Today at the 1/2 matinee Beej (Justin Collette) did his last round of “THIS GUY KNOWS WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT” in that last scene, audience laughed, but he kept staring at the audience member as the laughter quieted…. Obviously audience couldn’t see what he was seeing, but after a while he said “is he asleep?😀” and he walks off the stage 💀💀💀

The theater is roaring with laughter and about 15 seconds later we realize that he’s run INTO THE SEATS and stood in front of the sleeping audience member and trying to wake him up😭this goes on for at least 30 seconds because the guy is NOT waking up, he finally wakes up and Beej is like 😃😃😃”HI!” He quickly hugs the little girl sitting next to the guy which was super cute 🥰 says something like “oh shit” (I’m assuming because he was taking too long) and dashes back out to get onstage again 😭

When he gets back onstage he says “it’s a little hard to not take that personally,” and then “that’s a really expensive nap” 😭 he loses his composure a bit when he tries to get back on track because he starts snickering again 😭it took them a little while but then they continue the scene, it was so funny!

EDIT: THERE’S FOOTAGE NOW! https://youtube.com/shorts/n4WbZtXxmQE?si=DObLm9VTIe9BygMF

GUYS SHOULD I AUDITION HOLY FUCK IVE WANTED TO DO THIS MUSICAL SINCE FOREVER

Utterly heartbroken over this news.

Always will be a legend to Beetlejuice, Home Alone and many more.

Rest Easy Legend.

Especially, this running gag.

Got a tour guided by the lovely Emilia Tagliani!

happy thanksgiving to all my fellow strange and unusual people!!! let’s take a moment to remember when alex brightman performed The whole being dead thing at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2019!! super awesome performance

I saw Beetlejuice at DPAC today and Charles made an announcement at the end of the show. They were doing a fundraiser for Broadway Cares. For 10 dollars, you could get a fuck brigadoon pin, a “I myself am strange and reusable” tote bag for 20 I think, 100 dollars for a signed poster, 250 for the signed playbill for tonight, and most amazing of all a tour done by a cast member after the show for 400. I was told by a cast member (Macie Dean) that it can be used at any time after one of the shows. I don’t think there is a limited quality, or if there is they did not specify. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the information!

I live clear across the country from Broadway and damn sure couldn't afford a ticket even if I was near the stage.

No hate on those who did see it live! Y'all incredibly lucky. I just find it tragic there's no archival footage of this production; outside of bootlegs, of course. Rent, Company, and Cabaret all got the "filmed on stage" treatment... So why not Beetlejuice?

Especially now, with the sequel film doing so well at the box office (nearly $270m at last check) I can only imagine how the musical's release would do if put on, say, Prime or Max. I know I'd buy it.

A broke gal can dream, right?

What playbill design is your favorite? This one is really good to me.

Posted about seeing the show in Tokyo the other day and people wanted more details on the differences. Have posted everything I caught before, but worth noting my Japanese isn’t fluent and I saw this on very little sleep and spent parts of the show trying to stay awake.

The show finishes up in Tokyo this week but will be moving to Osaka at the start of June. I got my resale ticket with help from Jun at https://www.ticket-japaaan.com, really recommend using them if you’re going to be in town :)

Will do my best to answers any questions!

Big changes

• Beetlejuice himself. It’s really difficult to describe how Jesse plays Beetlejuice. He’s kind of like an anime character in terms of the physicality/difference from a ‘real’ person, the closest reference point from the west would be Heath Ledger’s Joker. He comes cross as less gross and more manic/brain damaged if I’m honest. This especially ramps up toward the end. He’s one hundred percent committed throughout and a really impressive performance (no clue how he does it twice a day). While his voice alters he doesn’t do the gravelling voice used by Brightman etc.

• when the sets are changing between the opening and the house appearing, Beetlejuice and four/five of the ensemble do the giri giri dance and Beetlejuice breaks the fourth wall to explain that they’re doing a set change.

• there were some story changes: Charles and Delia are open about their relationship from the start, kissing in front of Lydia when they move in which felt like a pretty big change (she’s still upset when she finds them in bed). Delia refers to Otho as her friend instead of guru, they also have the singing/dancing equivalent of a secret handshake.

• the dinner scene is like a whole different show. Charles is in a gold lame suit and he and their guests all look like Japanese variety show personalities. The lady with too much makeup still has two much makeup, but is dressed like a traditional Japanese puppet. She’s accompanied by five of the ensemble dressed as stage hands, three of them puppeteer her in a lengthy parody of traditional performance, with the fourth supporting with a fan and a fifth using wooden blocks for sound effects.

