“From the cradle to cremation, death just needs a little conversation!”
Tim Burton’s iconic character Beetlejuice, formerly played by Michael Keaton in the 1988 classic film, hits broadway in the new “Beetlejuice” stage production. The show follows an altered narrative path similar to the film and stars Alex Brightman (“School of Rock”) as Beetlejuice and Sophia Anne Caruso (“Lazarus”) as Lydia Deetz. The show expands on core ideas and characters from the original story and incorporates them into a musical experience filled to the brim with spine-chilling fun.
After the death of her mother, Lydia Deetz has become fascinated with all things strange and unusual. She trots around in all black and takes great pride in freaking people out. Much to her dismay, her father has started dating a fashionista by the name of Delia. The disjointed family moves into a home that used to belong to the Maitlands; a happy couple that had big plans for the future… until they died. Frustrated with feeling invisible to her father, Lydia appears to hit rock bottom. That is, until she comes into contact with the confused spirits of the Maitlands. Lydia, with her supernatural buddies, sets out to scare her father in order to put him in his place. When the Maitlands scare tactics don’t lead to desired results, Lydia enlists the help of Beetlejuice in order to amplify the fear. And as we all know, Beetlejuice is very unpredictable.
The casting of the musical is nothing short of perfect. Alex Brightman brings a fresh amount of charisma and strangeness to the ghost with the most. He changes the style of his dialect on multiple occasions to emphasize certain gags or jokes and is ghoulishly animated in all that he does. Beetlejuice serves as a sort of Deadpool-esque character in this interpretation. On multiple occasions he points out toward the audience and makes jokes directly for the crowd. It’s such a Beetlejuice thing to do and it certainly works wonderfully in a stage-setting. Beetlejuice also snorts coke within the first quarter of the show and continuously makes sexual references throughout. He is completely unfiltered, and that’s exactly how it should be for the best bio-exorcist around.
Sophia Anne Caruso is a force to be reckoned with as Lydia Deetz. She takes Winona Ryder’s interpretation and adds an angsty flair to it. Caruso works well off of the other characters, and it is an absolute joy to see her perform alongside Brightman’s Beetlejuice. Her ability to convey the complex emotions of the character is superb. She’s Wednesday Adams, Winona Ryder, and Lydia Deetz all wrapped into one. Rob Mcclure and Leslie Kitzer are appropriately goofy as the recently-deceased Maitlands. Their goody goody attitude and positive outlook on life is such a grim, yet hilarious, contrast with the true reality of their supernatural situation.
Where Beetlejuice: The Musical really shines is with its extremely impressive special effects and set design. A lot of the show takes place in the Maitland’s home, but thanks to incredible lighting effects it goes through many unique transformations that completely change the style of the set. Beetlejuice’s scare tactics are ghoulishly displayed as he conjures a movie-accurate sand worm, countless clones, a knife-wielding pig, and even a skeletal game show audience. Hidden set props enable Beetlejuice to miraculously chain people to objects and even slam their mouth shut with a metal slab like in the film. The set truly feels alive (or dead) and infested with Beetlejuice’s supernatural magic. This is most prominent with the fantastic performance of “That Beautiful Sound” and a remarkable recreation of the “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” dinner table scene.
The musical performances in “Beetlejuice” incorporate the morbid, yet unhinged tone of the iconic film. Characters sing about deceased relatives, the sweet sound of people screaming in terror, and even a song about a little girl scout with a deadly heart condition. Each actor has their own singing style which adds a unique aspect to the tracks. Brightman’s Beetlejuice songs are more raspy and unpredictable, with multiple shifts in musical style and volume. Caruso’s songs pack an enormous amount of emotion and range from slow ballads like “Dead Mom” to rambunctious celebrations like “That Beautiful Sound”. Other characters including the Maitlands, the Deetz family, and even Miss Argentina from the Netherworld get their time to musically shine as well. Each track offers a distinct flavor that feels true to the state of their character at that point in the story.
While the play definitely takes its own liberties and differs from the source material, it certainly pays tribute to the film that it is based on. Many of the costumes in the production are very similar to the ones in the film, including (but not limited to) Lydia’s wedding dress and the design of the ghosts from the netherworld waiting room; if you’ve ever wanted to see the shrunken head man dance in an ensemble here’s your chance. The show also continuously teases the iconic melody of “Jump in Line” from the end of the film and its eventual reveal certainly delivers. In some ways, the narrative of the show seems to improve on aspects of the film that weren’t as fleshed out. Beetlejuice is given more of a narrative arc (turns out he has a mother!), and Lydia’s family dynamic is a bit more emotionally explored.
Overall, “Beetlejuice” is a wonderful and warped musical tale that touches on the reality of death, feeling invisible to the world, and dealing with grief as a family. Burton’s signature style is extremely apparent, and the world of this musical is most definitely a love-letter to people who feel that they, too, are strange and unusual.
