Oddly, the demonic title character of Tim Burton's kitschy 1988 horror flick Beetlejuice appears onscreen for just 17 minutes – but Michael Keaton's unhinged, wild-eyed performance has had an outsized influence on a generation. To this day, you still see zebra-striped Halloween costumes and devoted fans longing for their very own undead bestie. So perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that this modernised musical take on the movie, hitting the West End after an ill-fated 2019 Broadway premiere, gives “the ghost with the most” over two hours to luxuriate in the limelight. Here, Beetlejuice is a kind of chaotic compere for this macabre tale of teen rebellion, padding it out with sweary jokes, unmemorable songs, and side-swipes at the other, arguably better constructed musicals currently haunting theatreland. (Watch your back, Paddington Bear.)
David Flynn plays the role like a kind of perverted punk-rock frontman with a green quiff that's as sickening as his sense of humour. He's forever goofing around the stage, rubbing his nipples lasciviously in the direction of other cast members – of any gender – or embarking on emo rants about how his mother never loved him. To be fair, she's got a lot on her plate, as a demon tasked with (wo)manning the gates of hell. It's fun watching writers Scott Brown and Anthony King flesh out Beetlejuice's backstory, riffing on the film's themes of misfit loneliness. But this undead scene-stealer stops us taking the actual narrative here seriously, and means we don't have space to feel the aching poignancy just beneath its surface.
A Tale of Two Worlds
The show opens with a black, lace-decked graveyard where teenage Lydia Deetz (a beautifully voiced Hannah Nordberg) is pouring her heart out at her mother's funeral – until Beetlejuice crashes in with effortfully edgy standup material about the NHS, James Cordon's beleaguered publicist, or rival West End shows (when he says “f*** Paddington” it feels like the full weight of the British establishment is ready to bazooka the theatre). It's meant to be Lydia's story, but she barely gets a single witty line, and the plot that follows is rattled through so fast that it's easy to miss a twist or two. In short, the story kicks into gear when wholesome, boring couple Adam (David Hunter) and Barbara (Chelsea Halfpenny) die suddenly while renovating an old house. (She's weirdly chill about being murdered by her husband's incompetent wiring.) Beetlejuice, a lascivious poltergeist, persuades their spirits to stick around and haunt the place, a plan they agree to mainly as a protest against the new incumbents' naff interior design choices. But they become unsettled by his obsessive quest to come back to life – which requires the help of Lydia, who soon realises that cultivating friendships with ghouls is the perfect way to creep out her distant Dad (Alasdair Harvey) and ditzy would-be stepmum Delia (Amie Atkinson).
Highs and Lows
When this show hits the mark, it's hilarious. Atkinson is brilliantly kooky, satirising the very 21st century phenomenon of life coaches trying to manifest their way to riches. “Crystals talk to me,” she intones. “They say: buy more crystals!”. And the climatic dinner party where the ghosts first let rip is hugely enjoyable, the stage erupting into a massive party rocked by “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)”. But too many moments feel rushed and awkward, particularly the long negotiations over whether Lydia will marry Beetlejuice (“It's a visa wedding!” he reiterates, as the show tries to style out the awkwardness of a 700-year age-gap relationship). The set is quirky but flimsy, prone to minor malfunctions and relying on a big curtain to hide transitions from view. And Eddie Perfect's score is fun without being distinctive – it could do with a bit more 1980s gothic texture to sell the darkness of this world.
All in all, there's something surprisingly, likably fringey about this Broadway import. It's a cheeky song-and-dance revue that'll remind fans why they originally fell in love with Beetlejuice – without resurrecting the original's spooky power. ‘Beetlejuice the Musical’ is at the Prince Edward Theatre until 17 April 2027.
