Prince Edward Theatre

I suppose the first thing to say about Beetlejuice the Musical is that it’s not necessarily one for fans of the Tim Burton film. Which doesn’t have to be a bad thing. A lazy criticism levelled at screen-to-stage adaptations is that they’re just works of formulaic transposition. But you only have to look at The Lion King – aka the highest-grossing musical in history – to see that’s blatantly not always the case. Aussie singer-songwriter Eddie Perfect’s all-singing take on the 1988 Burton classic is very definitely a retelling, taking most of the core elements of the supernatural comedy and positioning them together in a very different, very ’20s musical theatre way. And for the sizeable number of audience members who turn up to the Prince Edward Theatre in fancy dress, that is enough. Alex Timbers’ production was a big Broadway hit and has a cast recording that has clearly begat legions of London fans. Many of them, I’m sure, regard the musical and its songs as the key text and have never even seen the film. Alas, I am cursed with such knowledge, and despite my desire to be fair about the myriad alterations I can only really write this review from the POV of ‘grumpy old man who didn’t like how they changed things’. To put it another way, I loved Burton’s surreal vision of a preposterously bureaucratic afterlife, and was dismayed that the whole concept is here reduced to a virtual Easter egg. As much as anything, it just feels a bit unambitious not to tackle it. Ditto the...

Boublil & Schönberg’s Miss Saigon in one of the jewels in super-producer Cameron Mackintosh’s crown – second only to the French duo’s Les Miserables, perhaps – and every so often he gives the ol’ chopper a polish and flies back to Saigon for a fresh West End run for the Vietnam War-set musical. Although rendered sowewhat unfashionable by the still festering controvesy over the casting of the white actor Jonathan Pryce as the original incarnation of half-Vietnamese hustler The Engineer, it remains a monumental and spectacular work of theatre. Adapted from Puccinni’s Madama Butterfly, its tale of doomed love offers big songs, big feelings, and big setpieces.  Although this is nominally a completely different production to the original Nicholas Hytner one, Mackintosh’s ‘revivals’ rarely deviate too far from the spirit of what made the show a big hit in the first place – don’t go expecting director Jean-Pierre van der Spuy to reinvent the wheel here (though we can take a lack of yellowface as a given, fortunately).