The musical adaptation of the 1988 film “Beetlejuice” came to IU Auditorium for four performances starting Friday and ending Sunday. The musical reimagines the film for the stage, changing some of the plotlines and notably adding a prominent storyline about family through Lydia’s (Leianna Weaver) struggle with the loss of her mother.
The story takes place after the death of a couple who become ghosts and try to scare away the new owners of their house to preserve the place they once called home. However, they befriend the depressed goth daughter of the family, Lydia Deetz, who attempts to help them, but after failing, she turns to the devious ghost Beetlejuice (Ryan Stajmiger) for help.
I personally am not super familiar with the original film “Beetlejuice.” I watched it once several years ago and honestly wasn’t the biggest fan. I was excited to see the musical adaptation because I knew quite a few plot points had changed, and I was hoping it would fix some of the problems I had with the movie, like the pacing and child marriage plot.
Although the actors put on an amazing performance and the show was fun and entertaining, I am afraid to say it did not make me fall in love with the story — despite strangely endearing me to the character Beetlejuice.
This musical definitely has its strengths, and I think the biggest one is the character of Beetlejuice. When watching the film, I remember being put off by Beetlejuice and seeing him as a creepy guy wanting to marry a child, but this musical completely changed my opinion of his character.
In the musical, he takes on the role of a somewhat omniscient narrator, immediately breaking the fourth wall and consistently bringing awareness to the fact that it is a live show. I enjoyed this approach because it allows the musical to set itself apart from the film version.
I loved how witty and strange Beetlejuice’s character is. His interactions with the Maitlands in particular are extremely fun and the actors played off each other very well. I appreciate that the musical shows how much of a bisexual icon Beetlejuice is through his hilarious flirtation with both Barbara (Kaitlin Feely) and Adam Maitland (David Wilson).
But I think one of the strongest developments made to his character in the musical is the exploration of his loneliness. Rather than just framing chaos as his sole motivation, Beetlejuice often laments how lonely he feels, and this is what truly drives his actions throughout the show. While it’s still kept lighthearted, I think it was a really nice touch that gave his character so much depth and made him much more engaging to watch.
However, my biggest complaint with the show is that it feels like its purpose is more to be showy and vibes-based and less to have a good plot. While some people may enjoy this, I personally wished the show went further with its emotional depth.
I especially felt this with Lydia’s character arc and particularly with her father. Although I think giving Lydia a deeper storyline with processing the loss of her mother was a great addition, I think it could have been executed better.
I think the main reason this seemed off was many of her most emotional moments feel forced. It was like I was watching a musical and not a real person going through real life struggles. I didn’t find myself resonating with the emotional moments as much as I could have, and it made me feel quite disconnected from her character.
But the thing that annoyed me the most was her father’s (Jeff Brooks) character arc, or rather, lack thereof. Her father is presented as very apathetic, absent and just generally not a very good person for a majority of the show. However, at the show’s emotional climax, he suddenly reveals he was just as affected by Lydia’s mother’s death as she was, explaining why he couldn’t talk about her.
I understand that people experience and express grief differently, but I wish that his had been displayed more before this moment, even if it was done so subtly. One of the biggest rules I was taught in writing was to “show don’t tell,” and this is a perfect example of doing the opposite. Rather than showing the father’s grief and struggle with his emotions throughout the show, the show simply tells the audience at the emotional climax, and we’re just expected to take what he says to heart despite having no evidence for it.
What frustrated me is that his character development and relationship with Lydia could have been such a powerful storyline that provided the musical the depth it needed, but instead it feels so hollow and rushed that it wasn’t impactful at all.
Additionally, this show was one of the rare instances where I dreaded each musical number. Don’t get me wrong, there were quite a few of them that had fun and impressive visuals and engaging performances from the ensemble. The vocals from every cast member were also amazing, with Weaver being a standout to me in particular.
However, I don’t think a single song in the musical actually did anything for the plot. I’m all for a musical number just being a fun moment in a show without doing too much to move the plot forward, but when this is the case for literally every single song, it just ends up slowing the show down. On top of this, I didn’t find the songs particularly memorable, and some of them had quite simple staging.
“Beetlejuice” is the type of thing that I want so badly to like, but I think just isn’t for me. This musical did not manage to win me over, but it did provide some good laughs and a new character to add to my hear-me-out cake. Fans of the original movie and anyone who likes eccentric, theatrical and fun stories would probably enjoy this show more than I did, but unfortunately this did not strike gold for me.
