#n we r insane about beetlejuice

[theverycoolestdude]

group of mutuals. so silly. love you guys

[meangirlsx]

I saw Beetlejuice for the second time recently, and like I shared some things about Mean Girls with you all after I saw it, here are some thoughts and notes and fun facts about Beetlejuice:

Toward the beginning of the show, Beej has a joke where he says he feels invisible and powerless, like a gay republican

It takes people a second, but the audience bursts out into laughter

And then he nods, like he’s saying, “Yep, I said it” and everyone breaks out laughing again

And he does the nod again and gets another break of laughter

And once more, and you can already tell the audience is like in the palm of his hand

He also makes a joke that seems self-deprecating and then deflects it onto an audience member in the front by saying, “This guy knows what I’m talking about!”

He does that a few times throughout the show

And at the end of the show, he makes a joke at the guy one final time and then switches out of his Beetlejuice voice and back into Alex just long enough to say, “Thanks for being here!” to the guy

Dana was on for Lydia and y’all she is so incredible

I feel like with Sophia’s Lydia, you get that the character was always strange and unusual and got more so and darker after her mom died, but at least to me, I get the impression that it wasn’t a far leap for her as a character

Dana’s Lydia has a sweeter, softer, higher voice just by virtue of it being Dana

But she also plays her a little softer and more innocent and more like you really get the feeling that she was a good deal different when her mom was alive

Both are totally valid and fantastic interpretations, so it was fun to see this other version

It also felt a little less shocking then when Lydia thinks Adam’s ultimate dad joke is really funny and says she likes the Maitlands

It really gut punches you that she just wants a healthy, happy, stable family

In Ready Set, Not Yet when Barbara goes, “Look at these jugs!” Beej whips around with wide eyes, realizes she’s talking about actual pottery and not her boobs, makes a disappointed face, and no one processes it until he walks off and then they’re just dying laughing

Then at the end of the song, when Barbara says they’re maybe 80% ready and Adam says 78% instead, she nods like she’s totally in agreement

In Fright of Their Lives, when Adam tells Barbara her first “best primal scream” is brilliant, Beej turns him around to face away from her

Adam looks like he’s trying to be good and make Beej happy by not interacting with Barbara in that moment but as soon as she tries again, it’s like he can’t contain himself from loving and supporting his wife with everything in him

David’s Adam is just really freaking adorable, guys

He really embraces the whole “I’m a huge dork and madly in love with my wife and that pretty much sums me up” personality

Also someone posted on here a while back that they think the severed head that pops out of the trunk looks like Nic Cage and I was pretty close to the stage and I still back this

During Beej’s soliloquy, on the album he doesn’t go all operatic until, “I know that beggars can’t be choosers” but at this performance he did it right away from “I want freedom” and it was so overdramatic it was amazing

Once the Maitlands fight with him and he storms out of the attic, they start getting so angry together, and Adam gets all worked up like he’s going to yell something insulting but instead just yells that Beetlejuice needs therapy and he hopes that he gets it

Like they’re so nice and pure they can’t even be mad without hoping for good to come to the person they’re mad at

In “No Reason” when Delia says, “life coaching, nailing it,” she bops her little hair bun

I’m also fairly certain she tries to dab at some point during the song

And at another point in the song, she does that Fornite dance where you pump your arm and leg on the same side while like hopping?

Tbh a lot of her little quirks are her trying to be cool and relatable and just not fully understanding the current culture or the fact that Lydia is very much not into it

In Say My Name, he shouts, “Fake cartwheel!” and then twirls behind Lydia like he’s pretending to do a cartwheel but wouldn’t land it if he actually tried

Then when he yells “assassinate,” he pulls the top part of his wig back to reveal a brain, and he doesn’t cover it back up until a good moment after Lydia says, “No!”

At the start of Day-O, when Delia calls Charles an “amazing, amazing man,” she straight up starts crying

So now we’re into Act II

Presley comes out for Girl Scout and the entire audience just cheers because who doesn’t love Presley

The first time she turns her back to the audience, you see that her backpack is just O V E R F L O W I N G with Thin Mints

When the music changes for a few seconds after “they had my back if anything went wrong with me,” she’s like freaking out and breathing heavy and trying to calm herself down

And then she jumps RIGHT back into her happy place when she hits “jamboree, soda pop” and everyone in the audience like lost it over that

In the transition between outside and inside the house, Sky says it’s so dark and pulls out her flashlight because she’s always prepared

She holds it beneath her face and says “boo” and then “just kidding, hope I didn’t scare you”

And then something scares her and she starts breathing and counting and Lydia just goes, “You’re fun”

