Evan Henerson

With all its visual delights on full display, the non-Equity production directed by Catie Davis (from the original direction by Alex Timbers) is a carnival of the macabre. We’re looking largely at BEETLEJUICE the movie, set to song and with a few plot tweaks. Brash, ribald, frequently raw and shamelessly sappy and containing a witty score by Eddie Perfect, it’s pretty damned irresistible.

The national tour of THE NOTEBOOK: THE MUSICAL contains enough of the necessary ingredients, and pushes the appropriate buttons to get the ultra-romantic of us to submit to this story yet again. Between Ingred Michelson’s heart-swelling score, a safe and steady book by Bekah Brunstetter and the co-direction of Michael Greif and Schele Williams, this entertaining but hardly remarkable tale kicks off the 2026 season at the Hollywood Pantages on an appropriately tear-streaked note.

It's no accident that recent Broadway musicals with a historical and political current have found receptive audiences, particularly those (here’s looking at you, HAMILTON, SIX and the no-male 1776 revival) that have spanned the two Trump presidencies. In addition to plenty of young men and women for whom this history lesson is essential, one suspects the audiences of SUFFS were out on the streets during the 2025 No Kings rallies. Never have the curtain-closing words “keep marching on” felt more urgent.

About those songs: they’re more serviceable than exciting. Silvestri and Ballard have cinematic and pop credit to burn, and there would be no JAGGED LITTLE PILL (album or musical) without Ballard, but apart from future Mayor Goldie Wilson (Cartreze Tucker) laying into “Gotta Start Somewhere” and, later Doc Brown’s ode to the power of science “This One’s for the Dreamers,” when music director Matt Doebler’s orchestra kicks in, we’re just marking time waiting for, yup again, “Johnny B Goode” and the Huey Lewis-sung favorites from the movie. Thankfully, we get them. And the composers have given that familiar riff from the film an accompanying lyric: “It’s on-ly a mat-ter of time.”

No news flash, then, the latest Broadway revival of INTO THE WOODS that wraps up its national tour at the Ahmanson Theatre, is fantastic. Director Lear deBessonet’s spin on this tale of wishes granted and their consequences both embraces the spirit of Lapine’s original productions and also sends the material off in a different direction. Consistently more rollicking than rueful, deBessonet’s production (which began as an Encores! New York City Center limited engagement before transferring to Broadway) goes light on the technical glitz, but certainly gives the company members plenty of rope to go for their Grimm gusto.