Just Around The Corner Lyrics – Addams Family, The

Song Overview

Review & Highlights

Morticia’s showpiece is a grin with teeth. In “Just Around the Corner,” Bebe Neuwirth turns domestic chaos into a pep talk about the one thing that never flakes: mortality. The lyrics are brisk and wicked, the groove walks with a swing feel, and the punchlines land like rimshots. Macabre comfort food, piping hot.

I’ve always liked how the number keeps the party moving while quietly sharpening Morticia’s edge. She lists favorite exits with cabaret poise, then drops a rhyme that bites. The lyrics play nice for exactly one beat before the music winks and the next dark image pops. You laugh, then you clock the steel.

Key takeaways: a comic anthem for acceptance, a textbook patter-to-belt showcase, and a neat compass for Morticia’s philosophy - if life wobbles, lean into the inevitable.

Verse 1

The opener lays out the family mess and her solution strategy: remember the endgame. The accompaniment clicks like a metronome for doom, yet the vocal sits light, almost cozy, so the jokes sparkle.

Chorus

The refrain rides swing 8ths and bright brass hits. It’s catchy on purpose - a singable motto about the one promise nobody breaks. You can hear the smile widen each time she repeats it.

Exchange/Bridge

Ancestors pop in with vaudeville asides, Morticia tosses setups, and the band punches the tags. The patter expands into a mini-revue - gags, gasps, even a fake-out sob - all while the pulse stays dancer-friendly.

Final Build

By the button, she sounds renewed. Not morbid - pragmatic. The last line lands like a toast, the orchestra swells, and the philosophy clicks into place. Curtain on a shrug and a smirk.

Song Meaning and Annotations

The message is comfort-through-candor. When home life tilts, Morticia reframes fear as a friendly visitor. It’s not nihilism - it’s control. She can’t fix Gomez or Wednesday tonight, but she can choose how to meet the future.

Morticia is making a pun. A coroner is an official who investigates violent, sudden, or suspicious deaths.

The mood starts breezy and gets brighter as the scenarios get gnarlier. That’s the Addams way - the worse the fate, the better the rhyme.

This is likely a reference to how Bebe Neuwirth, who played Morticia Addams, also portrayed Velma Kelly in Chicago. During “All That Jazz,” she sings “ha-cha” exactly like this.

Drops of stage business help the comedy breathe. Ancestors cough, gasp, mutter - tiny Foley art moments that pull the audience in.

As far as I know, the choking noise is made by a Male Ancestor, the Caveman, which points to his demise being caused by a cherry pit. It may not be true, though.

Another beat flips from camp to pathos, with a sudden wail in the middle of the roll call.

By another ancestor, this one wearing a wedding dress.

Lyric variants exist across licensed and touring versions, and fans love catching them.

“It could be too much Novocain” - in other versions, “It could be in a freshman dorm.”

Underneath the punchlines, a family ache hums - mother and daughter at odds.

In this part of the musical, Wednesday kept a secret from Morticia, and she is very mad at her.

Message

The song says: fear gets smaller when you name it. She doesn’t worship death - she organizes by it. The mantra makes room to breathe when the house is loud.

Emotional tone

Playful to serene. Jokes warm the room, then the certainty of the chorus steadies her voice. The arc is comic renewal, not despair.

Historical context

On the 2010 Broadway cast album, this lands early in Act II as a philosophy refresh for Morticia. It sits in a lineage of Broadway black-humor numbers, from cabaret patter to musical revue showstoppers.

Production

Orchestrations favor swing 8ths, crisp woodwinds, and brass stingers that underline each punch. The tempo rides just ahead of comfortable, keeping the patter buoyant and the laughs snappy.

Instrumentation

Rhythm section ticks like a sly timepiece, reeds chatter in counterlines, and the ensemble joins for the final refrain, turning gallows humor into a group hug.

Analysis of key phrases and idioms

“Around the corner” reframes dread as a neighbor. Everyday words - coroner, respirator, zoning - get repurposed into carnival prizes. That plain vocabulary is why the comedy hits fresh.

Metaphors and symbols

Death as a polite appointment. Marriage as a coin with mourned and mourner on each face. Apple-on-the-head style peril shows up elsewhere in the show; here, the hazards are verbal, and they’re hers to savor.

Creation history

Conceived by Andrew Lippa for Morticia’s second-act spotlight, recorded for the Decca Broadway cast album and released in June 2010. The track’s tidy runtime and crisp mix helped it travel well to regional and international productions, including Brazilian adaptations where the title becomes “Morte Ali na Esquina.”

Key Facts

• Artist: Bebe Neuwirth
• Featured: Ancestors ensemble
• Composer: Andrew Lippa
• Producer: Andrew Lippa
• Release Date: June 8, 2010
• Genre: Musical theatre, show tune, jazz-influenced patter
• Instruments: rhythm section, woodwinds, brass, strings
• Label: Decca Broadway
• Mood: sly, buoyant, macabre-comforting
• Length: 3:58
• Track #: 12
• Language: English
• Album: The Addams Family - Original Broadway Cast Recording
• Music style: swing 8ths, cabaret patter, belt button
• Poetic meter: conversational patter with internal rhyme
• © Copyrights: 2010 Decca Label Group

Questions and Answers

Who wrote and produced “Just Around the Corner”?

Andrew Lippa wrote the music and lyrics and produced the cast recording track.

When did Bebe Neuwirth release this recording?

It appeared as part of the Original Broadway Cast Recording released June 8, 2010.

Where does the number sit in the show?

Act II - Morticia’s philosophy song with Ancestors joining for the refrain.

Are there language adaptations of this song?

Yes. In Brazil it’s performed as “Morte Ali na Esquina,” with Marisa Orth as Mortícia in the 2012 and 2022 São Paulo productions.

What’s notable about the arrangement?

A swing-tinged patter groove, crisp orchestration for woodwinds and brass, and a clean belt button sized for a comic star.

Awards and Chart Positions

The Original Broadway Cast Recording debuted in June 2010 and showed staying power on Billboard’s Top Cast Albums, including a top 5 week in late June. It also registered on the Billboard 200. Internationally, the number became a set piece in Portuguese-language productions, boosting its afterlife beyond Broadway.

How to Sing Just Around the Corner?

Vocal range: commonly sits in the low mezzo territory. Published and audition materials place Morticia around G3 to Bb5, while some guides for this specific number map roughly F#3 to G#5 in the original key. Treat the top as an elegant mix, not a shout.

Breath and tempo: the patter needs forward air. Mark silent breaths at line-ends, keep consonants crisp but unforced, and save a fuller tank for the last refrain where the belt blooms.

Timbre and placement: dark core with a smile on it. Think cabaret clarity for wordplay, then let the resonance deepen on the repeated title phrase.

Interpretation: sell the jokes without mugging. The trick is serenity. She believes every word, which makes the comedy land and the button feel earned.