"This show so overstuffs itself with gags, one-liners and visual diversions that you shut down from sensory overload...Brightman and 'Beetlejuice' can indeed sustain this anything-for-a-laugh intensity. And it is not a trait that benefits from prolonged exposure...Here, everybody, including every member of the support cast, has already gone so far over the top that there’s no room for comic contrast. The disheartening moral of 'Beetlejuice' is that when anything goes, nothing much registers."
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"Whatever else it may or may not be, 'Beetlejuice' is spectacularly weird...there are magic tricks and giant worms and a starkly linear idea of the afterlife that contrasts well with the chaotic world of the living. If only so much of the rest of 'Beetlejuice' were not a busy mess...It looks great, and there are strong performances and some outré laughs, but none of it quite fits together; the tone varies wildly, and skids around on Eddie Perfect’s slipshod score."
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"A creative team that includes director Alex Timbers and his inspired designers David Korins (sets) and William Ivey Long (costumes), animate this parade of eccentricity with flair and great comedy technique that turns it into a subversive delight. The score by Eddie Perfect is full of wit and grit, and Scott Brown and Anthony King's book propels it forward smartly. There are also hilarious performances from Leslie Kritzer and Sophia Anne Caruso."
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"True to its source material, it’s loud, it’s cheeky, and it’s all about excess. It’s also—thanks in large part to Alex Brightman’s spot-on performance as the incorrigible titular ghoul—a pretty fun time...The truth is we’re not here for the sweet stuff; we’re here for the mayhem, and the show is at its best when the growling, grinning Brightman is onstage...The musical is supposed to have twin engines, Beetlejuice and Lydia, but only the first is fully firing."
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“This self-described ‘show about death’ bombards us with every piece of theatrical weaponry Timbers and numerous other imagineers could devise...Perfect’s score sounds like a simulacrum of Broadway show music, the cloth cut to fit each occasion, with rising modulations and drawn-out cadences simulating drama...The major impression, ultimately, is not that of a clever romp wickedly testing the limits of the tasteless, but of a repetitive refrain of disgust and disdain."
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"There’s plenty worth a haunt here, from David Korins’ off-kilter spook house set to Alex Brightman’s raspy-voiced title performance and, most of all, the deliriously gorgeous singing of young Sophia Anne Caruso, and it all comes within reasonable reach of exorcising the bad vibes that attached themselves to the production during its pre-Broadway run in Washington D.C...The book retains the best bits from the movie without adding much of lasting value."
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"One of those what-were-they-thinking shows that crop up on Broadway and spend tens of millions of dollars mostly to reveal an eye-popping tonal disconnect...The problems with this show — which does, at least, feature a cool set design from David Korins, witty costumes from William Ivey Long and a genuinely funny shrunken head — are fundamentally structural...Truly, this is most cacophonous and ill-conceived musical of the season — in fact, for several seasons."
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"The retooling done since its out-of-town tryout in D.C. gives the latest film-to-musical adaptation fresh snap, surprises and (gasp!) even heart. Sure, the narrative becomes a bit of a cluster-muck in the second act — but mostly it’s just screamingly good fun...The plotting eventually goes completely off the rails, but keeping things entertaining enough are the off-the-wall humor, endless visuals and aural delights, tuneful music and wicked lyrics of Perfect."
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