Halloween has arrived early as yet another movie turned musical hits the West End. This art deco theatre is now a haunted house festooned with purple and green lights. A sandworm slithers around the auditorium and it all kicks off with an evil cackle. Tim Burton’s 1988 fright-night favourite is reanimated with song and dance as, to give it the full name, Beetlejuice: The Musical. The Musical. The Musical. Bring on the skeletal chorus line!
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.
