Review: BEETLEJUICE at National Arts Centre

“Beetlejuice is sexy, Beetlejuice is smart, Beetlejuice is a graduate of Julliard!” Barbara (Megan Morris) and Adam Maitland (Will Burton, understudied by Ryan Breslin on opening night) enthusiastically extol the virtues of the ghost-with-the-most in “Say My Name”.  However, it immediately becomes apparent that the Maitlands are singing Beetlejuice’s (Justin Collette) praises under duress. I can empathize.

You see, I know for a fact that Beetlejuice The Musical (The Musical The Musical) is a fantastic show. In 2019, I planned a trip to New York City for the sole purpose of seeing the musical after watching the original Broadway cast perform at the Tony Awards. I’d never even seen the movie but, hey, a show about death? Take my money! After I saw it, it ranked firmly in my top ten shows of all time. So, it goes without saying that I had high hopes for the opening night performance of Beetlejuice at the National Arts Centre, presented as part of Broadway Across Canada’s 2024-2025 season. In fact, despite the return of the almighty Hamilton this season, Beetlejuice was actually the show I was most looking forward to. So, what went wrong?

Let’s start with the good stuff. Broadway Across Canada has an inflatable sandworm and some fun selfie props set up, so make sure you arrive early and don’t forget to tag #BACBEETLEJUICE to share your social media pics. If you decide to go for a pre-show dinner, the NAC’s 1 Elgin restaurant has a cute Beetlejuice themed cocktail you can order, topped with a gummy worm. Adorable! Many theatregoers were dressed in stripes or goth, depending whether they aligned more with Beetlejuice or Lydia (Madison Mosley, understudied by Emilia Tagliani on opening night). I even wore my crystal bracelet, in silent homage to Delia (Sarah Litzinger, understudied by Lexie Dorsett Sharp on opening night). The ambiance created a pre-show buzz that demonstrated just how excited fans were for this show.

Beetlejuice’s scenic design (David Korins) and lighting (Kenneth Posner) is phenomenal. Fairly complex sets are changed in the blink of an eye, and the simultaneous flashing lights ensure that each set change is a complete surprise, adding to the surreal feel of the show. The puppets (Michael Curry), especially the sandworm, are incredible, and add another dimension of “strange and unusualness” to the show. The musical's opening number is a highlight, morphing from the sombre “Prologue: Invisible” to the riotous “The Whole ‘Being Dead’ Thing” in seconds. One of my favourite numbers, “What I Know Now”, sung by Miss Argentina (Veronica Fiaoni) did not disappoint. Beetlejuice also often breaks the fourth wall to talk to the audience, and they love it. This show is truly unlike any other out there. 

Some of the libretto’s one-liners have been updated since I saw the original show in 2019, to allow for hilarious, not-so-subtle jabs at the current U.S. administration. For example, as Beetlejuice burns a copy of the Handbook for the Recently Deceased, he exclaims, “I thought this only happened to books that make kids gay!”

And now for the bad… “Do you hear that sound?” asks Beetlejuice. “That beautiful sound?” replies Lydia. Well – actually no, Mr. Juice and Lydia, we don’t.

The sound at the NAC’s Southam Hall is notoriously bad, especially when it comes to Broadway touring productions. Inexplicably, I have also seen performances where the sound is perfection (here’s looking at you, Hamilton). But last night was probably the worst sound I have ever experienced in this theatre. Bear in mind that this is a production whose music I know and love, but it was excruciatingly difficult to make out lyrics, even for me. The worst part is that I could tell that the performers were singing their hearts out.  Having the sound quality be so bad that you can’t understand the lyrics at a musical theatre production should result in a one-way ticket to the Netherworld. The NAC really needs to figure out what their sound issue is, because audiences pay good money to see Broadway shows here and it happens so often that the blame cannot be placed solely on the touring sound crew. The already bad sound deteriorated to the point that they had to halt the show for a couple of minutes after the intermission to recalibrate.

I do hope that last night was a one-off, opening night glitch. This really is such a great show and the cast looked like they were having a phenomenal time, so it would be nice if the audience could too. A word of advice would be to listen to the Broadway cast recording before attending the show if you are not already familiar with the lyrics, just in case. 

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