u/Gremlin_Oswald

Before I say anything about the show, I just wanna say that this isn’t the way I wanted to be writing a last-show recap. I was fully prepared to be writing this in just under a year from now, in a hotel in Sydney after 8 months of performances. As it has turned out, that is not what has happened, and I’m now writing this less than a month after the show’s first preview in Brisbane. I could probably write an entire other post on the early closure, why it happened and why I don’t fully believe what Michael Cassel Group is saying (if the tour’s getting cancelled because it costs too much to move the show around Australia, why cancel most of Brisbane’s run if all of the props and sets are already there?), but I want this post to be a fond lookback at the final show, so I’m going to place all that tour drama to the side while I talk about this amazing show & cast.

I’ll split this recap into two sections; one where I say what differences there were/what notable things happened and one where I talk about my own thoughts and feelings while the show was happening and also now that it’s gone into the Netherworld.

WHAT WENT DOWN

Obviously since it was a closing show (and one that happened unexpectedly soon) emotions were high in the cast. I personally noticed it coming through in Karis’ performance the most, since she has the most emotional lines and scenes, although I could tell plenty of the cast members were feeling it too. There were some changes to the script for the final show (some of which I wasn’t expecting), so I’m just gonna cover all the observations of the actor’s performances and changes here:

• I could tell that Karis was trying really hard to hold it together toward the end of Invisible. She did finish the song (phenomenally as she always does) but it did hammer home that this wasn’t a regular show.
• WE GOT CUSTOM WHOLE BEING DEAD THING OPENING LYRICS!!!!!! After his failed attempt in previews, I was pretty sure that Andy was just going to stick with the original opening lines for the rest of the run, and he did up until closing, but he blindsighted us with brand new lyrics for closing. I didn’t quite hear all of it because the crowd went wild once we started to hear new lyrics, but from what I’ve gathered the lyrics were ‘Hey Folks, Last Show Bris-Vegas! You’ve All Been Pretty Outrageous. Oh Yeah, That Rash is Pretty Contagious!’
• Pretty much every major character got applause when they entered the stage for the first time. Beetlejuice did (obviously), Adam & Barbara did, Delia & Charles did, Lydia did when she was revealed lying on the couch, Girl Scout did, Otho did, Miss Argentina did & Juno did. 
• We got a Ray Gun reference from Andy Karl after his ‘The B-Man’s Free and the Mai Thais are on me’ line. He shouted ‘Ray Gun!’ and did the infamous kangaroo move.
• Not really a change but the ‘scary’ thing Barbara yells out before Fright of Their Lives had changed to the Trader Joe’s Parking Lot in the last few shows, but it was back to microplastics for closing.
• I think Andy might have done another Ray Gun move during That Beautiful Sound Reprise, I may be wrong though.
• There was a (sort of) standing ovation for What I Know Now. A few people in the audience stood up (including me) when the song ended, but a lot of the audience stayed put (the cowards). 
• Karis and Tom got applause when they hugged during Home
• Andy did his Arnold Schwarzenegger Predator impression with Juno’s leg after the ‘Sequel!’ line.
• Andy and Karis got a long applause when they hugged for the final time. 
• Karis sang the final ‘home’ in Jump in the Line / Dead Mom Reprise lower than usual, I think because her crying stopped her from being able to hit the high note. It still landed insanely well though.
• During the final bows the swings, off-stage covers and Elise McCann bowed with the principal cast. I love that Elise got one final bow in the show; she didn’t know that her final show in Abu Dhabi would be her last in the role of Barbara so it was nice to see her with everyone else. The bows also went for a bit longer; the cast stayed at the front of the stage and bowed a couple of times after the music finished before the curtain lowered.

 

There weren’t any speeches, which wasn’t surprising considering the short notice there was for closing. Aside from the cast and crew I don’t think any of the creative team or producers were at the show (honestly Michael Cassel wouldn’t have made it out in one piece if he stepped foot in QPAC during closing). From what I’ve heard Eddie Perfect was overseas so he couldn’t make it either. It would have been nice to have someone acknowledge the hard work the cast and crew have put in during the last 2 years, but I understand why that wasn’t the case.

