Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice is playing at the Winter Garden Theatre located at 1634 Broadway. It runs two hours thirty minute with one intermission. The play is open ended.

The play is based on the 1988 film. This show premiered at the National Theatre in Washington, D. C. on October 14, 2018.

Alex Timbers is the director. He was nominated for two Tony Awards for Peter and the Starcatcher (2012) and Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson (2011).

William Ivey Long is the costume designer. He was nominated for fifteen Tony Awards winning six for Cinderella (2013), Grey Gardens (2006), Hairspray (2002), The Producers (2001), Crazy For you (1992) and Nine (1982).

Alex Brightman was nominated for a Tony Award in 2016 for School of Rock.

Rob McClure was nominated for a Tony Award in 2013 for Chaplin.

Kerry Butler was nominated for a Tony Award in 2008 for Xanadu.

It’s dark and we are in a cemetery. Beetlejuice (Alex Brightman) tells you what you cannot do in the theatre, like take pictures. When he is finished we see Lydia (Sophia Anne Caruso) crying at her mother’s grave. She was just buried.

Meanwhile Barbara (Kerry Butler) and her husband Adam (Rob McClure) are in their home. They seem to be a happy couple.

Beetlejuice is a ghost and wants to be seen. The only way it will happen is for a living person to say his name out loud three times. Barbara and Adam refuse. The living floor collapses and they are dead. Now Beetlejuice has some place to stay with two other ghosts. They live in the attic.

Lydia is still grieving over her mother. Her father Charles (Adam Dannheisser) has hired Delia (Leslie Kritzer) to help her get over her grief. Charles and Delia are intimate. Lydia is upset over it. When Beetlejuice asks her to repeat his name three times she refuses. She teases him saying the name twice finally she says it three times. He wants to marry her.

Charles and Delia have a dinner party at Adams and Barbara house. He owns the house and has changed the interior. They are expecting Maxine Dean (Jill Abramovitz) and her husband Maxie Dean (Danny Rutigliano).

The place fills with all kinds of ghosts. Things happen.

Delia brings in her Guru Otho (Kelvin Moon Loh) to get rid of the ghosts.

A girl scout (Dana Steingold) knocks on the door to sell girl scout cookies.

Lydia does something to Beetlejuice. The door to hell opens and Lydia goes in to find her mother. Beetlejuice meets his mother.

Why spoil it! I’m not telling you anymore.

This is a delightful, entertaining musical.

The cast shines. Alex Brightman and Leslie Kritzer are outstanding. Sophia Anne Caruso has a beautiful voice.

The set done by David Korins is amazing. William Ivey Long costumes are impressive.

You don’t have to be a kid to enjoy this show. Hey you might change into a kid for a few hours. In any case this is a show you will enjoy.

Review by Rozanna Radakovich.

Photos by Annazor.

To read a candid interview with the cast, scroll down to the left for photos. Click on photos for this and other shows.