First Look at BEETLEJUICE in The New Broadway Musical and New Details
Beetlejuice is headed to Broadway in a new musical and today we have our first look at Tony Award nominee Alex Brightman (School of Rock) as the ghost with the most.
The play is obviously based on Tim Burton’s classic 1988 film, which starred Michael Keaton in the title role. Keaton was amazing in the movie, but it should be fun to see how this musical turns out. When talking about Brightman’s portrayal of Beetlejuice, the director of the play, Alex Timbers, explained to EW that it will completely separate itself from what Keaton did 30 years ago. This is going to be a “younger, punkier” version of the character:
“One of the things I love about Alex is, not only is he a great theater performer, but he’s also a writer, so he brings a sensibility that can stand outside the performance. [His Beetlejuice] is definitely not a Michael Keaton impression. It’s his own. It’s filtered through the sensibility of Alex Brightman.”
The Beetlejuice play will tell the same story as the original film. But, it’s explained that the stage version will bring the character of Lydia Deetz to the center of the story. The macabre-obsessed teen who was played by Winona Ryder in the film, will be played on stage by 17-year-old Sophia Anne Caruso. The director explains:
“Refocusing the story on Lydia’s emotional journey, Lydia’s relationship to Beetlejuice — who were [both] more like secondary characters in the film — felt like a great way in. Beetlejuice and Lydia are both trickster figures, in a way. Certainly Beetlejuice is, but musical theater has a great history of con men as characters when you think about Bialystock and Bloom or Harold Hill in The Music Man, so it felt to me that the DNA of those two characters felt like great musical theater protagonists in the way they work off each other.”
Don’t worry, though. Beetlejuice will still have a big presence in the stage production, as he becomes an agent of chaos for the two families at the center of the story. Timbers goes on to compare the character to Marvel's Loki, who also enjoys to cause mischief:
“He’s one of those characters in film that that you can imagine breaking the fourth wall, and I think in theater, you want these characters that vibrate with life and can kick over the footlights and land in your lap. That’s Beetlejuice. He can directly address the audience. He can be an unreliable narrator. He can be a Loki figure, you know? He can be a god of chaos, and that’s really exciting.”
Timbers talked about how the production will pay tribute to the film, and even include several Easter eggs.
“The dinner party scene is in the show, but where it exists and how it functions and how the music functions is surprising. (Another film-to-stage tease: The musical will make a visit the Netherworld.) So there are Easter eggs from the film, and what I want to do is pass the sniff test for fans, but I want it to feel like its own surprising, exciting piece of theater.”
I love Beetlejuice and I’m excited and curious to see how this stage production plays out. The show starts on Sunday night in Washington, D.C., and will then make its way to Broadway in the spring. Hopefully, I get a chance to check it out!