Review Round-Up: BEETLEJUICE THE MUSICAL at Prince Edward Theatre

What are theatre critics saying about Beetlejuice the Musical?

London Box Office

“An absolute blast and a non-stop, total riot.”

★★★★★

Reviewer: Stuart King

"Tightly scripted, tightly choreographed, tightly delivered and for all that, with its great tunes it manages to feel fresh and crisply improvised, thanks to the writing team's comedy and music credentials. I'm reliably informed that the show's running time barely fluctuates by a matter of seconds every performance, which is a neat trick with the sheer volume of seemingly impromptu gags. Among the scripted comedic ad-libs are a whole host of snappily humorous nods and digs at other musicals, most notably Wicked and Paddington — but there are many more — and all are brilliantly landed with tongues firmly embedded in cheeks. There is great work from the sound, projection, special effects and magic tricks and illusions teams, which ensure the visual gags keep coming."

Read the review here.

TimeOut

“This theatre kid-tastic Broadway adaptation definitely isn’t for Tim Burton purists”

★★★

Reviewer: Andrzej Lukowski

"So I can see why you might like it… but I didn’t. It’s not so much that Perfect and Timbers have changed stuff, more that there seems to be a genuine lack of appreciation for the source material. It’s much less surreal and imaginative and struggles to maintain a coherent tone: is it a bad-taste comedy with a fairly heavy Family Guy influence? Or is it a heartwarming story about a daughter reconciling with her dad, in which everyone learns and grows? It tries to be both and ends up feeling increasingly leaden-footed as it lumbers towards a mawkish finale. "

Read the review here.

The Guardian

“Tim Burton’s super creep reanimated as a shock jock in ghoulish musical”

★★★

Reviewer: Chris Wiegand

"You may find Christmas has come early, too, due to the panto level of random gags, topical references, direct audience address and chaotic spirit. There are jokes about hipster vapes, six-seven (groan), James Corden and plenty of heresy against musical-theatre royalty, from a quip about Andrew Lloyd Webber’s decapitated head to two foul-mouthed tirades against the West End’s adored new arrival, Paddington Bear. All distract from the carefully designed worlds of the story. Michael Keaton had only 17 minutes of screen time in the first Beetlejuice film, giving his super creep a jack-in-the-box shock. The musical, staged on Broadway in 2019, foregoes the less-is-more approach. It has barely begun before Beetlejuice gatecrashes to mock the heartfelt prologue (“Holy crap, a ballad already?”), coke-snorting and crooning in his signature striped suit. With shades of the anarchic teacher he played brilliantly in School of Rock, David Fynn certainly isn’t short of juice in the lead role."

Read the review here.

WhatsOnStage

“A largely satisfactory paint-by-numbers night out”

★★★

Reviewer: Alex Wood

"The good news is, book writers Scott Brown and Anthony King’s take on the irreverent 1988 film has lost none of the cheeky charm that seduced so many American audiences. Replete with new, UK-oriented jokes (a few gags about Paddington drew huge laughs, and quite a few gasps), it redraws Tim Burton’s original material, rejigs the plot and twists the ending into a largely satisfactory paint-by-numbers night out – a perfect replacement for the other musical crowdpleaser based on a cult classic 1980s movie, Back to the Future, which closed last month."

Read the review here.

David Fynn and Hannah Nordberg in Beetlejuice the Musical. Photo by Johan Persson.

Financial Times

“Who knew the afterlife was so exhausting?”

★★★

Reviewer: Sarah Hemming

"That’s the way this show rolls, moving with a speed that feels surprising given the number of not-alive characters and featuring a plot that drifts in and out of view like the moon in a spooky Hallowe’en sky. Coherence isn’t really the point here. It’s all madcap, genial fun, Burton’s original reshaped by writers Scott Brown and Anthony King, and songwriter Eddie Perfect, as a monster mash-up between pantomime and Hammer horror. It’s chock-full of smart puppetry (Michael Curry), magic tricks (Michael Weber) and meta-theatrical wisecracks in Alex Timbers’ exuberant production on David Korins’ haunted house set. There’s a huge, evil sandworm, a singing roast pig and a chorus of dancing skeletons, to the clear delight of the many audience members who’ve waited seven years for the show to make the jump from Broadway to the West End."

Read the review here.

The Independent

“The poltergeist returns as a Paddington-baiting troll”

★★★

Reviewer: Alice Saville

"When this show hits the mark, it's hilarious. Atkinson is brilliantly kooky, satirising the very 21st century phenomenon of life coaches trying to manifest their way to riches. “Crystals talk to me,” she intones. “They say: buy more crystals!”. And the climatic dinner party where the ghosts first let rip is hugely enjoyable, the stage erupting into a massive party rocked by “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)”. But too many moments feel rushed and awkward, particularly the long negotiations over whether Lydia will marry Beetlejuice (“It's a visa wedding!” he reiterates, as the show tries to style out the awkwardness of a 700-year age-gap relationship). The set is quirky but flimsy, prone to minor malfunctions and relying on a big curtain to hide transitions from view. And Eddie Perfect's score is fun without being distinctive – it could do with a bit more 1980s gothic texture to sell the darkness of this world."

Read the review here.

The Telegraph

“Can this zany Beetlejuice musical please calm down”

★★★

Reviewer: Dominic Cavendish

"The decision to make Beetlejuice the show’s ringmaster, with swearing, smut and local in-jokes about James Corden and Paddington The Musical to boot, results in zaniness overkill. The show can’t take itself too seriously but if it wants its themes about feeling invisible, deathly conformity and the grieving process to land, it needs to calm down. If much of it left me cold – Australian composer Eddie Perfect’s generic rock and Broadway pastiche score largely going in one ear and out the other – I also felt like the spectre at the feast: the audience around me audibly loved it. And visually, Alex Timbers’s production has a beautiful sense of hallucinogenic spectacle, complete with copious outbreaks of dance and a fittingly ridiculous giant sandworm. Rather like Beetlejuice, I find myself caught between two positions; on the one hand, life’s surely too short for such convoluted hokum but, equally, who could revile a show that tries so hard to please?"

Read the review here.

Still undecided about whether or not to watch Beetlejuice the Musical? Check out our First Look for early impressions and thoughts about this highly anticipated musical. And if you're looking for more inspiration, head to our list of the Best New Theatre Openings in June and read about all the Theatre Shows to Watch This Summer.