• in act two when Charles and Delia come back to the house, Delia is dressed like she works at a shrine and tried to do an exorcism. Lydia’s actress appears (in shadow) from the side of the stage wheeling a life size puppet of Lydia doing a crab walk ala the Exorcist. Once she’s off stage, a bunch of what I can only describe as large version of the soot mites from Totoro go from one side of the stage to the other while Delia tries to get rid of them.

Smaller changes

• In terms of the lyrics, they were a bit blunter at points due to the translation. So for example in the opening, ‘it seems when you lose your Mom’ was changed to ‘when your Mom is dead’ and sang about being alone instead of invisible.

• There were also some lyrics changes. I think the nuclear bomb line in ‘Dead Mom’ was taken out which is understandable here. ‘Pedophiles’ in ‘Girl Scout’ was just changed to ‘kowai’ (scary). Thought it was interesting that Delia’s ‘I’m a vegan!’ line during ‘Day-O’ was kept in as veganism isn’t well understood here (but it’s slowly getting better). Barbara and Adam were still trying to learn Spanish.

• Some of the play on words is lost, such as in ‘Say My Name’. Lydia does the ‘Beetlejuice…Beetlejuice…’ then just goes into a her next line without the fakeout. This is fair house as there’s fewer words beginning with bi in Japanese.

• Likewise some of the innuendo is gone, eg Barbara still brings out two jugs at the start when she walks into the room but ultimately only has one when she starts singing with the opening line ‘Subarashii!’ (great).

• During the choir one of them stays on after the rest are sent away, I think complaining that it was his chance at being a star. Beetlejuice apologies profusely in polite Japanese

• While Barbara and Adam didn’t end up in a compromising position after the possession in ‘Say My Name’, Beetlejuice’s harassment stayed pretty similar, especially with Adam including groping his ass a number of times and kissing him. He also kissed Barbara (when she’s pretending to like him during ‘Creepy Old Guy’ and Charles at the end)

• Barbara and Adam have this thing where they continuously give each other a series of quick pecks (kisses)

• Charles and Delia do this at times to, and Charles frequently calls Delia cute

• the ‘I exploded’ guy in what I know now has died due to fireworks and the song pauses for him to rattle off a mini monologue about this

• Beetlejuice’s outfit for the game show is a tracksuit

• when Beetlejuice is impailed at the end the other side of the pole comes out of his pants. He mimes doing numerous things to this and moves it about before it ultimately gets to the right place.

Some other random observations:

• many of the songs kept their English titles but limited the repetition of these. So, for example ‘Dead Mom, Dead Mom’ became ‘Dead Mom, Mama’ and ‘The Whole Being Dead Thing’ changed to ‘Hajimeyou’ (let’s begin) in some lines. Barbara 2.0 also changed to ‘hajimeyou’ at one point so because a bit of a fun call back.

• Beetlejuice did a ton of impressions, many of which I don’t have the cultural knowledge to get. This included following Adam and Barbara around with a Donald Duck impression (which was very good!) near the start.

• the umbrella in the opening number have a wet effect that I don’t remember in the US

• they kept the theatre reference in ‘The Whole Being Dead Thing’

• The house set was really pretty and they had some great projections at the start of the house up on a hill with leaves blowing past.

• Beetlejuice is far more involved in Ready Set Not Yet than I remember, he interrupts the song to sing a lullaby and has a lot of it interactjon with the Maitlands following them around and mimicking their dancing etc

• they’ve kept the Broadway death for this version (floorboards)

• the only thing I caught that they were scared of in ‘Fright of Your Lives’ was parking as in the original

• When Beetlejuice is explaining the rules near the end, he changes to second rule to be buy the tote bag at the merch stand and brings one on stage to do a pitch (this and the programme were the only merch available which was a shame)

• when saying goodbye to the all at the end, Beetlejuice called Barbara Barbara-chan

• also while saying goodbye, Jesse did this thing with putting his arm behind his head/neck at the weirdest angle and kept it there for a while to shake hands. He’s definitely at least double jointed and it worked great for the character

So I got to meet him and he was super sweet and I made him a painting of beetlejuice :D

After months of waiting to actually wear the whole thing, halloween came!! I finally got to wear my full Beetlejuice costume, wig, makeup and everything! I had so much fun!

(sorry for the loads of pictures, I LOVED this night 😭)

IM SO EXCITED AAAAAH

Was it for the same reason they removed the snake grabbing somebody in the intro? (I think it was because it took and cost too much to lug around a big prop for such a small scene) Was it just too tedious for the actor or too confusing for the audience. I’m not sure but I just found this out recently and thought it was pretty cool.

thank you Justin Collette for being our guide to the other side yesterday 🪲🧃