August 2, 2025 • 9 mins
Dave Griffiths reviews Beetlejuice: The Musical for Subculture.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Well, now, listeners, I want to talk about a brand
new musical production that is in Melbourne at the moment.
And I've got to say, I don't think there's been
a production, a music production or a stage production over
the last few years that more people haven't asked me
about than Beatlejuice the musical. A lot of people have
found out that I've been to see it and have
been writing and asking what I thought of it, how
(00:24):
did it go? Of course, it's based on the beloved movie,
and of course Australia's very own Eddie Perfect became involved
with the Broadway production very very early on. For anyone
that was at OZ Comic Corn recently, you would have
heard him talking about the fact that he was in
New York at the time and when Scott Brown and
(00:46):
Anthony King were working on putting together a musical and
he asked to be involved, and he was given the
opportunity to be involved. Well, now he gets to come
back to Melbourne and actually work with director Alex Timbers
and play Beetlejuice himself. Now, of course, the story here
(01:06):
revolves around a family and a house. That house originally
is occupied by Barbara played by Alice McCann and Adam
played by Rob Johnson. Now Beetlejuice played by Eddie Perfect
is a demon who's in the house and he decides
(01:29):
that he kind of wants to to rule this house
a little bit, so through an unfortunate accident, Barbara and
Adam pass away. They meet Beetlejuice, and then a family
moves in. That family is made up of daughter Lydia
played by caras Oka, Dahlia played by Aaron Claire, and
Charles played by Tom Wren. Now Lydia is in a
(01:53):
depressed state. She can't get over the fact that she's
lost her mum and she can't believe that her father
is moving on with Dahlia. So Lydia can actually see
Adam and Barbara because of how depressed she is, and
soon she's introduced to Beetlejuice, who basically tells her that
(02:17):
he can take a stronger form if she's willing to
say his name three times. At first, she realizes that
it's a little bit of a trap and decides not
to do it, but when she realizes that Charles and
Dahlia are getting closer and closer and are planning on
getting married, she decides to throw caution into the wind
and to say Beetlejuice's name three times, which of course
(02:40):
then causes absolute chaos. Now, this production is one of
those productions where you basically become part of the production
the moment that you walk through the doors. In fact,
even before you walk through the doors, if anyone has
walked past the theater in Melbourne where it's being held
at the moment, we'll see a big sign that says
(03:01):
welcome to the Netherland. And as you enter, the green
and purple of Beetlejuice is absolutely everywhere in the theater.
Then as you take your seat again, the entire theater
is covered in green and purple lights with the big
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice logo up on the stage. Now, I've got
(03:24):
to warn you this show starts with a thunder clap
and lightning. So if you don't like loud noises and
you don't like flashy lights, this might not be the
production for you. But I've got to say this is
where this gets interesting, because I'm not a fan of
the original film. I remember trying to watch it when
I was a kid and I just could not get
(03:44):
into it at all. I tried watching it again as
an adult when the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice movie came out, and
again I found I just couldn't get into it. It's
not really my kind of movie. So I'm actually surprised
by how much I loved this production. Now, the reason
I love this production is We'll talk about the cast
(04:06):
a little bit later on as well, because of course
that is a big reason why. But what I love
most about this is the way it looks. Scenic designer
David Corns has done an absolutely amazing job bringing the
house from the from the film to light. He also
does an amazing job later on when they have to
(04:27):
go into the Netherland as well. There's also some puppetry
in this put together by Michael Curry again that looks
absolutely amazing on stage, the little skeletons and later on
the big demon that eats things absolutely amazing. And then
you've also got illusions from Michael Weaber, who does an
amazing job as well, along with the special effects design
(04:50):
Jeremy Schernick. Now, I've seen a lot of productions over
the last few years that have needed design and special
effects on stage. Some haven't worked as well. Like The
Woman in Black, I thought that could have done, could
have been enhanced a lot more, But I would put
Beetle Juice probably up alongside what we saw with Harry
(05:15):
Potter and The Curse Child. That is how good the
production value of this was. It was just absolutely amazing
with the work that's gone into this and to bring it.
I was sitting next to people who were there for
their second time and the man had said to me beforehand,
these special effects are going to blow you away, and
(05:36):
I was kind of like, yeah, really kind of thing,
and I admit he was right. They were absolutely amazing.
Now the other side to why this production works so
well is the performances of the cast. Now, Atlas mccahn
and Rob Johnson are really really good as Barbara and Adam.
They play the parts that they have to play really well.
