BEETLEJUICE Previews — Page 15

I asked a co-worker, who is also a non-theatre goer, which ONE show she would see based on name recognition alone. She’s familiar with all of the options based on the movies, and probably in her mid-40’s.

The choices were:

- King Kong

- Beetlejuice

- Tootsie

She picked them in the order of Tootsie, King Kong, and then Beetlejuice last.

As I was walking out of the door to her office I mentioned that one other show option would have been Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish. Her eyes lit up and said THAT’S THE ONE!!!

And I still can’t make up my mind.

Updated On: 4/24/19 at 12:21 PM

^ ^ ^ I’m seeing HADESTOWN and MOULIN ROUGE in late-August, and it’s a single day round-trip with no time to spare in that day other than for some minor sightseeing. And of course The Donut Pub.

I dug up several old FIDDLER threads and read comments about the projections, seating, and cast. It all sounds wonderful. Just that there’s only the one slot left for my birthday trip, and I want to do them all. Not in the budget this time to spend more than one overnight.

Maybe I can take a mid-Fall day-trip over and back. But I’m probably moving in June to another apartment here I town, so I’ll have to see what happens then.

Not that anyone's dying for my opinion but since I was commenting earlier in this thread about how I disliked the show in DC & would NOT recommend it to people, I wanted to mention that I received a comp ticket the other night so decided to check it out again & see what kind of changes were implemented.

I'm happy to report that the show is in MUCH better shape than it was in DC. It's still far from perfect but I enjoyed it & would actually recommend it to people now.

The show has a little more focus & they also toned down the crudeness, which I think was smart. Don't get me wrong-- I'm no prude & I actually loved the fact that this Beetlejuice was a raunchier than its cinematic counterpart, but I think they went too far in DC, where most of the jokes came off as tasteless & sophomoric. They pulled back a bit for Broadway, which was smart. It's still crude but not overly so. That being said I'm also happy they took out the pig penis in the "Day-O" number. LoLsmileyFace seemed to have missed that from DC but I thought it was overkill (not to mention stupid). There was no need for it. And I know it's been said before but the Miss Argentina number is WAY better than that awful boy band number we saw in DC! Thank God they replaced that!

I still think the first act is a lot stronger than the second, which is still a little messy. (I think b/c the first act largely follows the plot of the movie while the second act strays a great deal & tries to do its own thing.) And I still don't think the score is good, but whereas I loathed it in DC, I found it tolerable on Broadway. I still think it needs a different flavor-- darker, eerier, etc. Half the songs are peppy & poppy, which doesn't fit Beetlejuice AT ALL. But again, it's a marked improvement from DC. I'm glad I got to see it again.

Curious to how the reviews will be tonight. I'm sure they will be mixed but now I'm hoping for a few positive notices. (I'd give it a B/B-) As far as the cast goes Leslie Kritzer is still the standout. And the scenic design is still the star.

Oh, also I'm surprised at how many people haven't seen the Beetlejuice movie (including my companion the other night)! Sacrilege! I always considered it a contemporary classic! And Wolfwriter, I would argue that Beetlejuice is an EXCELLENT choice to have been given the musical treatment. The film is inherently musical, with those two established Harry Belafonte numbers. (I agree with your friend-- they are absolute highlights.) Its zaniness & fantastical nature lend itself well to other musical moments. We're already suspending belief so much. Why not add songs?!

JuneJune said: "I actually love crude humor and am a bit sad I didn't get to see the supposedly raunchier DC version, but...did you say pig penis?"

Checking in, on the changes I appreciated. It is shorter. The pig puppet no longer face ****s the nice lady with its' corkscrew penis. I am not kidding. It both was in the show, in DC, and excised prior to my seeing it at the Winter G the other night. The show is still an "F" in my book.

Has Warner Bros. had any movie to stage adaptations that succeeded but for The Color Purple?

