Review: BEETLEJUICE at San Diego Civic Theatre

It’s showtime for the ghost with the most at Broadway San Diego as BEETLEJUICE  has descended upon the San Diego Civic Theatre through August 20th.  This musical, inspired by the hit movie, brings familiar characters and new adventures from this world and the Netherworld, with ghosts, demons, and even a sandworm or two. 

Based on the beloved 1988 film featuring two performances from Winona Ryder, and Michael Keaton that made their characters pop culture classics.  The musical takes a hearty inspiration from the movie, but those who are movie purists should know going in that this is its own adaption. While Keaton had a cheeky 15 minutes total in the film, in the musical Beetlejuice isn’t afraid to take the lead.

The show opens with Adam (Will Burton) and Barbara (Britney Coleman) a young, risk-averse, and very square couple who unfortunately passed away in their home in a freak electrical accident.  They are welcomed to the afterlife by Beetlejuice (Andrew Kober, who shares the role with Justin Collette) who for reasons of his own, decides to “help” the newly deceased couple.

Time works differently in the afterlife, and in what felt like the brief moments it took Adam and Barbara to realize they were dead, their home had been sold to a real estate developer and his family.  Charles (Jesse Sharp) is eager to turn the house into a showroom model for a prospective housing investor and has brought along his girlfriend, a ditzy aspiring life coach named Delia (Kate Marilley).  He hired her to help his death-obsessed daughter Lydia (Isabella Esler) stop being so depressed and put on a happy face even though she is still struggling with her mother’s recent death.

Beetlejuice has a plan and it turns out that angsty and grieving Lydia, who would do anything to see her mother again and who can somehow see ghosts, including him, becomes a key component to helping him achieve it. He just needs to get her to say his name three times in a row first….

From the moment the lights went down, the audience was primed and ready to yell that name and conjure this pranky spirit. It helps to have a musical based on intellectual property that is a Gen X classic movie, which Gen Z then adopts as a hit.  

The show tells the audience from the start that this show is going to be in your face, snarky, and about death, but also is forging its own plot away from the movie.  It’s all done with a near-endless litany of jokes, a tone that ranges from raunchy to absurd, and is all accentuated by strobe lights, fog machines, and neon green highlighting. Beetlejuice knows this isn’t the theatrical norm and assures the audience, “So just relax, you’ll be fine, drink your 50-dollar wine and take a breath, welcome to a show about death.”

The performers are very talented, especially Esler as Lydia, who has a powerful belt and a finely tuned sense of nihilism. Her Lydia is very clear-eyed and articulate - she is the most high-energy, musical theatre version goth kid there could be.  This makes sense because you can’t ask anyone to match the unique 80s goth vibe that only Winona Ryder in a Tim Burton movie had at that time; it would be impossible.  

 Kober as Beetlejuice is high energy; moving rapidly through dialogue and lyrics written to sounds similar to Keaton’s onscreen pater.  His delivery is still sharp but softens some of the meaner jabs.

Burton and Coleman are sweet and funny as the newly deceased couple, trying to live more boldly in death than they did when they were alive.

The ensemble works insanely hard as they navigate choreography, multiple costume changes, and special effects simultaneously, and sometimes all in one song.

The music by Eddie Perfect has some standout songs, including Esler’s “Dead Mom,” but overall the score feels rock inspired but overcompensates with blaring instruments in case you didn’t get it the first time.  Sound design by Peter Hylenski struggles as well, making it hard to understand what people were singing.

The scenic design by David Korins takes a lot of inspiration from the black and white stripes, and the off-kilter lines and neon touches to try to replicate that Tim Burton feeling. Costumes by William Ivey Long are equally inspired by the colors and aesthetic, Beetlejuice’s iconic suit, Lydia’s black dress, and Dellia’s black and white dress are all great, as are some of the ghosts and ghouls in the Netherworld.

While the musical's central premise is much more Lydia and grief focused, there are still plenty of nods to the movie.  From “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)”, to Lydia’s red wedding ensemble, the show gives the audience the moments that they know they want. Yet, for all of the obsession with death, the show is oddly perky.  In the early ’90s there was a cartoon adaptation of “Beetlejuice” that ran for four seasons, and this show feels like what happens when someone saw the cartoon and decided to make a musical.  It’s similar, yet not the same or as balanced as the original source material, and keeps everything as busy as possible in hopes of distracting the audience from that fact.

The show pushes everything just up to the line, and where the plot doesn’t make sense they brush over it with a joke and keep on moving. An underage marriage that makes no sense is ok as long as it is in a dubious service to the plot, and murder is a good solution as long as you do it as a family.  

Beetlejuice eventually gets his moment in reality where he promptly experiences the gamut of human emotions and seems to settle on anxiety.  Truly, the most relatable thing in the whole show.

How To Get Tickets

BEETLEJUICE is playing at Broadway San Diego through Sunday, August 20th.  For ticket and show tie information go to www.broadwaysd.com 

Photo credit: Isabella Esler as Lydia, left, and Justin Collette as Beetlejuice -Courtesy of Matthew Murphy

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