For my first review, I’ll start with one of my current favorites: Beetlejuice, or should I say Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice? I love this show! It’s amazing. Don’t judge it by the movie like I first did because the musical is both different and better! 

Based on what I knew from the plot of the movie, I could predict that Beetlejuice would involve a lot of sound and light effects, so it took courage and careful planning to get ready to see it. I listened to the soundtrack and read reviews. I was a little unsure about how I would work around the pyrotechnics (fire effects), but instead of feeling discouraged, I was excited to take on the challenge. After all, the music and actors sounded amazing! 

With this preparation, the show itself was pretty comfortable for me. At the very beginning, after a chorus sings, “Daylight come and me wan’ go home,” the show begins with a blackout and a lightning sound effect. In the Broadway cast recording, these sound effects happen during the song, “Prologue: Invisible.” Then there is some loud music with flashing lights followed by another lightning sound effect. 

The next song is “The Whole ‘Being Dead’ Thing” sung by none other than Beetlejuice himself, and the one moment where there are surprising flashing lights and loud beats occurs after he sings, ‘You’re, You’re gonna be fine on the other side,” he follows with, cue flashing lights, “Die, you’re all gonna die, you’re all gonna die.” Later on, another lightning effect occurs when Beetlejuice sings, “So take a little break here, kinda like a wake here. The scenery is fake here, but there’s a giant snake here.” The next song, “Ready Set, Not Yet,” is pretty tame except for at the end of the song around 3:32. Next up is “The Whole ‘Being Dead’ Thing part 2,” and throughout that song, there are multiple moments where a smoke machine shoots out little puffs of smoke. 

After that comes “Dead Mom,” but there are no particularly surprising sounds or lighting effects in that song. In “Fright of Their Lives,” after Beetlejuice sings, “Sever a head, preferably someone you know,” a plastic head shoots out from a chest on the left side of the stage. Additionally, once the song is over, as Beetlejuice attempts to make his exit, he yells, “See you in Hell,” after which he throws a smoke bomb. 

The next two songs, “Ready Set (Reprise),” and “No Reason,” don’t have any big surprises, but “Invisible (Reprise) / On the Roof” has a lightning effect to start it off. Also, at the end, Beetlejuice exclaims, “I’m gonna have a new best friend!” and green smoke comes out of a chimney. During the next song, “Say My Name,” there is a fire effect, but it’s not as obvious where it occurs in the soundtrack, so I’ll have to look into it more when Broadway reopens. The last song of Act 1, “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” has loud firecracker-like effects when Lydia summons Beetlejuice to scare everyone off. 

To begin Act 2, there is another lightning effect before the first song, “Girl Scout,” begins. During the song, Sky, the Girl Scout, announces her decision to come into Lydia’s house currently haunted by Beetlejuice by singing, “So I guess, okay, it’s fine. Alright, I’ll come inside.” After that, a lightning effect is played. Then, at the very end of the song, Beetlejuice jumps out to scare Sky, causing her to scream. The next song, “That Beautiful Sound,” has a lot of screaming at the beginning, and when Beetlejuice clones himself, the clones appear with puffs of smoke. 

The next loud noise occurs during “What I Know Now,” when a character named Miss Argentina, in the after-life dimension (the Netherworld) sings, “Life is short, but death is super long,” and someone else follows with, “I exploded,” shooting out a sparkle cannon. 

The final song with a loud noise occurs as the final song, “Jump in the Line,” at the end of the curtain call finishes with a confetti cannon on the final note. 

In addition to these notes about light and sound, there are a few important details that distinguish Beetlejuice from other musicals in a way that may not fit everyone’s tastes. Beetlejuice is not appropriate for all ages, and the topics it centers around could be seen as somewhat controversial. Set in the Tim Burton universe, it naturally falls under the genre of dark comedy with adult humor and constant discussion of the concept of death. However, if none of those factors deter you, I think that sometimes we could all use a little laughter instead of being serious and gloomy all the time. 

Beetlejuice has uplifting themes too. There are heartfelt scenes between the main character, Lydia, and her dad, Charles, as they struggle to repair their relationship, coming to terms with the death of Emily, Lydia’s mother. And the overarching theme of the musical is about living every day to the fullest because once your time is up, there’s no going back.