The Broadway version of Beetlejuice is now open, but the critics seem to wish it would go back to the underworld. Alex Brightman is a total star as Beetlejuice, bringing energy and his own punk-rock take on the character, and the set and effects are amazing… but that’s really where the fun ends. The script seems hellbent on one-upping itself joke after joke, driving the acting and choreography to keep up or else, and the critics seem to be overwhelmed by intermission (if not sooner). But even amidst all the bits and gags and super-speed choreography, there’s one thing the critics seem to be missing: Tim Burton. Maybe it wasn’t “Beetlejuice” they should have been chanting three times.
NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW OF BEETLEJUICE
The dead lead lives of noisy desperation in “Beetlejuice,” the absolutely exhausting new musical that opened on Thursday at the Winter Garden Theater. This frantic adaptation of Tim Burton’s much-loved 1988 film is sure to dishearten those who like to think of the afterlife as one unending, undisturbed sleep…
DEADLINE REVIEW OF BEETLEJUICE
Maybe if they’d said it a fourth time. Three times – “Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!” – summons to life the stripe-coated, fright-wigged demon that made a superstar of Michael Keaton way back when. Could a fourth have magically conjured that extra something needed to transform Broadway’s Beetlejuice into…
TIME OUT NEW YORK REVIEW OF BEETLEJUICE
Whatever else it may or may not be, Beetlejuice is spectacularly weird. The best creative work in this musical adaptation of Tim Burton’s 1988 film—about a pair of sweet ghosts trying to rid their house of its distasteful new inhabitants—has gone into its physical form: The designers come at it from all kinds of…
VARIETY REVIEW OF BEETLEJUICE
“Such a bold departure from the original source material!” wisecracks the odd-looking fellow sitting on a coffin at the start of the Broadway musical “Beetlejuice.” The weird, nasty and outrageous title character is talking about a short lament just sung by a sad teen at her mother’s gravesite, as he breaks the…
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER REVIEW OF BEETLEJUICE
Writers Scott Brown and Anthony King, along with composer Eddie Perfect and director Alex Timbers, approach the 1988 Tim Burton cult comedy with the giddy excitement of rabid fanboys in their imaginative musical adaptation of Beetlejuice. That enthusiasm translates to the audience, too, with every visual reference…
Broadway Musical Blog 