Playbill has announced that The Addams Family is heading for Broadway, with plans to open in the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on April 8, 2010.

The show, which was presented in a reading in January, is an original musical – placing the characters created by legendary cartoonist Charles Addams into an entirely new storyline – with a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice and score by Andrew Lippa. A run is also being planned in Chicago from November 2009 to January 2010, during which time the show will be refined for its run on the Great White Way.

So what is the show about? The website for the Chicago run offers the following snippets of information:

It’s an Addams Family portrait you’ve never seen before. Gomez, all mad impetuosity, Morticia, equal parts fire and ice, Fester, restless and romantic, Pugsley, for whom immediate gratification can’t come soon enough and Wednesday, eighteen years old and finally feeling what it means to be a woman. A family that’s quite shockingly, and endearingly, just like yours.

So the twist is that Wednesday is all grown up! Some more information comes from the press releases for the show:

Storm clouds are gathering over the Addams Family manse. Daughter Wednesday, now 18, is experiencing a sensation that surprises and disgusts her — caring about another person. Young Pugsley, jealous of his sister’s attention, begs her to keep torturing him, severely, while mother Morticia, conflicted over her daughter’s lurch into womanhood, fears being upstaged and discarded… like yesterday’s road kill. All the while, father Gomez — master of the revels, mischievous and oblivious as ever — would prefer everything and everyone remain as it is. But when outsiders come to dinner, the events of one night will change forever this famously macabre family — a family so very different from your own…or maybe not.

So the plot is straight out of Kaufman and Hart. Anyone else remember the Pulitzer Prize-winning You Can’t Take It with You?

The cast for the Chicago run has also been announced:

Gomez: Nathan Lane
Morticia: Bebe Neuwirth
Wednesday: Krysta Rodriguez
Pugsley: Adam Riegler
Uncle Fester: Kevin Chamberlin
Grandmama: Jackie Hoffman
Lurch: Zachary James
Lucas Beineke: Wesley Taylor
Mal Beineke: Terrence Mann
Alice Beineke: Carolee Carmello

It looks like they’ve got an excellent cast in place! The show also has an official website for those who want to sign up for more information as it comes along.