Just a few years ago, Melody Munitz was taking her final bows as a Penn State student, ending her musical theater career at Penn State with her role as Fiona in “Brigadoon” at the Playhouse Theatre near the Forum Building.

Now, she’s returning to Happy Valley to perform on a different, larger stage with her portrayal of Wednesday Addams in the national tour of “The Addams Family,” playing at Eisenhower Auditorium on April 1 and 2.

Munitz graduated from Penn State in 2022 with a dual honors degree in both musical theater and psychology with a neuroscience emphasis. Her final performance as a student in “Brigadoon” was only a few days before graduation, a fitting testament to the role theater played in Munitz’s college experience.

“[Brigadoon] was a show about love and loss and loving something so dearly and yet having to leave,” Munitz said. “The parallelism between that and graduating Penn State at that time was not lost on me.”

Following her graduation from Penn State, Munitz moved right to New York City and started working as a stage manager for an off-Broadway production. After working on a few different productions, in the fall of 2023, Munitz joined the national tour of “American Girl Live! In Concert,” a musical production based on the American Girl doll brand.

After finishing on the American Girl tour, Munitz auditioned and booked her role as Wednesday in “The Addams Family,” something she was particularly excited about when she learned that the tour would be bringing her back to Happy Valley.

“When I first saw that this show was having a new Broadway national tour and was looking at the itinerary and saw it was coming to Penn State, I had chills through my body, and I was like, ‘I really want this role,'” Munitz recalled.

While she never got to perform at the Eisenhower Auditorium in a theatrical production during her time at Penn State, Munitz recalled several times she had the chance to stand on that stage. One such occasion was at her graduation, where she had the opportunity to sing the Alma Mater and reflect on what that stage meant.

“I was just crossing my fingers and hoping beyond hope that one day, I’d get to come back and perform on that stage,” Munitz reminisced. “It was so meaningful, and it was my biggest dream, and I can’t believe that three years later, I’ll be back on that stage with the national tour of the Addams Family.”

Munitz is getting the chance to fulfill that dream as the star of the national tour of the hit musical, “The Addams Family,” based on the comic strip and television show of the same name. The updated tour features new jokes, gags, and songs from the original 2010 Broadway run.

“A night out at ‘The Addams Family’ is a night full of humor and heart,” Munitz said. “It will have you rolling in the aisles, and it will also probably have you crying or feeling really sentimental at some points.”

Munitz is proud to bring this show back to her old home and alma mater and expressed her gratitude and sentimental feelings about finally coming back to Happy Valley and getting to perform on the stage she used to dream of.

“From the moment that I first stepped foot on campus, I knew that Penn State was something deeply special and something I could not deny as part of my life,” Munitz said. “It was the gift that keeps on giving, and to now be coming back to this home and performing literally down the street from where I lived on Shortlidge Road for all four years of undergrad? It’s incredibly special.”

When Munitz returns to State College on March 31 in advance of the shows, it will mark the seventh anniversary, to the day, of her first visit to Penn State for her accepted students program.

“I realized that yesterday as I was on my way to the show, and I just burst into tears on the highway. It’s incredibly full circle,” she said.

Munitz and the rest of the cast of “The Addams Family” will perform two shows at Eisenhower Auditorium at 7 p.m. on April 1 and 2, respectively. Tickets for both shows are still available through the Center for the Performing Arts website, by calling (814) 863-0255, or by visiting the Eisenhower Auditorium box office.