Beetlejuice: stage vs screen

Beetlejuice began as Tim Burton's 1988 comedy starring Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Alec Baldwin, and Geena Davis. The Broadway musical, which opened in 2019 with songs by Eddie Perfect and a book by Scott Brown and Anthony King, keeps the haunted house, the Maitlands, and the Deetzes, but rebuilds the story around Lydia's grief and gives Beetlejuice center stage. Here is how the two compare.

Stage

Broadway musical (2019)

Screen

Beetlejuice (1988)

1. Lydia is grieving her mother

In the film, Lydia's own mother plays no part in the story, and Delia is already her stepmother. The musical opens at her mother's funeral, and Lydia's grief drives the whole show, from Dead Mom in Act One to her search for her mother in the Netherworld in Act Two.

2. Beetlejuice runs the show

In the film, Beetlejuice is on screen for only a small part of the running time. In the musical, he is the narrator and the lead, talking straight to the audience from the opening number, The Whole Being Dead Thing. His big need is the same in both versions: someone living has to say his name three times.

3. Delia is a life coach

On screen, Delia is Charles Deetz's wife and Lydia's stepmother, a pretentious sculptor. In the musical, Charles has hired her as Lydia's life coach while secretly dating her, and their engagement in Act One gives Lydia a fresh reason to feel her mother is being replaced.

4. Juno is Beetlejuice's mother

In the film, Juno is the Maitlands' brisk afterlife caseworker. The musical keeps her as an official of the Netherworld but reveals she is Beetlejuice's mother, adding a family backstory for him. In the musical's climax, the sandworm eats Juno.

5. A different way to die

The film's Maitlands drown when their car swerves to miss a dog and goes off a bridge. On Broadway, Adam and Barbara die at home when they fall through unstable floorboards, and the touring production changed it again to electrocution.

6. The wedding plays out differently

In both versions, Beetlejuice wants to marry Lydia so he can stay in the world of the living. In the film, Barbara rides in on a sandworm that swallows him, and he ends up in the afterlife waiting room getting his head shrunk. In the musical, the wedding brings him to life, and Lydia stabs him to kill him again.

7. Day-O stays, plus a new score

The film's dinner party, where the guests are possessed into singing Day-O (The Banana Boat Song), is recreated as the musical's Act One closer, and Jump in the Line, which ends the film, returns in the musical's finale. Most of the rest of the score is new, including Say My Name, That Beautiful Sound, Barbara 2.0, and What I Know Now, sung by Miss Argentina, a character from the film's afterlife waiting room.

Beetlejuice movie vs musical: FAQs