Theatre review: Beetlejuice

An on-and-off hit in New York - it's opened and closed there multiple times since its original Broadway run was scuppered by Covid - Eddie Perfect (music and lyrics,) Scott Brown and Anthony King's (book) Beetlejuice now arrives in the West End for a run that seems to predict a similar mixed level of enthusiasm: It's at the huge Prince Edward Theatre, but has been advertised as a limited year-long run. Following the broad strokes of the Tim Burton film but deviating from the plot when it suits it, the story sees Lydia Deetz (Hannah Nordberg) move into a haunted house with her father Charles (Alasdair Harvey) and his new girlfriend (officially Lydia's life coach,) Delia (Aimie Atkinson.) Still mourning her recently deceased mother and very much stuck in the "denial" stage of grief, when Lydia discovers that the previous owners are still haunting the house, it convinces her there must be a way to see her mother again.

Adam (David Hunter) and Barbara (Chelsea Halfpenny) are a mild-mannered young couple who died in a freak accident, and were prevented from moving on to the afterlife by the meddling spirit Beetlejuice (David Fynn.)

Unlike most of the living Lydia can see the ghosts, and hatches a plan with them to haunt the others and scare them away from badly redecorating the beloved home. When that doesn't work she says Beetlejuice's name three times, releasing him to become visible to the living, cause much more tangible havoc, and put into motion his own nefarious plan.

Beetlejuice is an agent of chaos and the show makes sure to stress that from the start: Fynn's version appears much earlier in the musical than in the film, essentially serving as narrator and letting the audience know in no uncertain terms that this will not be following the original script and, like him, the show itself will do as it pleases. To start with I thought this could backfire - sometimes a hugely popular character has his stage time restricted with good reason, and after about half an hour of him being almost constantly present it's getting to be too much of a good thing.

Fortunately Fynn starts to get a few more breaks after this and the rest of the cast get a chance: Nordberg is a strong and likeable young lead, Hunter and Halfpenny entertainingly inept ghosts, Atkinson brings her own brand of chaotic scattiness to contrast with Fynn's anarchy, and among the supporting cast Chasity Crisp has a small but memorable role as a guest at the famous dinner party where all the guests get possessed to a soundtrack of Harry Belafonte's "Banana Boat Song."

As for Perfect's actual original songs they all do the job of entertaining and moving the story along - lots of funny lyrics although the tunes are fairly samey and forgettable. The decision to avoid copying the film directly has mixed results: Most importantly it avoids the aggressively "Will? This? Do?!" results of The Devil Wears Prada, coming closer to the refreshed feel of Mean Girls.

It also means that even if it's not quite a genuinely edgy and dangerous show - it's still a huge-budget Broadway musical after all and Fynn has palpably less genuine sense of malice than Michael Keaton did in the original - it can at least tap into that sense of anarchy. This comes in Fynn's constant fourth wall-breaking, trolling anyone in the audience who might have mistaken this for a suitable show to bring kids to, embracing the grisly comedy of the premise and even getting in some pointed topical and political jokes about paedophilia and book-burning (although the utterly perfunctory Keir Starmer gag could do with some work.) There's also a second-act opening number from a girl scout with a heart condition (Rachel MacDougall) which takes great glee in the prospect of a little girl being literally scared to death.

On the other hand the writers' freedom to play around with the story does eventually translate into freedom to tie it up in knots, and the second act starts to get overlong and convoluted. But Alex Timbers' production doesn't skimp on the spectacle, from Connor Gallagher's choreography in William Ivey Long's costumes, to Kenneth Posner's lighting and Jeremy Chernick's special effects enabling huge quick-changes to David Korins' vast set. There's a suitably epic scale to the whole endeavour, but apart from the times when it gets a bit too tangled up in itself it's also got the substance to back up the flash.

Beetlejuice by Eddie Perfect, Scott Brown and Anthony King, based on the film by Tim Burton, from a screenplay by Michael McDowell and Warren Skaaren, and a story by Michael McDowell and Larry Wilson, is booking until the 17th of April at the Prince Edward Theatre.

Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Johan Persson.