By Sam Pynes
Beetlejuice (The Musical, The Musical, The Musical), The Lied Center for Performing Arts, Tuesday March 4, 2025
If you have stumbled across enough of my sporadic reviews you’ll know that what really interests me is where stories come from and what makes them work. This particular story touches on one of the very oldest tropes – the trickster spirit. Though the level of outright malevolence between them varies, it is easy to see the connections between a character like Beetlejuice and mythological figures like Loki, Puck, Hermes, Anansi, and the Pooka. Other recent iterations of this type are as varied as Bugs Bunny and Ferris Bueller. What is it about these characters’ antics that make them so fun to watch? Rebellion, danger, and sometimes tragedy intermix in many of their stories. Beetlejuice is a ruder, and relatively more malevolent version of this trope.
Tim Burton’s wacky sensibilities were a perfect match for this story in the 1988 film, and the ebullient nature of musical theatre is a perfect fit for resurrecting it for a new era. In the current trend of musical adaptations of successful films, here is one that clearly deserves a musical treatment, and this one is full of the sound, light, and spectacle that only theatre can provide.
The music and lyrics are by Eddie Perfect, and instantly reminded me of Tim Minchin’s Matilda the Musical, which also features rollicking nonstop rhymes and puns, in a variety of musical styles. Incidentally, both of these writers are Australians, known for their cabaret style political comedy, and are musical performers in their own right. In fact, Perfect will be playing Beetlejuice himself in the Australian premiere of the show opening this May. But enough of me getting sucked into Wikipedia like a vortex to the netherworld.
If you haven’t seen the movie, Beetlejuice is a story about a grieving family that buys a house which last belonged to some ghosts that have not moved on, all while a trickster spirit is trying to manipulate the situation to his own ends. Thematically, though, it is about grief and communication: being seen and called by name.
Philosophically I’d say it is Humanist and Materialist, which is interesting considering it is a show dealing with an afterlife. Delia’s vague spiritualism is pitted as a straw man against Lydia’s insistence on proof and fact. Also, Beetlejuice mentions a few times that he is a “demon straight from hell,” but I’m unconvinced. This is clearly more of a Hel (one L) of pagan mythology, than a Judeo-Christian hell. He wouldn’t be able to swear so much if that weren’t the case, for one thing. But again, I digress.
Like many trickster stories, this one also plays with the device of being somewhat meta – Beetlejuice knows he is in a theater and talks to the audience throughout. As such it is also a show that relies heavily on audience and performer energy. I’m happy to report that it was a rollicking success on that front. It is so satisfying to see an actor confidently become a character and take the audience along for the ride. I found myself leaning in to hear every word that Justin Collette said, especially the quips directed to the audience. The audience, in turn, was eating out of his hand. Sarah Litzsinger (Delia) was the other standout performer for me – she was in character and interesting for every moment she was on stage. The deceased couple, Barbara and Adam (played by Megan McGinnis and u/s Ryan Breslin) were entirely endearing. My wife, who is a big fan of Newsies, was happy to note that Breslin was one of the original newsboys. Emilia Tagliani (u/s Lydia) had an incredible voice and sang immaculately, but I did find myself wanting some more range from her characterization which settled comfortably on angst.
I don’t know if it was the venue or the tour mixing, but sometimes words were garbled or hard to make out in some songs which might have added to some details being lost. The orchestra was rocking though and had great energy throughout.
The audio and visual effects in the show were amazing, down to the very finest of details. My favorite moment was a simple one: when a door is opened to the netherworld and just the right amount of light and smoke curls out of it before it shuts again. The show was full of such dialed-in moments, along with much larger and flashier effects that I wouldn’t want to ruin: it’s a true spectacle!
A surprising number of people braved the high winds and slushy sleet to attend, some in costumes or Beetlejuice merch. The production was delayed some 15 minutes to start, and then another 15 minutes during the first act as power surges caused by the high winds apparently required system reboots. The audience didn’t care a wit and the cast came back with, if anything, with more energy than before with an ecstatic cheer from the crowd. It was a rollicking good time.
If you go: Beetlejuice runs at The Lied Center for Performing Arts March 4-9, 2025. Ticket information at https://www.liedcenter.org/. Content warning: Parental discretion advised. Contains strong language, mature subject matter, and a lot of the crazy, inappropriate stuff you would expect from a deranged demon.
Sam Pynes is an actor, writer, and story enthusiast. Mostly harmless. Current Managing Editor of Appearing Locally.
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