If you’ve seen my previous article, you know how much of a “Beetlejuice” fanatic I am. The musical soundtrack, which has been out since 2019, has been in the majority of my playlists since I discovered it, and I listen to it regularly. Recently, I went to see the musical live,with the original Broadway cast, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
There’s quite a few differences between the soundtrack and the actual musical. One of the very first things I noticed was the lack of dialogue on the soundtrack. The Beetlejuice we had for the musical had a lot of crowd interaction which made it quite funny and entertaining. Right after the song in which the Maitlands died, the crowd cheered and he said, “Wow, these people just died and you’re clapping, interesting people we got here,” or something along the lines.
Another difference was how the Maitlands died. In the movie and the soundtrack, they die in a car crash, falling off of a bridge. On the other hand, in the musical, they get electrocuted from a faulty wire. I found this interesting, but it makes sense because it’s difficult to reenact a car crash with such a limited set, and one of the lines from “The Whole “Being” Dead Thing” was, “The good news is you and your spouse died in your own house,” but you can’t really die in your house when you crash your car, unless you crash into the house.
The third major difference was the ending. In the soundtrack, there is not a lot of dialogue at all,
like I previously mentioned. It sounds as though Beetlejuice got eaten by a sand worm, similar to the ending in the movie. However, in the musical, while watching and hearing the actual dialogue, Juno, who was the Maitlands “case worker” in the first movie, was Beetlejuice’s mom in the musical. Beetlejuice then rode a sand worm to eat his mother which strays a lot from the original story line. In the end, Beetlejuice ends up being a good guy, which is weird because his character is a demon from the Netherworld, but it did make an interesting and unique ending. Overall, I did enjoy the musical a lot and I recommend listening to the sound track!
Bug/Fish Fact of the week!
The Sea Toad, also known as Chaunacidae, lives in deep sea waters and can grow up to 12 inches (not including their tails). This species is actually a fish, not a toad, contradictory to its name. They developed “feet” which are just strong fins that allow them to “walk” along the seafloor to conserve energy. These guys have been turned into a meme because of how silly they look!
