Welcome to a show about death! Literally the first second number that bangs out from the stage into the house now that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice BEETLEJUICE!!! (the musical, for the love of God let’s hope he doesn’t appear in your living room or your car or your office board meeting— wherever you’re reading this review!) has returned to The National Theatre in DC. It got it’s pre-Broadway launch there back in 2018 before it’s short-lived-Pandemic-killed run on Broadway in 2019, and then it’s even-shorter Broadway-continuation-revival post-pandemic in 2022. Making its rounds on the National Tour, Beetlejuice is a raunchy foray into those tough-to-tackle topics, paying a hard and grody nod of tribute to Tim Burton’s original 1988 film. With Music & Lyrics by Eddie Perfect and Book by Scott Brown & Anthony King, this cult-classic movie-turned-musical has its own built-in following, so you’ll be lucky if you can snag a ticket while its in the nation’s capital. Directed by Alex Timbers with Musical Supervision, Incidentals, & Orchestration by Kris Kukul, and Choreography by Connor Gallagher, you’re in for a wild ride! Which is totally fine, so long as you stay alive. If you die (or are already dead upon arrival) please be wary of the sandworm. It eats ghosts. (~jazzhands~ FORESHADOWING!)
Where does one even begin to start when it comes to the technical side of this production? It’s literally like they packed up the Broadway house, shoved it into a touring truck, and let it explode onto the stage of The National. There’s a lot of razzamatazz, flash, flare, and a whole bunch of spectacle happening in this touring production (which is fantastic for a stage like The National, which is halfway between something like The Opera House at The Kennedy Center and a much smaller touring house in other states further afield, though it does beg the question of how they’re going to stretch this thing out or shrink it down when it moves on from DC, though that isn’t the district’s problem.)
Insanely ghoulish projections (Projection Designer Peter Nigrini), which at times felt a little showy and superfluous for the sake of being there, featuring creepy full moons, clouds and shrouds of shadowy darkness, and lots and lots of flying bats. To the point where you wonder if you might be seeing Dracula or Batboy. Every time the curtain closes— and it is fantastical-Tim-Burton-esque curtain with his signature curlicues emblazoned into the Burton-purple fabric— or the scene shifts, you get these projections. And even sometimes when the curtain’s open, you get them. They’re designed to be transitional spacers, but at times they just feel like the production team is showing off. Nigrini’s work is also integrated into the ground level of the house’s interior as well as scenes like the netherworld, which is a much more effective use of his skill set (and all the fancy equipment used to produce these effects.)
Tying into the show’s projection work is the “blind-the-audience-every-chance-we-get” lighting design of Kenneth Posner. Yes, after about the third time being flash-blinded or sweep-blinded by the roving strobes that hit the audience at critical moments, you recognize that they’re doing this to distract from actor exits/entrances or scenic changes, but there’s got to be a better way to do this. The “blind-the-audience-train” aside, Posner’s lighting design is every garish and ghoulish goth-kid’s dream-delight when it comes to the hues of putrid purple and gargoyle green featured frequently throughout the production.
The set itself (Scenic Designer David Korins) has that vintage flavor of the way Broadway used to be before everything was projections and minimalism. There’s actually a set! With moving walls that rotate to be the interior of the ground floor and the attic! Korins even goes so far as to choreograph the curtain into scene changes. (It’s been a hot minute since we’ve seen the main curtain used as a partition to do half-stage-exposure or third-stage exposure…maybe since The Addams Family when it was on Broadway and still featured the squid?) It’s a nice touch and brings you a certain nostalgia to the way the set becomes an integral character to the narrative component of the performance.
Because this is a “show about death” we’ve got a lot of magical concepts happening. Magic & Illusion Designer Michael Weber, working with Special Effects Designer Jeremy Chernick, delivers impressive results on those fronts. Don’t want to speak too much to what exactly you’ll experience… lest Beetlejuice shows up here and creates some calamity for me! In addition to the tricky and praiseworthy work of Weber and Chernick, you’ve got to hand it to Puppet Designer Michael Curry for that extraordinary Sandworm. It’s terrifying!
Costumes across the board are on-brand, on-point, and everything you could hope for if you know anything about Beetlejuice. William Ivey Long, working tirelessly alongside Wig & Hair Designer Charles G. LaPointe and Make-Up Designer Joe Dulude II, give you some morbid motifs for all of the ‘recently deceased’ characters… except of course for poor Adam and Barbara, who haven’t quite got a handle on this whole ‘being dead’ thing. “What I Know Now” is a beauty-pageant-showcase of crazy costumes— everything from Zombie Football Players to Miss Argentina herself— and it screams ‘death by design.’ Of course Long, LaPointe, and Dulude II give you textbook couture and looks when it comes to the titular character and of course Lydia.
When it comes to movement on the stage by way of the performers and their outrageous dance moves, Choreographer Connor Gallagher has you covered. Particularly when a bunch of Beetlejuices storm the stage during “That Beautiful Sound” at the top of the second act. There’s a lot of enthusiasm, energetic effervescence, and even some acrobatic-gymnastic-flavoring sprinkled into that routine. Gallagher’s choreography is as electrifyingly frenetic as the jolt that kills Adam & Barbara at the top of the show (not a spoiler— it happens within the first ten minutes of the show.)
