"Beetlejuice" musical back on Playhouse Square -- fun, fun, fun as ever

Is the Broadway musical version of "Beetlejuice," continuing a return tour on Playhouse Square, a phenomenon in itself? Judging by a discernible amount of cosplaying members of the KeyBank State Theatre opening-night, replete with demonic makeup and striped blazers and gowns emblematic of the title character's couture aesthetic, it is indeed. Does it deserve the cult status of the original 1988 film that inspired this Hollywood-to-Broadway conversion (reinvigorated in an acclaimed film sequel only last year)? Director Alex Timbers makes sure of it. With a book (script) by Scott Brown and Anthony King and award-winning, explosively ghoulish sets by David Korins (easily Broadway caliber even for a second national tour), Timbers overpacks every second with deliciously vulgar jokes and sight gags, in addition to infectious production numbers, with choreography by Connor Gallagher, which would make original film star Michael Keaton and original crazed film director David Lynch proud. Of course the rest of the touring cast members do their film counterparts proud as well: In the title role, Marc Ginsburg, understudying tour regular Justin Collette, commands the personae of the ingratiating Netherworld phantom slob out to emotionally and supernaturally consume a pair of "newly-deads" who accidentally electrocute themselves in their just-purchased (unbeknownst) haunted house. (The film's original couple merely drove off a bridge.) From the opening number of Eddie Perfect's near perfect (bad pun intended) tuneful, joke-infused score, Ginsburg ably belts out the promise of abundant joys of death to come. Explosive special effects -- lights by Kenneth Posner, sound by Peter Hylenski, projections by Peter Nigrini, puppets (and don't forget those giant carnivorous sandworms) by Michael Curry and everything else under the umbrella of Jeremy Chernick and Michael Weber -- prove him spot on. Just as Ginsburg must carve out his own performance without betraying the original incarnation by Keaton, so do the rest of the cast in finding their own spotlight under the shadows of the film originals. Fetchingly adolescent Madison Mosley may not at first make one forget original star Winona Ryder as the angst-ridden Goth teen, pining over her late mother while embattled with her dad and uber-narcissist potential stepmom. Neither does Katie Griffith overshadow Catherine O'Hare as that clinging, whining life-counselor girlfriend to her clueless dad (nicely performed by Jesse Sharp). Will Burton and Megan McGinnis as the hapless "newly-deads" don't displace memories of Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin. But, once these stars add the elements of ebullient dancing and singing, they are deserved and irreplaceable recipients to these iconic film characters in their own right. If the entire touring production seems uniquely Broadway caliber, that may be because it's scheduled to wind up back in Broadway for yet a third time. (The original 2019 production closed in the wake of the Covid epidemic and reopened in a new theater two years later.) That's ironically befitting of a central plot point: To conjure up the titular demon, one has to simply repeatedly chant the variation of the name of the star "Betelgeuse," the red supergiant in the constellation Orion -- "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice." That's exactly what particularly gratified members of the audience most likely chant at every curtain call. Contact Howard Gollop at howieeg@gmail.com.