Since Tim Burton created the iconic 1988 movie, the Beetlejuice UK fandom has been patient: cartoons, a remake, a Broadway musical and more than seven years of waiting for it to cross the pond. And it was worth the wait. There is a new ghost in the West End, and it has found exactly the right home. Beware, whilst walking in Soho as the Prince Edward Theatre is haunted. A neighbourhood that has always kept company with the strange and the irreverent was always going to welcome Beetlejuice. Absolutely no other address in London could suit it better.
Beetlejuice the Musical follows Lydia Deetz, a sharp and death-obsessed teenager, who moves into a new home with her recently widowed father and his new girlfriend. When she discovers the house is haunted by its recently deceased previous owners, the Maitlands, an unlikely friendship forms. In a desperate attempt to drive the living family out, the Maitlands and Lydia accidentally summon to life Beetlejuice, a chaotic and irreverent bio-exorcist from the Netherworld, unleashing more than anyone bargained for.
Director Alex Timbers, with many Broadway directing credits such as Moulin Rouge and Beetlejuice, and many awards to his name, gives life to a show about death and honours the original movie as he always intended. Timbers leads a team of creatives who understand, as he does, that this show lives or dies by its commitment to the absurd. A clear example is lighting by Kenneth Posner and Projection Design by Peter Nigrini, who do well at defying the laws of physics for light.
Any theatre kid would be fascinated by the idea of making a chalk line on the wall light up and open as a door. Their challenges of illuminating and creating the atmosphere for the netherworld and the fantastic in the real world were triumphantly met. Bringing the netherworld to the real one felt entirely natural, as though the two had always been neighbours. That ease is harder to achieve than it looks. What an achievement. The technical aspects of this show were on point, you would be reading until eternity if I named each and every one of the creatives, but it’s safe to say that the work is outstanding, to create this universe and give life, and death, to this stage allowed the actors to fully inhabit the world.
Then we come to the title cast Betelgeuse, or Beetlejuice, played by David Fynn. The boyish, nonchalant qualities of the character come through beautifully. Although it’s not very child-appropriate (drug references and bad language), my inner child was in ecstasy with him. Fynn’s energy and charisma are undeniable, whether breaking the fourth wall or riding a worm. He made us care for him, as we all know that person who jokes to distance themselves from their true emotions. The theatre was his, and he knew it: the English ad-libs made his character an honorary Brit.
All of this could have posed a challenge to Hannah Nordberg while playing Lydia Deetz. It could have, but it did not. Nordberg gave us an ‘emo’ Lydia that was also lovable and funny with a powerful performance and some heartbreaking songs. So touching, so powerful and equally matched with Fynn’s.
Another duo that deserves mention are Aimie Atkinson, playing Delia Deetz, for her vocals as a perfect weirdo step-mother. And Chasity Crisp, who played two characters: Maxine Dean and Juno, the underworld bureaucrat. I could watch a whole show about Juno played by Crisp.
Beetlejuice the Musical does not want your tears. Although some songs are heartbreaking. It wants your laughter, your chaos, and your inner child. And it will get all three because every performer on that stage plays the absurd with complete seriousness. They believed in this world entirely, and that belief crossed the footlights. The audience at the Prince Edward Theatre did not watch Beetlejuice: they joined it. Death has never been this much fun. Go watch it. And do not say his name three times on the way out.
