By Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com
The Great American Playhouse takes its campiness to the next level in a lively production, “Beetle Juiced,” inspired by Michael Keaton's “Beetlejuice” movie of 1988.
Written and directed by Sean MacArthur, who also plays the manic ghostbuster-in-reverse Beetlejuice, “Beetle Juiced” finds the timeless humor in this iconic cinema experience stamped with Tim Burton's signature.
You don't have to be familiar with the movie to enjoy this show at the GAP – but it helps. MacArthur onstage with electro-frizz hair and greenish skin pours on the manic energy without steering too far from the leering, groping, rat-eating Betelgeuse character Keaton made memorable
Why mess with success.
The other characters aren't quite so cinematically derived. Brian Paradis and Jennifer Ackerley play the happily married couple Roger and Susan who die in an auto accident but then find themselves back in their lovely home, unable to be seen by humans.
Michael Claridge and Amy DeHaven play Charles and Cordelia Fairmont, the annoying couple that move into the home of Roger and Susan.
Randy McDonald plays the couple's misfit son Tim, who has a fondness for martial arts. Amanda Valenzuela is the awkward daughter Lydia.
Nick Seivert flaunts a lovely yellow suit with a flowing scarf as Otto the flamboyant interior designer. An equally adept scene-stealer is Jacinda Rose Swinehart in red-framed glasses as the brassy spiritualist Myra Mains (adapted from that haunting refrain “my remains”).
There are lots of little spicy bits like that tossed into the script. Charles gets laughs by desperately wanting to be a “cool dad” to his nerdy kids, telling them the social media initials WTF stand for “why the face.”
And gleaned from a burst of marriage jokes: “I haven't talked to my wife for 18 months....I didn't want to interrupt her.” From a string of jokes relating to life in the spirit world: What kind of make-up do ghosts wear? Mas-scare-uh;
Which ghost is the best dancer? The Boogie-man.
Claridge gets the medal for best running gag, which started slowly and continued to build every time he answered his cell phone. I can't explain it further. You just have to experience it.
As for the plot. Roger and Susan try to chase Charles and Cordelia out of the house by scaring them, using advice from Myra Mains. When that doesn't work, the call goes out for Beetlejuice.
A list of 10 songs with a 1980s flavor gives the action a kick. My favorites were Swinehart belting out “Dig A Little Deeper” and Valenzuela standing firm “Holding Out For A Hero.”
The olio takes a page from those “Fractured Fairy Tales” that used to be on television. Getting the most spontaneous applause was the Big Bad Wolf who turned rapper, spinning out lyrics written by Mike Padilla, the house pianist and music director.
“Beetle Juiced” continues through Nov. 15 with performances at 7 p.m. Thursdays, 6 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays, at the Great American Playhouse, 13005 N. Oracle Road, suite 165 (at Rancho Vistoso Blvd.). Tickets are $17.95 general admission, $15.95 seniors, students and active duty military, $7.95 children 12 and under. For details and reservations, 520-512-5145, or visit www.gaplayhouse.com.
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