Interview: 'You Have To Bring Your Own Version To The Role': Actor David Fynn On Taking On BEETLEJUICE

After years of anticipation, Beetlejuice the Musical is here in London. The show, with music and lyrics by Eddie Perfect and a book by Scott Brown and Anthony King, is an adaptation of the 1988 film. Recently, we had the chance to speak with David Fynn, who plays the titular Beetlejuice, about taking on the iconic role of “The Ghost with the Most” on the West End. We discussed how he first got started in the world of theatre, what it has been like taking on the role and what he hopes audiences take away from the show.

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How did you first get started in the world of theatre?

So when I was in Year 6 at school, which is about age ten or eleven, they announced in assembly that they were doing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and they asked which of the boys would like to audition. No one put their hands up, so they made everyone audition for it! I ended up getting Joseph, of which there are some really embarrassing photos and videos somewhere, and that was it. I did bits and bobs of theatre and Am-dram when I was early teens, and then didn't do it for a few years. Was playing a lot of sport and stuff, so didn't really have the time. And then sixth form, I got back into it. I was about to apply to uni to go and be an English teacher, and we did Calamity Jane in Lower Sixth, and then as soon as we did that, I changed my mind! I was like, “Now I want to do this.”

So you originally didn’t have a choice!

I feel like it was the world nudging me in that direction!

And what made you want to be a part of Beetlejuice?

A few reasons! There's the pipeline of Dewey Finn from School of Rock to Beetlejuice, so a lot of people have been talking about that in my life. I actually did a job with Alex Brightman a couple of years ago! We played twins in The Comedy of Errors in the States, and we talked about it quite a lot. He was like, “Look, man, I know your comedy sensibilities now; you've got to do it.” And it was the appeal of the material is so good, plus you get a bit of permission as Beetlejuice to have a bit of extra fun - to ad lib, do extra jokes and react to what's going on in the audience. But the material is brilliant - it's just so good! The jokes that they've written, you don't have to do anything but say them, they're just so well written. But the show's got lots of heart, especially in the Lydia storyline. It's rooted in something real and universal, which was very appealing to me.

Had you been a fan of the film before?

Of course! I loved it when I was a kid. It was one of those films that I shouldn't have watched when I was seven, but I somehow managed to get hold of it. So I loved the film, and I loved Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas. I was especially drawn to the claymation puppety stuff from the film when I was a kid. I remember really liking that, and the blurring of the worlds between the two was really interesting.

What is it like taking on such an iconic role?

You have to block out the noise. People are going to want Michael Keaton, people are going to want Alex Brightman, people are going to want Justin Collette, and you have to just block out the noise and bring your own version to it. There's so much of those guys in the script already - there's little bits from the film, there's big chunks from the Broadway production. There's bits where I can sense that Alex ad-libbed that. You have to bring your own version to it, because otherwise you're just the poor man's version of Keaton or Brightman. British audiences have very different tastes to American audiences, so I have to lean into that as well. There's certain jokes where you're like, “We might have to tweak this, because this isn't a popular culture reference here,” or even just the delivery of some of the jokes. British audiences are very different. They like a bit more wry and dry sarcastic delivery, and leaning into that is a lot of fun.

Can you tell us a bit about the rehearsal process and what went into making the role your own?

Yeah! The fear of taking on a show that's already been done is that you get dictated as to what works and what doesn't work, but there was none of that. During the rehearsal process, it was all very collaborative across the cast, stage management team, directors and the heads of department. It was always best idea wins, and that was so reassuring and like refreshing, because especially with something that's worked on Broadway, they can just give you the recipe sheet and go, “This is it, trust us.” But they let us try anything and everything. And you lean into relationships of the other people that you're working with. For example, David Hunter [Adam Maitland] and I, we hit it off really quickly, and it got very physical very fast. 

And now you've been open for about a month now! What have performances and audience reactions been like?

It's been really overwhelming. Especially those early previews, because a lot of those were attended by the people that have been dying to see this for years. People who fell in love with it, and a lot of people have said, “I discovered it in lockdown, it got me through lockdown, and it really spoke to my inner child.” It means so much to people, and you can feel that every night. That bit at the start when the paper goes down, there's still a huge reaction every night, and the audiences are still coming in in huge numbers. It doesn't feel like it's letting up in any way. You could just feel it snowballing! You want people to leave feeling better than when they arrived, and I hope we're doing that.

Do you have a favourite song in the show, either to perform or listen to?

It changes all the time. Before I started, it was the opening, “Invisible.” That little minute before, before the show starts, because it's giving the audience the heart of the story. But it's so beautifully written, like the bit where the cello comes in on the line, “Grown-ups wanna fix things” - it makes me well up sometimes listening to it, even on stage! I love “Home” as well. Hannah delivers such a beautiful performance in that. I love performing “Fright of Their Lives” with David and Chelsea [Halfpenny], because we have so much fun every night. We mix it up, and change it every night! And “Invisible Reprise,” as well. I love it.

Do you have a favourite line?

It's not a comedy line! Al [Harvey], the guy who plays Charles, he’s talking about the night that Lydia's mum died, and he says, “[She] took my hand and she said, ‘I know you want to fix it . . . But we just have to hold onto each other and live through it.’ I thought she was talking about us . . . I think she was talking about . . . Us.” As if there is a premonition about how it was going to play out between father and daughter. It's just such a beautiful scene. I stand in the wings and watch that every night. It's just perfect writing, that scene. There's an emotional current running through it that's really quite deep and heavy, and then the writers just release the valve a little bit with a couple of little jokes. But that line is my favourite.

What is it about Beetlejuice that you think makes it such a good show?

Because they tried and tested it, it went through such a long development process. There was an iteration of the show very early on in the tryouts in DC, where it was really quite vulgar, and they went really hard on the jokes. Apparently, it felt like the audiences were pulling back, and it was too much. I think something that has had three successful runs on Broadway, a tour of North America, all those tryouts, they've trimmed all the fat. Every word matters. Every line is important to the story and/or funny, and it also allows the actors to put their own stamp on it. The writing is so good that it's not dictated to you how to perform it. You can interpret all of those lines for what it means to you and bring your own experience to it.

You touched on it a little bit before, but what do you hope audiences take away from Beetlejuice?

There's a line in Miss Argentina’s song [“What I Know Now”], where she says, “Life is short, but death is super long,” and I think that's the main message of the show. But it's also about family, connection and relationships. Your immediate family is your family, but then sometimes you can choose your family. By the end of the show, you've got a chosen family of very unconventional people - a teenage girl, a stepmom, the dad, and two ghosts - but you buy it because of the journey that they've been on. Life is short, but death is super long, so grab the ones you love and hold them tight - which sounds like a crazy thing for Beetlejuice to be about, but it is about that at its heart.

It’s something that’s surprising for some people. It's actually a really heartfelt show, even with all of the jokes!

You have to earn all those jokes, and you earn it by having something real at its centre. Otherwise, it's just jokes for joke's sake.

And finally, how would you describe Beetlejuice in one word?

Beautifully chaotic. 

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