The Wednesday Night Crawlers, Wednesday, October 8, 15, 22, and 29, 6 to 9 p.m. Participating locations in Downtown Westfield. No tickets or registration required Introducing The Wednesday Night Crawlers — a sinisterly spirited new addition to AddamsFest. Every Wednesday in October, beginning October 8, participating Downtown Westfield establishments will unveil their own signature AddamsFest cocktail, each one a nod to this year’s Femme Fatale theme. The official Wednesday Night Crawlers cocktail map will guide your nocturnal wanderings, making it frightfully easy to drift from lair to lair.
HOPE Fest 2025, Deutscher of Clark (787 Featherbed Lane, Clark, NJ 07066), Thursday, October 9 at 6:30 p.m. Sponsored by and benefiting The Center for Hope Hospice & Palliative Care. Join us at the Deutscher Club of Clark for an unforgettable night of comedy, live music, dinner & door prizes…starring NEW JERSEY’S BAD BOY OF COMEDY…the one and only Mike Marino! Plus, live music from the Paul Marino Band! Dinner included with your ticket. Tickets are $75 and can be purchased at https:/ /fundraise.givesmart.com/e/ c9iZJg?vid=1kyyz4.
Femme Fatale: Morticia Addams and More, Weekends, October 10 to 26, Fridays, 5 to 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 1 to 6 p.m.; Sundays, 10 to 3 p.m. at Rialto Center for Creativity Beautiful. Mysterious. Independent. Dangerous. Morticia Addams embodies these traits and so much more, making her the very definition of a femme fatale. This year’s AddamsFest art exhibit explores the complexities of Morticia, Wednesday, and the other women featured in Charles Addams’ cartoons and the work of other artists celebrating this fiery feminine mystique.
Much Ado about Nothing, October 11, 18, 24 and 25 at 8 p.m.; October 12 and 19 at 2 p.m. Westfield Community Players opens their season with Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing complete with flappers and gangsters a la Al Capone. Not quite how the Bard imagined it, but his comedy of love and deception transposes easily onto the Jazz Age in this production, where the champagne and witticisms flow in equal abundance. Directed by David Baker. Tickets available at wcptheatre.org. Westfield Community Players, 1000 North Avenue West, Westfield.
Morticia Addams: A Different Kind of Woman, Sunday, October 12, 2 p.m. Westfield Memorial Library, Advance registration required and now open via https://wmlnj.org/. Join Emma Straus for a discussion about the iconic matriarch of the Addams Family. Her thesis, Defamiliarizing Gender: Gothic Laughter and Radical Joy in The Addams Family, focused on the revolutionary way the Addams Family subverted traditional gender norms and redened strangeness in the domestic sphere through ending joy in the frightful.
Lantern Cemetery Tours at the Presbyterian Church of Westfield, 140 Mountain Avenue, Saturday, October 11, and Sunday, October 12, 5 to 6:30 p.m., running every 10 minutes. No tickets or registration required; first come, first served. While other kids his age were out frolicking with friends, a young Charles Addams spent his time hanging out in Westfield’s oldest cemetery (of course he did). Take a lantern tour of these historic grounds, hosted by The Presbyterian Church of Westfield.
The Charles Addams Heritage Trail Tour, Saturday, October 11, 18, and 25, 11 a.m., Meet in front of the Rialto Center for Creativity, 250 East Broad Street. Advance ticket purchase required; on sale September 22 https://www.addamsfest.com/
Addams Family Fun Day, Sunday, October 19, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Downtown Westfield. No tickets or registration required. From Pugsley to Grandmama, there’s something fun for everyone at Addams Family Fun Day. Head on over to Quimby Street in Downtown Westfield, which will be closed to cars for a day of family fun — including Addams Family character visits, pumpkin decorating, music and entertainment by the DJ Spinners, activities with local merchants, and more.
Halloween Play Reading. To celebrate Halloween, nonprofit Jersey Central Theatre Company will be presenting a staged reading of a spooky fun new play, The Secret of the Mummy’s Tomb, on Saturday, November 1 at 7:30 p.m., at the Patricia M. Kuran Cultural Arts Center (The Carriage House) next to Fanwood Borough Hall. Written by Kai Cofer, the play and is based on “Dracula” author Bram Stoker’s “The Jewel of the Seven Stars.” The professional cast features members of Actors’ Equity Association and includes Dino Curia, Roxann Kraemer, Carolyne Leys, Jason Szamreta, and Fanwood native Ken Schwarz. Doors will open at 7 p.m. Suggested cash contributions are $10 per person. No reservations; limited open seating. The Patricia M. Kuran Cultural Arts Center is located next to Borough Hall at 135 Watson Rd. (off Martine Ave.), Fanwood.
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