• Also during the bows, a group of fans who were in the middle of the front row (including u/RandomFunUsername) held up big sheets of paper with ‘Hey Guys Love You Guys’ for the cast to read on-stage, which doesn’t show how much this show and cast means to people, I don’t know what does.

There are probably things that I missed, I spent the last show just trying to soak it all in one last time so unless it was a very obvious change I probably didn’t pick up on it. 

SAYING GOODBYE

WARNING: From this section onwards I start talking about feelings and emotions so continue with caution.

So first off, I had been in attendance for every show since the 23rd of June (just under 2 weeks ago), and so far I had been fine emotionally; while watching some bits of the show, especially toward the end of Act 2 I would get a little sad from the knowledge that this was one of the last times I’d get to see this cast performing, but it was nothing too bad. I was not expecting it to hit as hard as it did walking into the Lyric Theatre for the final time. Especially hearing the Pre-Show Music and seeing that glorious curtain & sign I got more emotional than I had up to that point. It was like it finally was hitting me that it would all be over soon, since now I couldn’t cope with the impending end with the assurance of another show at a later time.

Throughout the entire show there was a underlying sense of sadness, since I was watching everything knowing it would be the last time I would get to see it. And at some points in the show, my eyes did get a bit teary, like The Whole Being Dead Thing, That Beautiful Sound & Home. And that final song, I knew it was gonna be the hardest song to get through, and it just hit me like a ton of bricks. Of course it was because my favourite show was ending, but I feel like I related so much to Lydia at that moment. After the final stage door (which was very well organised compared to what Melbourne had for its closing) I had to actively stop myself from crying when walking away from QPAC and looking at all of the Beetlejuice banners and posters that were there. Then I ate pancakes, they were pretty good.

THANK YOU GUYS

I can easily say that the past two weeks of doing pretty much nothing but watching Beetlejuice have been some of the happiest weeks of my life, and it’s not just because I got to see my favourite cast in my favourite musical again and again. For the first time ever, one of my weird interests led to me meeting other people who also had the same weird interest. I’ve already said this to everyone in person after the final show, but I cannot overstate how cool it has been to finally meet people who are equally as enthusiastic about something as me. You all let me in so wholeheartedly and really made me feel like I found somewhere I belong. From my perspective anyway, it feels like I found a second family. So when watching the final moments of the final show in the Lyric Theatre, sitting around with so many awesome people who chose to let me join them in expressing their love for Beetlejuice the Musical, and seeing Lydia surrounded by the family she built throughout the musical, I related to her more in that moment than I ever had throughout the rest of my 2-year-long fixation on this musical. So thank you guys, you not only gave me somewhere to geek out about Haxbyjuice and feel less weird for flying interstate to see a theatre show I’d already seen 3 times, you allowed me to connect to Beetlejuice the Musical in a way that wasn’t possible before. Thank you for letting me feel like I found a second home, my only regret is that our time together was so short and had the looming presence of closing night hanging over it. Love you guys.

Another absolute highlight of seeing the show again is that I got to meet some of the cast that have meant the world to me since I saw them for the first time in May 2025. In the unlikely event that a member of the Australian Beetlejuice Cast comes across this, I just want to say that every single cast member I had the joy of meeting was so kind to me while I tried to put into words how much their performances mean to me. Much like with finding my first group of like-minded Beetlejuice fans, meeting all of the cast was the first opportunity I had to talk to the people behind one of my big interests and express my gratitude for bringing me so much joy in the past two years. I said it to most of the cast when I met them, but I would not love this musical as much as I do if the Australian Cast was not cast so perfectly, and I genuinely believe that this is the best cast this musical has ever had. So to the cast of this musical, thank you so so much, I’m definitely going to keep an eye out for any shows you might appear in. 

Okay, that’s all from me for now, this musical has been nothing short of life-changing for me and I’m so sad to see it go. Bye guys, I’ll be back for the 2032 Australian Beetlejuice revival!

So basically I got a VCR (a Sony SLV-EZ7) and when I try to rewind my two Doctor Who tapes, this happens (it doesn't seem to happen with any other tape I have).

