Beetlejuice Revival Coming to an End
The Beetlejuice Broadway musical will end its run in January. On Monday, it was announced that the musical, which is based on the 1988 Tim Burton film, will hold its final performance eon January 8, 2023. A 26-city national tour of the musical is set to start on December 6th at San Francisco's Golden Gate Theatre.
Beetlejuice initially opened on April 25, 2019, at Broadway's Winter Garden Theatre. At the time, the show had a planned June 2020 closing — The Music Man was scheduled to take over the Winter Garden Theatre — but closure was moved up to March 2020 due to the COVID-19 related theatre industry shutdown. The musical then made its return in April 2022, this time at the Marquis Theatre on Broadway with most of its original cast, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Beetlejuice is the latest Broadway show to announce its closure in recent weeks. Last week it was announced that The Music Man, starring Hugh Jackman, will end its run on January 1, 2023, at the Winter Garden Theatre. It was also announced last week that Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, the longest running show in Broadway history, will end its 35-year run on January 26th. A factor in The Phantom of the Opera's upcoming closure has been speculated to be largely economic, something that is likely a contributing factor for The Music Man and Beetlejuice as well. Ticket sales for all Broadway shows slowed dramatically during the pandemic, including for Phantom which has continued to see a decline in ticket sales. According to CNN, the show dropped from 255,000 in weekly attendees in May to 180,000 in September.
"As a producer you dream that a show will run forever. Indeed, my production of Andrew's 'Cats' proudly declared for decades 'Now and Forever.' Yet 'Phantom' has surpassed that show's extraordinary Broadway run. But all shows do finally close," Mackintosh said in a statement.
Beetlejuice the musical is directed by Alex Timbers and features a book by Scott Brown and Anthony King along with a score by Eddie Perfect. Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures is the lead producer. The show's current cast includes Alex Brightman as Beetlejuice, Elizabeth Teeter as Lydia. Kerry Butler, David Josefsberg, Adam Dannheisser, Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer, Michelle Aravena, Kelvin Moon Loh, Zonya Love, Danny Rutigliano, and Dana Steingold also star.