Beetlejuice

The Auditorium Theatre, known for its perfect acoustics, something I didn't hear during my visit to review Beetlejuice, is a location rarely used by Broadway of Chicago. However, BOC bringing Beetlejuice to this location may have been the best place for this Halloween spooky musical, as the overpriced parking across the street is enough to scare you away. But if you find low-price parking, this musical based on the 1988 film with music and lyrics by Eddie Perfect and a book by Scott Brown and Anthony King was a wonderful post-Halloween treat.  The play starts with blinding lights that dim into a scene where we see a group of people walking toward a casket in a graveyard, mourning the passing of Emily Deetz, loosely paraphrasing biblical scripture, "Sorrow not, for we do not walk alone." The musical follows the life of Lydia Deetz, an eccentric, despondent teenager mourning her mother's death and a neglectful father. To help ease their loss, the Deetzes purchased the home of the recently deceased Maitlands. He hires a life coach named Delia to help his daughter overcome her grief, but secretly, he is sleeping with the coach and planning to marry her. Lydia doesn't believe anyone understands her until she meets Adam and Barbara Maitland, who was killed by a demon named Betelgeuse, who destroyed The Handbook for the recently deceased so the Maitlands would come to him for help. When you first see Beetlejuice, the name Betelgeuse appears on the lighting banner. It's the original spelling of the bio-exorcist, but the studio production group, concerned about the name confusion of saying and spelling the name, changed it to "Beetlejuice." 

The beginning of this two-act performance could have been more exciting, and even though it followed the musical's narrative, it lacked excitement, falling below my anticipation until Justin Collette came on the scene. The life of this play is due to the exceptional performance of Collette, who was amazing as Beetlejuice. His awe-inspiring performance alone is worth the ticket price. The 24-member cast was headlined by Isabella Esler, who wowed the audience, singing "Dead Mom" and "Home." Megan McGinnis, Will Burton, Jesse Sharp, and Kate Marilley performed outstandingly, and McGinnis and Marilley also had stellar voice performances. Still, Collette provided an Emmy-worthy performance as Beetlejuice, superbly using his sketch/improv skills to address the audience directly with his slapstick wit and singing, "Say My Name." and "The Whole' Being Dead' Thing." Collette stood tall, getting ovations similar to Tony nominee Alex Brightman, who played Beetlejuice. 

And, of course, you have to have Lydia summon Beetlejuice because he is invisible to the living until a living person says his name three times and hear them singing the famous Day-O (The Banana Boat Song). Kudos to Abe Goldfarb, who was fabulous as Otho, and Kris Roberts, who was fantastic as Juno and Maxine Dean. I questioned if they could pull off the staging of this production, but it was astonishing, and they even did a skillful job bringing in the sandworm, The Netherworld, and Tim Burton's Harry the Hunter (the shrunken-head guy). I did have issues with the vocals being drowned out by the music. Still, the musical score was fantastic. The production features 13 songs and runs for two hours and thirty minutes, including admission. The first act wasn't as exhilarating, but with Collette's overall performance, they pulled it off during the second act, giving this play three stars.  

3 STARS ***

Auditorium Theatre

BEETLEJUICE. The Musical. The Musical. The Musical.

Music and lyrics by Eddie Perfect 

Book by Scott Brown and Anthony King 

Directed by Alex Timbers

November 7-November 19, 2023 

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