Also I can't rewind or fast forward when the tape is stopped, I was wondering if there was any way I could fix it, since Google's just turning up dead ends. Thanks in advance (:

(In the middle of writing this, I have seen that u/RandomFunUsername has posted their recap of the show, but I really wanted to share my thought as well, so here they are. But still go read their recap, they cover some things I missed)

So Beetlejuice just had its first preview in Brisbane, and since I always loved reading the recaps that other people have left for other first shows, I thought I'd give it a crack.

Obviously, most of the cast was the same as in Melbourne, all the returning members were in top form, you can tell that they’re all excited to be back. Jenni Little was amazing as Barbara. She wasn’t too different from Elise McCann from what I can remember from Melbourne, I think she might’ve had a slightly different American accent (during Ready Set I thought her acting was like a 1950s housewife, but I don’t think it was like that all the way through), but regardless, she did an amazing job.

Now for the man himself, Andy Karl. He made his Australian debut tonight after his 9 shows in Abu Dhabi, so this was his first night performing the originally written show (since some small things were changed for the Abu Dhabi run). I’d heard some things about him not being very good, but in my opinion, I thought he did a terrific job. Obviously he wasn’t perfect (insert Eddie Perfect joke here), and he’s still ironing out the creases on his version of Beetlejuice, but for the most part I think he was a great replacement for Eddie Perfect. He plays the role very differently than Eddie, he played BJ a lot more energetic and added a lot more little moves to lines in the show (more on that later) which made me love his Beetlejuice even more. At the stage door, he told me that he sees Beetlejuice’s energy similar to a little kid, which is a perfect analogy for how he played it. My one complaint is that I thought maybe he was hamming it up a bit too much in Invisible Reprise, since he's supposed to be sad and down in the dumps but it still felt like to me that he was still doing a bit.

Now for the differences from Melbourne (from what I remember anyway)

• There wasn’t any special opening to The Whole Being Dead Thing. Andy just said the regular ‘Beggin’ your pardon, scuse me, sorry to barge in’ line.
• There wasn’t a spotlight for ‘this guy’, which I remember there being one in Melbourne.
• When Beetlejuice began his monologue he motioned for the band to start playing the sad background noise, which I thought was very funny.
• He kept saying something (like ‘oh’, although I don’t think that was it) throughout the show at different points. It was a fun addition to call back to. Edit: upon further reflection and definitely not through listening to an audio recording; I know now that he went 'Oooooo'. He said it after he said 'It's a House!' and when he opened the book, as well as a couple of more times.
• Beetlejuice held up for a high-five after his guacamole story, and then high fived himself after the Maitlands didn’t.
• During the last verse of Fright of Their Lives, Beetlejuice motioned loading a rifle and putting it against his chin.
• Instead of dabbing, Delia does the ‘67’ when talking to Lydia in the No Reason scene.
• During the transition between That Beautiful Sound Reprise and Barbara 2.0, Beetlejuic picked his nose and chased one of the clones, telling them to eat it.
• Otho is from Caboolture. I’m not very familiar with towns in Queensland but it got a good laugh out of the audience (and also made me look outdated with a ‘I’m from Bendigo’ pin)

There were probably more differences but that’s all I can specifically remember.

Overall, I don’t think there was a sing,e scene I wasn’t smiling throughout (except maybe Home). Opening Night was also very fun, some people there may have seen me, I was in a Beetlejuice cosplay (I was the one with a Mickey Mouse tie and the Game show ‘I’m From Bendigo!’ pin). All the people I talked to were really nice, so thanks for making my first opening night (and night show in general) so memorable. I got to finally meet some of the cast at the stage door and tell them how much I love them in the show, and they were all really nice. Shoutout to the two other Beetlejuices that were there that I chatted to, and to JeshikaMakes (that’s her Etsy username at least), I absolutely love the sandworm bracelet she gave me. If anyone is the slightest bit interested in Beetlejuice (especially the Aussie run), her pins are really well made and look awesome. 

Overall, it was a fantastic night out, I met some great people, and there’s nothing like walking into the theatre and seeing the Betelgeuse Betelgeuse sign with the pre-show music blaring.

The Beetlejuice Australia instagram just announced that they're gonna be doing VIP packages, which includes (among other things) a backstage tour of the Lyric Theatre!