“Beetlejuice” is back on Broadway and it’s as funny as ever! This musical comedy about death is a bone-breaking, gut-wrenching, good time! At the Marquis Theatre on W. 46th Street, this show will have you howling with laughter as hilarious music and lyrics by Eddie Perfect have a perfect reunion with the book by Scott Brown and Anthony King. The musical, based on the Geffen Company
Picture with a story by Michael McDowell and Larry Wilson, inspires the audience to give in to a darker type of humor.
From the opening scene Alex Brightman, reprising the role as the angry, lonely, frightening ghost, had everyone screaming approval. Brightman is so well cast as Beetlejuice—he brings a hilarious, sinister, evil, bitterness and disregard for human life to this role in a way that draws you to this dark musical comedy.
This musical tells the story of Beetlejuice, a ghost who cannot haunt people because no one can see him. He waits years for a young, annoyingly good and boring yuppie couple—Barbara and Adam—to meet an untimely end in their home. Now, recently deceased, he offers to be their guide to the Netherworld, but he needs them to get a living person to say his name three times, so that he can be seen. Lydia, a teenage girl whose mother recently died, moves into the house with her father, Charles, and lifecoach Delia. (Charles and Delia, by the way, have something going on on the side.) Lydia is a sad girl who walks around mourning her mother’s death, which her father refuses to do. Lydia is a bit weird and somewhat unusual, and is able to see the dead couple, Barbara and Adam, and she is not afraid. She doesn’t want to be in their home and agrees to help them to scare her father and Delia from the house. Delia is an airhead who has had relationship issues in the past and hopes to make a go of it with Charles. She also likes to feel at one with her environment and often quotes her life coach Guru Otho. (Did I mention that, because Lydia is different she can also see Beetlejuice? Well, she can.) So, now you have Beetlejuice trying to convince her to say his name and I won’t say what happens from there.
I will say though, that the hauntingly good times are plentiful at this production. I love how the songs that Lydia sings all have this powerful, incredible rock vibe! Elizabeth Teeter brings the house down with every number. It is a delight to watch the journey of her character as she deals with her grief and loneliness. This entire cast and ensemble gives you that stirringly ghostly vibe. Kerry Butler and David Josefsberg as Barbara and Adam are a pure delight. Adam Dannheisser is fantastic as Charles, a role he stunningly originated on Broadway. Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer is also perfectly cast in her original role as Delia. She brings the ditsy and the crazy. Kelvin Moon Loh is marvelous as he reprises his role as Otho. Zonya Love is an African American who plays multiple roles and stuns with each—Maxine Dean—simple wife of a rich developer; one of the neighbors of the haunted house; and Juno, the guardian of the Netherworld and Beetlejuice’s demon mother. “Beetlejuice” has delightful choreography by Connor Gallagher and hauntingly, wonderful, ghoulish direction by Alex Timbers.
One of the elements of this musical comedy that makes it even more enduring is how Brightman continuously breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience directly. You’ll see what I mean. You must fly to “Beetlejuice“ and take the whole family. There is adult language, but nothing totally shocking. ENJOY!
For more info, visit www.beetlejuicebroadway.com.