Everybody's favorite ghost-with-the-most has finally made it to Broadway. Beetlejuice appears on stage in this hilarious new musical that subverts all of Broadway's conventions. Based on Tim Burton's classic, other-worldly film, this hilarious new musical is an absolute killer.
Beetlejuice tells the story of a strange and unusual teenager whose whole life is upended when she meets a recently deceased couple in her father's new house. Then, when a dastardly demon with a thing for stripes wants to use her for his own nefarious purposes, she has to figure out what is truly important. With an irreverent book, an astonishing set, and a score that will have you tapping your toes long after you’ve shuffled off this mortal coil, Beetlejuice is musical unlike anything you will see in this world (or the next).
And under its uproarious surface (six feet under, to be exact), it’s a remarkably touching show about family, love, and making the most of every Day-O!
Beetlejuice, with music and lyrics from Eddie Perfect (King Kong: The Musical) and a book by Scott Brown and Anthony King, was crafted from a group of creative minds who clearly love the source material, though not all of it works. There are still second act problems and a song list void of any real bops, but it's a fun time for the Burton novice and pure fan service for the Burton stans, thanks in large part to the titular puckish undead spirit breathing life into a Broadway experiment that could've been dead in the water.
Whatever else it may or may not be, Beetlejuice is spectacularly weird. The best creative work in this musical adaptation of Tim Burton's 1988 film-about a pair of sweet ghosts trying to rid their house of its distasteful new inhabitants-has gone into its physical form: The designers come at it from all kinds of crazy angles. David Korins's haunted-house set seems to buckle in the middle and stretch at the edges; William Ivey Long's costumes are a batty vision of colors and patterns at war. There are magic tricks and giant worms and a starkly linear idea of the afterlife that contrasts well with the chaotic world of the living. If only so much of the rest of Beetlejuice were not a busy mess.
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