Beetlejuice (Regent Theatre) ★★★★

Music & lyrics by Eddie Perfect. Book by Scott Brown and Anthony King. Based on the Geffen Company Picture with a story by Michael McDowell & Larry Wilson. Michael Cassel Group. Regent Theatre, Melbourne. 27 May – 31 Aug, 2025.

Beetlejuice: The Musical, The Musical, The Musical (to give it its full title) has a not-so-secret weapon on stage. Forget that stripey creep in the title—the name you’ll want to say three times is “Erin Clare,” “Erin Clare,” “Erin Clare!”

Lydia Deetz (Karis Oka) is mourning the loss of her mother. She’s become a full-on teen goth, much to the dismay of her father Charles (Tom Wren) and his life coach/secret girlfriend Delia (Erin Clare). When they move into a new house, Lydia finds herself hanging out with the ghosts of the previous owners, Adam and Barbara Maitland (Rob Johnson and Elise McCann), and a disgusting ghost with a nasty plan named Betelgeuse (Eddie Perfect), who may have a way for her to reunite with her dead mum.

I’ll be upfront about the fact I’ve never seen the Tim Burton film Beetlejuice, so I’m judging the show purely on what happens on stage, without any knowledge of “in-jokes” or Easter Eggs that might exist.

Beetlejuice is the rarest of things—a film-to-musical adaptation where the book is better than the music! And the music isn’t exactly slouching either. Eddie Perfect’s score is fun, in a pretty standard rock-musical mould, with enough playfulness and invention to raise it above the pack of similarly IP-driven shows. “Say My Name” and “The Whole ‘Being Dead’ Thing” get a lot of mileage teasing out the story’s premise, while giving us plenty of laughs and big ensemble numbers.

It was the book by Scott Brown and Anthony King that really got my attention for the great gags it found along the way. It reminded me of & Juliet’s book, which was sharp in its own right and could have sustained the show as a play without the tunes. Similarly, here the script is filled with clever wordplay that puts other shows to shame.

This is where Erin Clare gets to strut her not-insubstantial stuff, having the bulk of the show’s jokes all to herself as Delia, the show’s only purely comedic role. It must be daunting taking on a character originally played by comedy genius Catherine O’Hara, but thankfully the role of Delia has been reworked, giving her room to make it all her own. Repositioned now as Charles’ girlfriend, Delia is a colourful foil to Lydia’s dark, gothic presence. It’s a scene-stealing performance that threatens to run away with the show.

Karis Oka, meanwhile, plays things straight as Lydia. Vocally astonishing, Oka faces the challenge of making Lydia likeable. As a character, she is sullen and makes disastrously bad choices due to her grief. Oka’s performance perhaps lacks the shades of nuance required to make Lydia anything more than a plot engine, moving the story along.

The rest of the cast are all excellent (even if performers like Elise McCann feel underused). It’s great to see Rebecca Ordiz (who I last saw breaking hearts and getting laughs in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Hayes) get a featured moment as a plucky but unlucky Girl Scout. On the day I saw the show, Eddie Perfect was out, and James Haxby took on the role with ease.

Scenic design by David Korins and Peter Nigrini’s projections merge to provide some fun effects (it all gets a bit Vivid in there), and Alex Timber’s original direction finds ways to bring the cinematic imagination to the stage. Jeremy Chernick’s special effects and Michael Weber’s illusions are not groundbreaking by any means, but it is entertaining to see how things translate to the physical stage. Often the problem isn’t the effects—it’s simply that there is so much chaos on stage you can easily miss things happening right in front of you.

Beetlejuice: The Musical packs in a lot of laughs and action for a thoroughly entertaining show. It may not have the gross-out thrills the film is famous for, but it makes up for that with some surprisingly hilarious jokes, big effects, and belting comedy tunes. Get yourself on a plane down to Melbourne—this one is a hell of a lot of fun.