Other than the broad comments from my DC review, one of two black actors in the cast still has his arms ripped off during the second act. I found this reminiscent of the heinous dragging (ripping apart) death of James Byrd years ago. The killer was just FINALLY executed this past week in Texas.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/us/james-byrd-jr-john-william-king.html

Sadly, I don't think it will make it into the New Year. Artless. Heartless.

I'm sad to see that Kritzer didn't get the NY Times review. She's so great in this show.

I don't think it's fair to judge this musical in comparison to the movie. Let it stand on its own.

And, on its own, it's my #1 recommendation for anyone who wants to spend $100+ on a new musical because it maximizes what live theater has to offer more than any other new piece out there.

Tootsie may have funnier one-liners, The Prom is cuter and more feel-good, and Hadestown has the best and most beautiful score. But Beetlejuice, even with my familiarity with the movie, kept surprising me, kept me guessing about what would happen next, kept me laughing, blew me away with its visuals and had me walking away saying "I've never seen anything like that on stage."

The book is solid. It's clear from the start that the focus is on Lydia and about how we deal with death in healthy and unhealthy ways and how we struggle to move on. But, every character in the main ensemble has a clear arc and character development that relates to this theme - they all have delightful moments.

(In my opinion, Leslie Krtizer outdoes Tootsie's Sarah Stiles in giving us one of the most hilarious and unpredictable performances I've seen in awhile )

It's awards season and several critics are thumbing their noses at this piece. And I think it's because at the center of it is a crass, crude toxic male demon character. How vulgar! But, cathartically - and the horror genre is all about catharsis - the plot hinges on how to get rid of him!

But Beetlejuice's crassness is inherent in the character and the plot. (He offers the wrong solution to Lydia's problem.) But you wouldn't condemn Shakespeare for Falstaff...

This musical should be judged on its own terms! And I think it delivers what it sets out to do while wildly exceeding expectations.

Updated On: 4/26/19 at 01:47 PM

sorry if this has been mentioned but I saw in an Interview that in the DC production Lydia's mother Emily was a character that appeared and had a song? can anyone comment on if this was bad or why it was cut? sounds like something from the movie that would actually be an interesting addition to flesh out the story. I mean if Lydia is going to the other side, why wouldn't she see/look for her mom?

..

brettystar said: "Has anyone who hated the preview they saw since listened the cast album and had any change of heart - or do they still hate it as much as when they saw it? I have seen hundreds of professional musicals all around the world including Broadway and the West End and based on what I’m discovering so I’m failing to see how this could fall into some people’s worse musical they’ve ever seen list so I appreciate your thoughts."


I could go on and on, but after seeing both a preview and post-opening performance, I just find the show mind numbingly inane beyond belief. I can’t get through the cast album after an initial pass, the lyrics are so awful it makes me cringe. It’s just not entertaining to me in any way - I don’t find it funny or cute or ironically irreverent. It just rubs me the wrong way and was a chore to sit through both times. I could dive deeper but I’m sure I posted about it earlier in the thread.


That being said, of course I’m thrilled so many people love it. I too have seen hundreds of shows from around the world and have no issue placing this in a Worst-Of list. I’m one of those people that loves Be More Chill, so I guess I can understand how some people can just like a show while others hate it.

No, they don't GOT to do anything, actually. They can have ANY reaction they want. Don't like it? Cool. Scroll on by. Judging them is what's annoying.

When I saw Beetlejuice back in September, I also wasn't a fan. I didn't hate it, but I certainly didn't love it. What was the most annoying to me, was how much of the audience reacted to it as it played on. There were tons of people dressed in costume and they responded to scenes as if I was at a performance (movie) of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The one time I saw that, it gave me a headache, and so did this. The highlight for me was at current call when they called Geena Davis to the stage. The rest was forgettable.

IHeartNY2 said: "

A shame you kept this bottled up since Sept." Oh, you silly queen.

Updated On: 12/27/19 at 09:42 PM