Review: BEETLEJUICE at Pantages Theatre

When Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice” opened on movie screens back in 1998, the fantasy-comedy starring Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, and Winona Ryder was a sensation, grossing $75 million (almost the equal of $200 million today), winning an Oscar for Best Makeup, and spawning an animated television series, video games, a belated sequel set to debut next year, and a stage musical that launched in 2018 and hit Broadway the following year, where it was nominated for eight Tony Awards including Best New Musical. That show, now playing at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, is a dynamic, dazzling affair that wows with fantastic performances, eye-popping lighting and set design, and rousing repertoire of songs.

The story starts when Adam (Will Burton) and Barbara (Britney Coleman), a young married couple, are killed but left in limbo in their house, which is sold to the Deetz family: Charles (Jesse Sharp), a douchey real estate developer; his girlfriend, flaky Delia (Kate Marilley), and his goth daughter Lydia (Isabella Esler), an aspiring photographer who is still grieving the loss of her mother. In order to scare the newbies away, Adam and Barbara consult Beetlejuice (Justin Collette), a cheeky, irrepressible, and raunchy spirit, who blows things up until only Lydia can help.

Director Alex Timbers allows the show (especially Collette as Beetlejuice) to hit 10 on the crazy scale but never get to 11, modulating it just right so that you’re swept along on an electrifying joyride of manic insanity about life, death, and what comes next. Collette apes Michael Keaton but just enough so that it’s familiar (we wouldn’t want his Beetlejuice to be entirely different after all) and makes the role his own, becoming the wacky soul of the show. Esler has a stunning set of pipes and presence to spare. Her Lydia is recalcitrant and obstinate but never bratty. Wholesome Barbara and Adam could have been bland but in Coleman’s and Burton’s capable hands, they are the perfect couple next door. They just happen to be dead. Burton is goofy sexy and Coleman grounds him in his more nervous moments.

The script deviates a bit from the film in which Beetlejuice is, essentially, a supporting character—one who steals the show, but a supporting character all the same. In the stage production, he’s introduced in the first few minutes and is Lydia’s co-lead. It’s also been contemporized (Delia was a sculptor in the movie and is now a life coach, for example), and Lydia’s relationship with her father is made more complex, giving both them and the show more heart. The score by Eddie Perfect with a book by Scott Brown and Anthony King (music supervision and orchestrations by Kris Kukul) is rousing and complements the inspired mayhem with catchy, instantly classic songs like “Creepy Old Guy,” “That Beautiful Sound,” and “Barbara 2.0.”

Special mentions go to the scenic design by David Korins and lighting designer Kenneth Posner. They work in tandem to bring both Lydia’s real and the after-life to astonishing, raucous reality. The projection design by Peter Nigrini, puppetry by Michael Curry, and special effects by Jeremy Chernick also help create a world that is fantastical and immersive and very alive. They retain the look and tone of the film, expanding upon it in organic ways.

Just how beloved the movie is was clear by the energy on opening night. There was an electricity in the air unlike any I’ve experienced, even before the curtain rose. And then, justifying that anticipation, the show did the movie proud. It’s an exhilarating, inspiring event.

BEETLEJUICE is performed at the Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Boulevard, through July 30. Tickets are available at BroadwayInHollywood.com, Ticketmaster.com, (800) 982-2787, or the box office. The show heads to Orange County at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, April 16–28, 2024.

Photos by Matthew Murphy

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