Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! That’s right, he’s back! Beetlejuice the musical is making its spook-macular return to Cleveland for a short run at Playhouse Square! The Tony award-winning musical will run at Playhouse Square from August 12 to 17 in the KeyBank State Theatre. CleveRock had the opportunity to chat with Madison Mosley, the actress portraying Lydia, who is proudly making her national tour debut!
While the story of Beetlejuice is one many people THINK they know, the musical (which debuted in Washington D.C. 2018) takes a unique turn on things from the original 1998 Tim Burton-directed film.
Mosley was asked to provide potential theater patrons a short (spoiler-free, as requested!) synopsis of the show:
“Beetlejuice starts, and we meet Lydia, and we start at her mother’s funeral. And we’re introduced to a lot of characters very quickly! We meet the Maitlands, and then, of course, we meet Beetlejuice. The story kind of follows more of the relationship between Lydia and Beetlejuice, and you see a lot more Beetlejuice in the musical than you do in the movie. And so, Lydia has lost her mother, she’s moving into this new city this new house in Beetlejuice offers her and, you know, the Maitlands something that you know they might… have a chance to find her mother or get her mother back and it just kind of follows the story of those two…and how far Lydia will go to you know get this life back that she once had. And it’s very fun and it’s very thrilling but it’s also full of a lot of heart, so it’s a great show.”
While the whole show is full of theatrics and fun, is there a moment in the show that the audience should look out for or be most excited for?
“I think one of my favorite moments is the top of Act Two. It starts very demure and there’s just like a Girl Scout, and she opens just like the second act, and then we go into, “Beautiful Sound” which is such a crazy number, and I won’t spoil anything…It’s just full of so many effects, and it’s really fun…and I feel like it’s one of our crazier numbers where we can just like be silly and just really have fun on stage. So that’s one of my favorite moments cause it’s right in the middle of our run time, and I think it’s a nice moment to just let us have fun before we go into the rest of the show.”
On top of this show being full of heart in the story, Mosley has her own love for the show due to this being her national tour debut!
“It’s really crazy, and it’s been really fun! Lydia’s been a dream [role] of mine for so, so long, so the fact that my first national tour, I get to play a character that I’ve been wanting to play for so long, is kind of like, hard to think about. But it is really exciting and I think that it’s very perfect for, you know, my first professional tour debut.”
What a dream come true! Even better, Mosley has her own Ohio connection as well!
“I went to CCM [College Conservatory of Music] University of Cincinnati. I spent my four years there, and I love Cincinnati. I loved my time in Ohio, and I had a lot of fun running around Cincinnati. I love my experience at school there. I didn’t get to spend much time in Cleveland, and I’ve always wanted to go to Playhouse [Square], and I think it’ll be really cool to see more of what is around and be back in that setting.”
What did the journey from CCM to a national tour look like?
“My path to the show was honestly a little unusual, which is very funny and very fitting. I think we had maybe five weeks left of school, so this is in the Spring. I’m preparing for my senior showcase and my flight is booked and everything, and I got an email. They were immediately replacing the Girl Scout, and so it was a really quick turnaround, and I sent in three tapes, and I had one virtual callback, and I found out about it like three weeks before school had ended that I had gotten it. It was just very interesting the way that happened. I ended up planning to go to New York, and then I just canceled my flight [home] and stayed in New York. It was very quick and it was very crazy, but I think that I was really glad that they had me in mind, and I’m really glad that it worked out. It was everything I had been preparing for. It’s really funny – we were doing audition tech class senior year, and we were doing dream roles, and you had to make a callback packet for your dream role, and I chose Lydia – duh! I put a packet together, and we did that maybe a month before I heard [about the role], and then I got that email, and I was like, ‘Can I actually get your feedback on that, because I think I need to work on this one!’ And one of the sides I picked for it was actually one I used in my audition, so it was just very funny the way that things worked out. It was a very quick turnaround, but it lined up perfectly, and it felt very much like what I was meant to do.”
As this is her dream role, what is most exciting about getting to bring Lydia to life on stage?
“I think it’s very interesting to be playing a character that is very known and is adapted from a movie. People go in maybe having [predispositions] of what that should be like. But I think, honestly, the most fun part is making Lydia my own, and I think that whatever I make Lydia out to be, people still really enjoy. We’ve been having the pleasure to make our world [on stage] different from the movie, and I think people know that and it’s fun to still obviously, to play Lydia, and like be goth-y and do what people expect from her from the movie, but then she has a different arc in the show that I think see her a bit more emotionally vulnerable. There are moments that are just really fun to play with, just in terms of like how my relationships are in terms of like my dad or Beetlejuice, and getting to play those moments and still pull from the movie, but have it be something that’s completely my own. It’s been really cool and interesting to figure out how much I want you to pull from the original source, and still make it my own.”
Lydia really has become such an iconic character, and there are so many iterations of Lydia. Is there anything in particular that made this character such a dream role for you?
“I think that she’s just unlike something I’ve ever played before. I often play a funny, maybe bubbly role. I think that the music is so cool and I love being able to sing this kind of more rock-inspired music every night. I think that there’s something about Lydia that is weirdly very relatable to a lot of people and she’s just such an interesting character to play, because they’re just so many different facets to her. I also just love being able to put on my all-black clothing and do my makeup, and wear the short bob wig. It’s just very different to me as a whole, but they’re also just very small parts of her that I really see myself in, and I really enjoy playing her every night, and I think it’s definitely the character of her as a whole.”
What about the rest of this cast? What other characters should people be excited to see?
“Obviously Justin [Collette] plays Beetlejuice like an insane person. I don’t know how he does it every night. He is amazing. His wit, or the way that he portrays Beetlejuice is so good. He’s quick with ad-libs, and he is just such a pro. I think ensemble really is the show for this, too. You know, they play a million different characters, and they’re backstage, wiping their makeup off in 15 seconds and applying more, and they’re just insane dancers. We have so many swings who are in the show right now and do a bunch of different roles every night. I just think that they are insane with what they do, and they we would not have a show without them. I love our ensemble.”
Any final thoughts on what fans should expect in this show?
“I think that people should come to Beetlejuice and they should expect a spectacle – like it is just truly visually pleasing to watch and it is beautiful. What the designers have done to this show – they’ve made it like you are just really in the world, and I think it’s really exciting to see the way. It translates on stage. If you know Beetlejuice, you’ll see a lot of favorite characters, and a lot of little Easter eggs, but if you haven’t, it’s just a really great story, and I think that you’ll laugh really hard, but you also might unexpectedly cry. I think it’s just a show that has everything, and there’s something in there for everyone so if you’re just looking to enjoy yourself you gotta come down to the show. “
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