On Tuesday, April 16th, Beetlejuice officially took over the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa. Yes, it’s a musical. Yes, it works. And yes, there is indeed a giant sandworm.
"Beetlejuice" at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts
Costa Mesa marks one of the many stops on the production’s North American tour. Currently, Beetlejuice is set to run through 2025, with stops throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The musical has been on tour since late 2022 – beginning about a month before the Broadway production closed its doors.
Beetlejuice will be performing at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts until April 28. Tickets start at $59. If anyone can go on Thursday, April 25, the cast and company will do a short Q&A after the show!
About "Beetlejuice"
Based on the Tim Burton movie of the same name, Beetlejuice simultaneously relies on the source material while being completely different. Beetlejuice, now classified as a demon instead of your run-of-the-mill ghost, takes center stage as Broadway’s Deadpool. However, while Beetlejuice is far more present in the musical, the core of the story revolves around Lydia Deetz.
Grieving over her recently deceased Dead Mom, Lydia moves into a new house with her dad, Charles, and “Life Coach” (soon to be stepmom) Delia. But the house is haunted by Adam and Barbara Maitlands, the house’s previous owners who died in the living room. From there, the musical takes you on an emotional roller coaster, somehow balancing tear-jerking sequences and crude, laugh-out-loud humor. Seriously, who gave this musical permission to explore grief and mourning while also letting Beetlejuice call Adam “Daddy?”
For any parents thinking about taking kids, just know that Beetlejuice is a nasty trash demon with a crude sense of humor. It’s definitely not a Disney musical, but it’s also not Avenue Q. If you’d take your kid to see RENT or Hamilton, then Beetlejuice is fine.
"Beetlejuice" Vibe Check at the Segerstrom
Segerstrom Hall offers a lovely temporary home for the musical, with the facilities fully embracing the striped weirdo into its halls. And so did the theater patrons! On the first night, Beetlejuice drew in a big crowd with people of all ages. To make it better, about half of those people were in cosplay or decked out in stripes. Thanks to its Broadway run, Beetlejuice continues to welcome and normalize cosplayers in attendance. Seriously, this is probably the only musical you could go to in full cosplay without feeling self-conscious.
The venue itself is large for a theater space. Knowing how the tour adapted to be on the road (keep reading for Broadway fun facts), Segerstrom Hall is probably the closest you’ll get to seeing how the set worked on the Broadway stage. The acoustics are amazing and fairly well-balanced, allowing the tour’s live sound mixing to adjust to the new space fairly easily. By tonight’s performance, the sound mixing will be perfect.
Finally, everyone in attendance truly had a good time. Intermission was a buzz of activity – it felt like conversation came easy even between strangers. This is more important than you may think. Some of Beetlejuice’s best humor comes from how responsive the overall audience is. The more involved the audience is, the bolder Beetlejuice can be when he improvises.
Tour v. Broadway
The tour cast is absolutely incredible. Though none of the original Broadway cast went on tour (besides Sean McManus during the first leg of the tour), the tour cast fully embraces their roles and puts their own spin on an old Norwegian folk song.
Justin Collette takes over as Beetlejuice, marking the second time Collette’s taken over an Alex Brightman role. The two have remarkably similar senses of humor, but differ in their execution. During the tumultuous course of the Broadway run, Brightman’s Beetlejuice (let’s call him Brightjuice) became a Soft Boi. This would be a precursor to his babygirl demon roles like FizzaRolli in Helluva Boss and Sir Pentious in Hazbin Hotel. It’s very easy to sympathize and forgive Brightjuice and want him to go back to that house right now because nobody’s ever loved him before now—
Collette’s Beetlejuice (Justinjuice, if you will) is absolutely bonkers and manic. He retains the loneliness Brightjuice has, but combines that vulnerability with the jerkiness of the original Michael Keaton version (…Keatlejuice). Collette finds a great way of marrying the two versions and he’s a joy to watch.
Lydia Deetz is played by Isabella Esler, a recent high school graduate making her professional debut with the Beetlejuice tour. She is a fantastic performer and will blow you away. Her portrayal of Lydia aligns most with Elizabeth Teeter’s. There’s a sweetness to her snark, fueled more by grief than anger.
A Brief, Tumultuous History
The tour marks a long, hard-earned win for the musical that could. After 37 weeks into the tour, Beetlejuice announced that it had recouped costs. Considering how expensive theater productions are – especially one like Beetlejuice that boasts a gorgeous set, projection mapping, and magic tricks – this is huge.
Beetlejuice struggled financially on Broadway. Originally playing at the Winter Garden Theatre, the musical underperformed to the point that the theater enacted an opt out portion of the contract. Essentially, Broadway theaters have a clause in their contracts that allow the theater to end a production’s run early if they don’t sell enough tickets. In all fairness to the theater, this is both a standard contract clause and a long enough period where it’s clear the production will never recover.
However, Beetlejuice earned 8 Tony nominations, including Best Musical and Best Actor in a Musical for Alex Brightman (his second nomination in the category). After Brightman’s performance at the 2019 Tony Awards, the musical went viral. With TikTok support from cast member Presley Ryan, Beetlejuice started smashing every ticket sale record in the Winter Garden Theatre.
The pandemic hit before Beetlejuice could be properly “evicted.” But even with the world shutting down, Beetlejuice found a new home in the Marquis Theater from April 2022 to January 2023. Ultimately, the production closed again due to high costs and an early dip in ticket sales.
Knowing that the tour is an absolute success and every performance after October 2023 can be considered a profit is something to applaud. The original company, especially Brightman, kept the love alive and fostered a highly engaged community. Now, that work is paying off with butts in seats.
Currently, the Costa Mesa stop will be the last Southern California stop on the tour. Beetlejuice will be at the Segerstrom until April 28.
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