Beetlejuice The Musical The Musical The Musical Review (Melbourne 2025)
Summary: The (in)famous character is brought to the stage in an all singing all dancing variation.
3
Broadway's Beetlejuice?
This is going to be a review of two minds: my youngest child (be advised the show does recommend any audience members under 16 be accompanied by an adult and be aware there is swearing and adult themes), who was very keen to see it, and my craggy old stick in the mud view.
I will start (semi obscurely) by reminding readers of that time J. J. Abrams was handed the Star Trek franchise to reboot (it should be noted he was never a fan of the series). I will return to this later.
The Regent Theatre has done a fantastic job of setting the mood for the show. A bright neon sign at the entrance welcomes patrons to “The Netherworld”. There’s a neon sign (a decent recreation of the one from the film) before the entrance to the stalls that states Betlegeuse twice (too dangerous to have the third) for people to have their photo taken beside. Entering to take our seats, we are greeted by a very Beetlejuice-inspired colour palette flashing about.
As the show begins, we are presented with a funeral (that of Emily Deetz), and before long, we get the man himself, Beetlejuice, and the first big number, “The Whole ‘Being Dead’ Thing.” There’s a lot of energy and elements that are no doubt localised for each city the show is being performed in (always a nice touch). We get fourth-wall breaking, which is always a bit of fun, and when you have a character like Beetlejuice, it seems quite natural to do.
The sets are impressive, and the special effects and puppets perhaps even more so (we actually get a sand worm, more than once!). There are some familiar elements throughout and different takes on others. The cast do a fantastic job of bringing it all to life (or should that be death?) with a lot of energy and fantastic voices. My child was clapping enthusiastically after every song, and the audience seemed to be well and truly along for the ride.
Now, the craggy stick in the mud. That mention of J. J. Abrams and his rebooting the Star Trek movies is because that’s kind of how this felt. To be blunt, going into this, I didn’t know what to expect, but to some extent, I was expecting a new story, something that happened within its own time. What it seems to be is a retelling of the movie, but with elements that have been changed and even character personalities changed (much like Abrams making the intellectual Star Trek into a more action-oriented Star Wars lite). I had hesitations from the moment I saw the makeup, which I understand new versions of familiar things like to inject their own take on iconic looks (hell, even within a franchise props/character looks can change), but the stage Beetlejuice doesn’t even have the dark black surrounding the eyes. Instead, he does now seem to have a full green stubble beard instead of the stubbly/mouldy mutton chops of the cinematic version. The hair seemed a bit too full and lush as well, but see above comment about putting their own stamp on things.
I think a big part of my issue with the production is that it seemed to take a lot of elements of the movie, then just shift them (if we go with the J. J. Abrams analogy, think of Episodes 7 and 9 and how they “borrowed” lots of themes/beats from the original trilogy, but changed them a bit to make them “new”). It left me wondering if the production was meant to be its own story or if it was reinventing the characters and events (it has the Maitlands who start as alive and then die, similar to in the movie but with hyper-stylised “dorky” characterisations) of the movie. The answer is (as far as I can tell), it is essentially a retelling of the movie, but with some changes. I’m also not sure I’m a fan of Beetlejuice “the greatest showman,” which kind of felt like what we were presented with here, hitting all the “big number/musical theatre beats” but perhaps lacking the “soul” behind it all.
Some of the characters are basically there in name only with a complete change in their personality (Delia Deetz being the most obvious here. I’m not even sure if she technically is Deetz as I’m pretty sure even by the end, she hasn’t married Charles Deetz. The new characterisation is fine, but why couldn’t it have been a different character rather than erasing the whole odd sculpture maker of the original?). I’ll end this ranty grumble with, if you’re going to refer to the part of a book you are looking at as chapter one, maybe don’t have the book look as though it is open in the dead center, or don’t refer to it as chapter one?
Final Thoughts?
If you’re not a stick in the mud like me and you don’t mind a familiar story being changed about a bit, especially if you like musical numbers and impressive sets and effects, you will likely have a ball with Beetlejuice The Musical The Musical The Musical. If you are expecting something that is true to the original characters, you might be a little disappointed.
Beetlejuice The Musical – Australian Production – Photography by Michelle Grace Hunter
About the Author
Chris O'Connor Father of four, husband of one and all round oddity. Gaming at home since about 1982 with a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Moving on to the more traditional PC genre in the years that followed with the classic Jump Joe and Alley Cat. CGA, EGA, VGA and beyond PC's have been central to my gaming but I've also enjoyed consoles and hand helds along the way (who remembers the Atari Lynx?). Would have been actor/film maker, jack of many trades master of none.
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