Monstrous Musicals Celebrate Alex Brightman: Beetlejuice

We’ve reached our final Alex Brightman blog for this Halloween as we look at musical adaption of Beetlejuice. It’s been a banner year for the Ghost with the Most with the sequel doing very well at the box office.

The musical itself has a cult following including people who have never seen the movie and with something like this musical that works as it’s so adherent to the source material. BJ even makes a joke about this in the opening number. And you know the Handbook for the Recently Deceased, he burns it. Musical BJ is still a creep and a villain but not as bad as movie BJ.  He’s kinda like if cartoon BJ wasn’t restricted by being in a kids show.

 

Another big change this musical makes is shifting the focus from the Maitlands to Lydia. There are a lot of changes that set it apart from the movie and Lydia is a big part of that. I’ll talk about those as I look at the songs.

Prologue: Invisible

We open at the funeral of Lydia’s mother Emily and her death is central to Lydia’s arc and if you recall how in the original movie, Lydia considered offing herself (hits too close to home) in the musical, it’s because she misses her mom and her mom was the only one who understood her.

The Whole Being Dead Thing

Hot take, I prefer Brightman’s Beetlejuice to Keaton’s. And this song is part of why, it’s so much fun. BJ much like The Genie in Aladdin breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience. We hear that a few times during this song. And what’s really fun is the lyrics for this song are adjusted to fit where it’s being performed such as when Alex preformed this at the Tony’s.

 

Ready, Set, Not Yet

A change I’m not too keen on is making the Maitlands losers. I do like Adam and Barbra in the musical but in the original movie, they could get it. They were sexy and loved being with each other. This song almost seems to set them up as losers to make BJ look cooler.

The Whole Being Dead Thing Pt. 2

BJ has more stage time than screen time movie BJ had in both movies and this is a fun number as he tries to get Adam and Barbra excited about death and being ghosts.

Dead Mom

This song imo is the heart of the musical, Lydia is hurting. She’s a teen girl who lost her mom and feels like her world has been shattered with the death of her mother. There’s an artist on Twitter doing fan comics of the various versions of the characters interacting and there was a comic where musical Lydia looked at movie Lydia all grown up saying “she’s like mom”. That hit, we didn’t get to learn much about Emily in the musical but we know how important she was to Lydia. In many ways, what Lydia goes through is so similar to Astrid’s feelings of grieving her dad in the sequel.

 

The Fright of Their Life

Another fun BJ number as we hear Beetlejuice try to teach the Maitlands to be scary. It’s so absurd and silly. How Brightman is able to carry this song in his BJ voice is impressive.

Ready Set (Reprise)

With the Maitlands’ songs, you hear them become more confident as the show goes on.

No Reason

Here’s another change, Delia and Charles aren’t married, they’re having an affair and he’s going to propose. Which okay and instead of weird sculpting being her thing, Delia is a life coach. Movie Delia and Musical Delia feel like two different characters. One isn’t better than the other but again, don’t expect the movie character.

Impossible (Reprise)/On The Roof

Now we have BJ singing a reprise of the opening number feeling like a failure after not getting the Maitlands to scare the family away. And Lydia is about to jump but BJ tempts her as we hear in the next song.

Say My Name

This song is just so much fun as BJ tries to get Lydia to say his name but she’s more savvy than he thinks. She’s not an easy mark and she will put up a fight. It’s also cute hearing the Maitlands be concerned for Lydia and it goes back to what I said about their confidence growing over the course of the show.

The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)

Of course, this song was gonna be included. It’s one of the most iconic parts of the movie.

 

Though again, its use is changed to Adam and Barbra trying to help Lydia scare her family away. It’s still a fun number and it also shows how desperate Lydia is, that she summons Beetlejuice.

Girl Scout

Yeah, I could do without this song. It’s not bad but it feels so blah compared to all the other songs in the show.

That Beautiful Sound

This song really makes me believe BJ and Lydia’s relationship was partly inspired by their friendship in the cartoon.

 

It’s my second favorite song in the show as it captures this weird friendship that’s a joy to watch. It’s so toe tapping.

Barbra 2.0

In this song, the Maitlands reach their culmination of bravery after Lydia chews them out as Lydia had hoped to use the handbook to contact her mom. Barbra realizes they can’t live in fear.

What I Know Now

You remember the case worker, Juno, she’s BJ’s mom in the show and the bigger bad. That has nothing to do with the song but I wanted to bring it up. This song is alright but not one of my favorites.

Home

This song is such a good and somber follow up to Dead Mom, Lydia is at a crossroads of where to go. Does she go back home or does she jump? I relate to this a bit too hard, earlier this year I wanted to take my life and I almost did. It still hurts to think about but I found my way back home. There’s a saying in my friend group, “no third option” meaning you aren’t allowed off yourself. There are better ways to deal with what’s hurting you. It may not seem like it but you’ll figure it out in your time. I get the hurt Lydia is going through, there’s no winning and the world hates you. I’ve felt that way a lot this year and it sucks so much. But Lydia finds the light to keep going as she knows she has a support system in her dad, Delia and the Maitlands. I know I have a support system too and I’m finding the light but it’s just so hard when it feels like someone is constantly turning it off.

Creepy Old Guy

This is another song where Lydia imo has more agency, she tricks BJ with the wedding and this song is a blast as it’s so goofy.

Jump in the Line/Dead Mom (Reprise)

Of course, Jump in the Line was gonna be used. But I also like Dead Mom closing out the show as it shows Lydia still misses her mom and while she misses her, Lydia can carry on. It won’t be easy but she can carry the memory of her mom.

I adore this musical so much and I like it a bit more than the movie. I hope you enjoyed my look at the songs. And my tribute to Alex Brightman this month.

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