With a tireless ensemble (Michael Biren, Jackera Davis, Juliane Godfrey, Abe Goldfarb, Danielle Marie Gonzalez, Kenway Hon Wai K. Kua, Sean McManus, Lee N Prince, Nevada Riley, Kris Roberts, Trevor Michael Schmidt, Brian Vaughn, Corben Williams,) taking on multiple roles, costume changes, and dance routines— this rowdy bunch becomes the unsung heroes of the show. With powerhouse backing vocals that elevate full ensemble numbers and dance-energy to open a rift into the netherworld, the ensemble provides much needed support for the side-characters and main-two who keep this show rolling. Standouts among the ensemble include Kris Roberts as ‘Maxine Dean’, who has an absurd vocal affectation dominating her laugh, and who doubles up as Juno, the gatekeeper of the netherworld and who bears an uncanny vocal resemblance and physical-stature to Roz from Monsters Inc. Danielle Marie Gonzalez is also worth shouting about as Miss Argentina for her sassy and saucy dance moves during “What I Know Now” as well as her powerhouse pipes. And Jackera Davis deserves a mention as well, with her adorable portrayal as ‘Girl Scout’, getting her own big solo feature at the top of the second act, delivered with gusto and gumption. Abe Goldfarb is another honorable-mention in the ensemble category— taking up the role of ‘Otho’ the spiritual guru that Delia keeps dithering on about. And when he’s in ‘Otho’ mode, he’s truly hysterical.
Speaking of Delia (Kate Marilley), despite all the chaos her existence causes in the Deetz’ family household, you can’t help but love her nonsense, appreciate her shenanigans, and feel just a tiny bit sympathetic for her person. Marilley is a caricature of a caricature, channeling this heightened, over-the-top, space-cadet-from-Pluto with a blend of sexy-wannabe-vixen meets modern-day-life-coach. It’s wild. Her comic timing is to die for, her delivery and setups are crisp, and she’s singing-dancing-performing triple threat, as evidenced in “No Reason.” She’ll keep you gut-busting and in stitches all night long, laughing until it hurts with all of her outrageous, exaggerated antics.
Playing opposite Delia is the reserved, quiet Charles (Jesse Sharp), Lydia’s father. Morose and all-business, he’s reserved, unrelenting, and rather boring… right up until he’s not. You don’t get much of his vocal prowess until late in the second act, but the moment where his character flips a well-deserved 180, right after (and sort of during) “Home”, it’s this stunning and remarkable moment of character growth that really hits the heart in a tender and tearjerking kind of way. Sharp plays well against Marilley (who wouldn’t she’s a gem) and bristles beautifully against Lydia before coming to terms with their situation.
Adam (Will Burton) and Barbara (Britney Coleman) are dorks, nerds, total geeks, and everything that is the anti-Beetlejuice. Which is why they work so well in this story. Burton and Coleman have a spectacular chemistry that just gurgles along, supporting one another, enveloping one another— they’re a singular unit (despite being two wholly impressive and very talented separate performers.) Burton and Coleman have fantastic voices which really provide a sparking electricity to “Ready, Set, Not Yet” and the song’s lyrics are so laughable that you’ll find yourself torn between laughing at them and laughing at the physical gestures and facial expressions that the pair deliver during the number. “Barbara 2.0” is their reckoning number, which enlivens them even more. Full of great coming timing, exceptionally talented voices, and an understanding of these oddball characters, Burton and Coleman are perfect in these roles.
Lydia (Isabella Esler) is duchess of darkness, a woman of woe, and girl of gothic designs right from the opening ballad, “Prologue: Invisible” (which gets lampooned later by the titular character.) Esler has powerhouse vocals that are unstoppable. (But someone please stop giving her the star-stance-fist-pump move at the end of ever solo she completes; it’s repetitive and limits her physical expression to one-note.) Esler has the vocal capability to blast the set apart and the emotional fortitude of a cat-5 hurricane. She’s more than just goth-on-stage and proves that in her big solo “Home” and earlier in “Dead Mom.” Esler holds her own against the odious titular character, who is inevitably up to no good all throughout the performance.
Justin Collette is living his best life, wearing the rude, rowdy, and raunchy character of Beetlejuice like a second skin. This isn’t your Tim-Burton-1988 Beetlejuice (though it’s not without its nods of homage to that original creation.) Collette’s Beetlejuice is that festering scoundrel we all have inside of us, waiting to burst out in polite society when we just can’t take it anymore. He’s delivering that gravelly-corpse-like voice that just grates on the nerves with such consistency you almost start to worry about his actual vocal health. And he does so while belting his way through numbers with huge sustains at the end. It’s mind-blowing. He’s got all the putrefying charm of a corpse deadest in rigor mortis and balances that with dynamic comic timing and precision flare-ups of his raunchier side. Collette is a triple-threat-performance-force to be reckoned with. He’s rarely off-stage, and when he’s on-stage he’s in perpetual motion. Singing his way through a bunch of craziness, addressing the audience directly, pulling out all the stops and really living up to the expectation of this insane, filthy-grody-dead-guy-with-powers. He’s just wild.
So say his name. Because he comes with this entourage of insanity that makes for a wildly entertaining night of theatre. But don’t delay when it comes to getting tickets for Beetlejuice because before you know it— they’re going to POOF right out of existence.
Running Time: 2 hours and 40 minutes with one intermission
Beetlejuice plays through May 28th 2023 at The National Theatre— 1321 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, DC. For tickets call the box office at 202-628-6161 or purchase them online.