(05:58):
Rob Johnson plays the kind of shy and reserved Adam
to a tee. But this production goes to a whole
new level when Eddie Perfect and Caris Oka on the
are on the stage. It's funny. There was times when
I was watching this where I thought that when they
(06:20):
weren't on stage, there was a bit of a lull,
but it wasn't really a lull. It was just you
notice the difference when they when they came onto the stage,
they lifted it to a whole new level. Eddie Perfect
is absolutely amazing in this show. If he doesn't win
an award for the work that he has done on
this show, then there is something seriously, seriously wrong because
(06:44):
he has done an absolutely brilliant job bringing the character
of Beetlejuice to life. You can tell that some of
the stuff that he's done is ad libbed because on
the night we were there, there was a joke about
about bringing your partner along to a Cold Play concert
and stuff like that, so you can tell that it's
(07:05):
ad libbed. Carras as well does an amazing job because
she has to be played the depressed Lydia but also
get laughs and dance around and stuff, and she does
that remarkably well. A lot of actresses wouldn't be able
to do that. The other thing that hits you was
the music from the show. There's some very dark humor
(07:27):
in some of these songs. One of the songs points
out that how wrong it is that at one point
Beatlejuice and Lydia have to get married, and it's a
song about underage marriage and it jokes about it. It
basically points out like how wrong it was to be
in the movie in the first place. Lydia also does
a song called dead Mum, which again gets laughs all
(07:48):
the way through it. But at the same time it
sounds weird because I'm talking about the fact that they
get laughs from this kind of morbid, dark comedy. But
at the same time, this is a production that makes
you stop and think about the people that you've lost
in your life as well. I remember at one point
when I was watching Lydia talk about this, I was
(08:10):
remembering my own grandmother dying, and I was thinking about
the fact that my grandmother wanted people to celebrate our
life and not be depressed after she'd gone, and I
was kind of surprised when family members around me were
actually getting depressed, and it made me think, what would
Lydia's mum feel like if she could see what Lydia
was like now. So this is just one of those
(08:33):
productions where everything comes together so well. This is a
production where it looks good, it sounds good, the performances
are amazing, and it keeps you entertained. So look, if
you want to go along and check out an absolutely
brilliant musical production in Melbourne at the moment, go along
(08:54):
and check out Beetlejuice. The musical. Eddie Perfect is well,
let's face it, perfect a karas Okre is brilliant as well,
So go along and see this absolutely magical experience.
Well, now, listeners, I want to talk about a brand
new musical production that is in Melbourne at the moment.
And I've got to say, I don't think there's been
a production, a music production or a stage production over
the last few years that more people haven't asked me
about than Beatlejuice the musical. A lot of people have
found out that I've been to see it and have
been writing and asking what I thought of it, how
(00:24):
did it go? Of course, it's based on the beloved movie,
and of course Australia's very own Eddie Perfect became involved
with the Broadway production very very early on. For anyone
that was at OZ Comic Corn recently, you would have
heard him talking about the fact that he was in
New York at the time and when Scott Brown and
(00:46):
Anthony King were working on putting together a musical and
he asked to be involved, and he was given the
opportunity to be involved. Well, now he gets to come
back to Melbourne and actually work with director Alex Timbers
and play Beetlejuice himself. Now, of course, the story here
(01:06):
revolves around a family and a house. That house originally
is occupied by Barbara played by Alice McCann and Adam
played by Rob Johnson. Now Beetlejuice played by Eddie Perfect
is a demon who's in the house and he decides
(01:29):
that he kind of wants to to rule this house
a little bit, so through an unfortunate accident, Barbara and
Adam pass away. They meet Beetlejuice, and then a family
moves in. That family is made up of daughter Lydia
played by caras Oka, Dahlia played by Aaron Claire, and
Charles played by Tom Wren. Now Lydia is in a
(01:53):
depressed state. She can't get over the fact that she's
lost her mum and she can't believe that her father
is moving on with Dahlia. So Lydia can actually see
Adam and Barbara because of how depressed she is, and
soon she's introduced to Beetlejuice, who basically tells her that
(02:17):
he can take a stronger form if she's willing to
say his name three times. At first, she realizes that
it's a little bit of a trap and decides not
to do it, but when she realizes that Charles and
Dahlia are getting closer and closer and are planning on
getting married, she decides to throw caution into the wind
and to say Beetlejuice's name three times, which of course
(02:40):
then causes absolute chaos. Now, this production is one of
those productions where you basically become part of the production
the moment that you walk through the doors. In fact,
even before you walk through the doors, if anyone has
walked past the theater in Melbourne where it's being held
at the moment, we'll see a big sign that says
(03:01):
welcome to the Netherland. And as you enter, the green
and purple of Beetlejuice is absolutely everywhere in the theater.
