her son, Pugsley.

Strengths: If you dig Victorian lace, layers of mascara, and Siouxsie and the Banshees, and often hit Southeast Portland's Lovecraft Bar during its "Unhappy Hour" or Black Mass Dance Party night, you'll find this horror musical an especially lively scream. Given Portlanders' enduring adoration of Goth -- we also host the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival & CthulhuCon, don't forget -- it's surprising "The Addams Family" isn't produced more, and outside of October. (The Broadway tour landed in Portland in 2013, and Beaverton Civic Theatre and Hillsboro Artists' Regional Theatre staged versions for recent Halloween seasons.)

Director and choreographer Peggy Taphorn has performed in and captained dance companies for Broadway shows, and she's tapped a geyser of inspiration here. The first number tracks the Addams ancestry with energized salutes to both the bunny hop and, of course, "Thriller." It's not enough to put her corps of corpses through their paces; later on, Taphorn plants Morticia in a kickline, defying her snug, fishtail skirting.

Weaknesses: The story is a question: Can two very different families come together for a marriage? It could be answered in a 22-minute network sit-com, yet this show teases matters to 2-1/2 hours. Stuffing the stage with Addams descendants is also a conspicuous and clumsy means to up the body count. When they're not dancing, the zombie kin are decor -- literally in one scene.

Many of the double-entendres Gomez Addams (Joe Theissen) aims for barely land as singles. The timely political and pop cultural gags are dead on arrival as well, because this family exists in its own timeless tomb of gruesome glee.

One of the most iconic family members, Thing, gets a pinky-sized cameo. For a show swarming with creature effects, this is baffling. Thing is not that tough to pull off. Step one: Cut a hole in a box. Step two: Put a hand in that box.

Most valuable performer: Isaac Lamb brings Uncle Fester to the hilarious, bubbliest boil during all of his duties, which include lead dancer, Greek chorus and emcee. His high-pitched cackle somehow splits your ears and warms your heart. Lamb should get something for this performance. Judging by how hard he's squeezing his voice, that something may be a hernia.

Takeaway: Guess what, Portlanders? The wonderfully weird exist everywhere, including Tigard.

-- Lee Williams for The Oregonian/OregonLive

***

"The Addams Family"

Where: Deb Fennell Auditorium, 9000 S.W. Durham Road, Tigard

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday (except July 8) through July 23

Tickets: $30-$60; broadwayrose.org or 503-620-5262