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They are eccentric, oddly-shaped and some of their members look curiously like dead people — but just admit it, the Addams Family reminds you of your own relatives (not referring to you, Ma).

And even if they don’t remind you of your monstrous brother or your aunt’s weird penchant for black, eerie outfits, there’s no denying that audiences absolutely love the family’s bizarre and often macabre characters, created by legendary cartoonist Charles Addams in the 1930s for The New Yorker.

After numerous adaptations for television, film and even video games, the offbeat extended family of Gomez and Morticia Addams have finally been given singing voices in the hit Broadway musical comedy The Addams Family, written by Jersey Boys authors Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice.

“The main thing about them is what we liked to call the “Addams Inversion” — that is, what we might find repulsive, they find cuddly; what we might find sad, makes them happy, audiences seem to embrace this behaviour, because it mirrors the audience’s darker side and gives it expression,” said Brickman in an e-mail interview with TODAY.

“So many of the people we meet in our daily lives are a bit odd, just a little bizarre. The difference is that Gomez, Morticia, Wednesday, Pugsley, Uncle Fester, Grandma and Lurch are naturally more odd and more bizarre — in fact, larger than life,” said Elice.

Larger than life, they are. The musical begins with our beloved Addamses behaving strangely, as per, er, normal. But disaster strikes when princess of darkness Wednesday Addams falls in love with a (gasp!) normal boy. She confides in her father Gomez, who struggles to keep the secret from his beloved wife, Morticia.

“You know what that’s like — you turn around and your kid’s not a kid anymore. She’s a young woman in love. And like most young women in love, she begins to think and behave in strange new ways. Of course, this being the Addams family, we’re talking a whole new twist on strange,” said Elice.

“My favourite character is Gomez, because he tries to do everything the right way, but ends up doing it wrong. He tries to keep everyone happy, but ends up making everyone sad. And then, kind of miraculously, he fixes everything, and everybody, and brings the family back together.

“Family is everything to me, so a character who can bring his family back from the brink will always be a hero of mine.”

Elice said he and Brickman have also developed a “short-hand language” after working on Jersey Boys together. A language that, according to Brickman, involves “many, many conversations during walks in the park and cups of coffee in diners and restaurants”.

“Musicals are talked into existence. We would then divide up the work and each go off and based on an agree-upon scenario, try our hands individually on scenes and sequences. Then we’d trade our work, edit and rewrite, and so on,” Brickman explained.

“Gradually by some sort of attrition, one hopes that the bad stuff will slough off and you’re left with the book of a musical.”

Elice and Brickman revealed they have some new ideas for a third musical, but the latter insisted it’s “too soon to see which will live and which will be tossed overboard”.

“Our paths are crossing right now on a screenplay — and I suspect that, as soon as we can, we’d love to jump back into the musical theatre arena again,” said Elice.

“Nothing is as good as live theatre.”

Especially if it’s about family.

Can’t get enough of the Addams Family? Here’s how else you can catch them:

1. Watch make-up artists transform the cast into true blue Addams Family characters at MAC Tangs Orchard on Friday, 4.30 to 5.30pm, or on Saturday, 2 to 3pm.

2. Catch the cast’s performance of the song Pulled on Channel 8’s Sheng Siong Live Show on Saturday, 9 to 10pm.

3. Don’t miss the Addams Family’s 20-minute live performance at Timber @ Substation on Sunday, 8 to 8.30pm. The Addams Family runs from July 9 to 28, 8pm, Festive Grand, Resorts World Sentosa, with 2pm weekend matinees. Tickets from $55 to $175 at SISTIC.