Then as you take your seat again, the entire theater
is covered in green and purple lights with the big
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice logo up on the stage. Now, I've got
(03:24):
to warn you this show starts with a thunder clap
and lightning. So if you don't like loud noises and
you don't like flashy lights, this might not be the
production for you. But I've got to say this is
where this gets interesting, because I'm not a fan of
the original film. I remember trying to watch it when
I was a kid and I just could not get
(03:44):
into it at all. I tried watching it again as
an adult when the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice movie came out, and
again I found I just couldn't get into it. It's
not really my kind of movie. So I'm actually surprised
by how much I loved this production. Now, the reason
I love this production is We'll talk about the cast
(04:06):
a little bit later on as well, because of course
that is a big reason why. But what I love
most about this is the way it looks. Scenic designer
David Corns has done an absolutely amazing job bringing the
house from the from the film to light. He also
does an amazing job later on when they have to
(04:27):
go into the Netherland as well. There's also some puppetry
in this put together by Michael Curry again that looks
absolutely amazing on stage, the little skeletons and later on
the big demon that eats things absolutely amazing. And then
you've also got illusions from Michael Weaber, who does an
amazing job as well, along with the special effects design
(04:50):
Jeremy Schernick. Now, I've seen a lot of productions over
the last few years that have needed design and special
effects on stage. Some haven't worked as well. Like The
Woman in Black, I thought that could have done, could
have been enhanced a lot more, But I would put
Beetle Juice probably up alongside what we saw with Harry
(05:15):
Potter and The Curse Child. That is how good the
production value of this was. It was just absolutely amazing
with the work that's gone into this and to bring it.
I was sitting next to people who were there for
their second time and the man had said to me beforehand,
these special effects are going to blow you away, and
(05:36):
I was kind of like, yeah, really kind of thing,
and I admit he was right. They were absolutely amazing.
Now the other side to why this production works so
well is the performances of the cast. Now, Atlas mccahn
and Rob Johnson are really really good as Barbara and Adam.
They play the parts that they have to play really well.
(05:58):
Rob Johnson plays the kind of shy and reserved Adam
to a tee. But this production goes to a whole
new level when Eddie Perfect and Caris Oka on the
are on the stage. It's funny. There was times when
I was watching this where I thought that when they
(06:20):
weren't on stage, there was a bit of a lull,
but it wasn't really a lull. It was just you
notice the difference when they when they came onto the stage,
they lifted it to a whole new level. Eddie Perfect
is absolutely amazing in this show. If he doesn't win
an award for the work that he has done on
this show, then there is something seriously, seriously wrong because
(06:44):
he has done an absolutely brilliant job bringing the character
of Beetlejuice to life. You can tell that some of
the stuff that he's done is ad libbed because on
the night we were there, there was a joke about
about bringing your partner along to a Cold Play concert
and stuff like that, so you can tell that it's
(07:05):
ad libbed. Carras as well does an amazing job because
she has to be played the depressed Lydia but also
get laughs and dance around and stuff, and she does
that remarkably well. A lot of actresses wouldn't be able
to do that. The other thing that hits you was
the music from the show. There's some very dark humor
(07:27):
in some of these songs. One of the songs points
out that how wrong it is that at one point
Beatlejuice and Lydia have to get married, and it's a
song about underage marriage and it jokes about it. It
basically points out like how wrong it was to be
in the movie in the first place. Lydia also does
a song called dead Mum, which again gets laughs all
(07:48):
the way through it. But at the same time it
sounds weird because I'm talking about the fact that they
get laughs from this kind of morbid, dark comedy. But
at the same time, this is a production that makes
you stop and think about the people that you've lost
in your life as well. I remember at one point
when I was watching Lydia talk about this, I was
(08:10):
remembering my own grandmother dying, and I was thinking about
the fact that my grandmother wanted people to celebrate our
life and not be depressed after she'd gone, and I
was kind of surprised when family members around me were
actually getting depressed, and it made me think, what would
Lydia's mum feel like if she could see what Lydia
was like now. So this is just one of those
(08:33):
productions where everything comes together so well. This is a
production where it looks good, it sounds good, the performances
are amazing, and it keeps you entertained. So look, if
you want to go along and check out an absolutely
brilliant musical production in Melbourne at the moment, go along
(08:54):
and check out Beetlejuice. The musical. Eddie Perfect is well,
let's face it, perfect a karas Okre is brilliant as well,
So go along and see this absolutely magical experience.
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