It takes Sky exactly 0 seconds to reply, “I like you, too”

I can’t remember if Dana does this as Sky, too – she probably does

But when Alex sings “clean, white shorts turning brown” Presley spins on the landing of the stairs like she’d been trying to get to a bathroom and just couldn’t make it and wow it’s funny but your heart goes out to her in that moment even though you know it’s not real

Also for anyone who’s been curious or concerned, Sky is totally fine by the time she leaves – she doesn’t die or get hurt or anything

Lydia pays her for some Thin Mints and she leaves, like honestly the girl’s got some steel bravery

Presley and Dana are just so cute onstage together, like you can tell they’re loving it

Later, in “What I Know Now,” Presley is back as the Dead Rider and in a moment where everyone is watching Leslie as everyone has sort of crowded around Lydia, Presley reached out and held onto Dana’s arm for a minute

Then she turned it into her character moving Lydia because the ensemble members move her around in that part of the song

They’re so supportive and proud of each other

Right after Charles proposes to Delia, Lydia comes running in trying to tell him that the house is haunted

So Delia hides under the covers instead of in the bathroom or closet or whatever and takes her vape with her

And Lydia tells her dad to grab everything so they can get out and she pulls the sheet off the bed and sees Delia and after a long pause, Delia says, “Hey” and sooooo much smoke comes out of her mouth and her voice is all deep

Back in “Barbara 2.0,” when Kerry first sings “Say hello to Barbara 2.0,” she leans one leg on a box and flexes her arms down in front of her stomach and it’s adorable

Then when Adam sings, “the old one’s fertilizer,” Barbara just totally giggles

They’re so in love

Kerry and David have a slightly different vibe than Kerry and Rob but they’re already such great scene partners and so sweet together

Toward the end, when they’re all trying to trick Beej and Adam yells for everything to stop because he has something to say to him, the entire audience gets so excited and then so quiet, waiting for him to own Beej

And when he starts by saying that Beej has been harassing him the entire show and pauses at, “And I gotta tell you”, you can tell everyone thinks we’re about to get a comment on sexual harassment

And Adam finishes by saying, “It. Has worked.” and EVERYONE goes insane

And then he’s full-on making out with Beej and Beej is just in AWE and the audience can barely breathe

Barabara tries to do it, too, but she leans in and she just can’t bring herself to do it

During “Creepy Old Guy,” Alex gives Beej the most innocent, hopeful look that makes you almost happy for him and almost forget that all of this is Very, Very Wrong

It looks like Adam is Beej’s best man and Barbara is Lydia’s maid of honor and like Delia is probably like a bridesmaid

They get to the “I do” and you can feel that everyone kind of can’t believe it actually happened and it’s like this creepy, shocked feeling that settles over everyone but then immediately all the tech goes crazy because Beej is becoming alive

As a very briefly alive Beetlejuice, he goes on this total anxiety/emotional spiral from “the world is so beautiful” to “what if I’m never happy again” to “we don’t teach men to process our anger and that’s a sad truth that indicts all of us” to “so maybe, maybe I’ll just try murder”

Tbh the entire show is an impressive showcase for Alex but that moment is a rollercoaster and a mini masterclass in portraying different emotions and making social commentary and maintaining the humor all at the same time

He puts on this ENTIRE persona for the entire show, which is obviously very common for most characters/actors but like this is a whole other level, I think

The way he moves, of course the way he talks and sings, the way his eyes look, literally everything is different and it’s so, so clear that he put SO much work into creating this character

Okay that’s my Alex Brightman stan rant now back to your previously scheduled programming

At the start of his goodbyes, Beej mentions a possible future “vision quest” to find his dad and just goes, “Sequel?” and then does his puppet hand like he did for the Handbook for the Recently Deceased and in “Say My Name” and makes a “squa squa squa” noise like those horns people play from their phones to back up their own joke (I’m so sorry I don’t know a better way to explain it or if there’s a real term for it because y’all it slays the audience)

At the curtain call, everyone in the audience is of course screaming for Dana and the entire cast is just so proud of her and they’re doing everything they can to show it

Alex, especially, just fucking bows to her and claps like he’s in awe of her

And the last note I took down is a tech thing so if you don’t want to know how they do the lifts of Barbara and Lydia, just stop reading here

I didn’t catch it when they lifted Barbara up the wall for the exorcism

But I caught it when they lifted Lydia up the stairs and I’m guessing it’s the same mechanism for both

There’s like this black seat attached to the wall beneath the railing

I only noticed it because I was up close and on the side and looking for it but like you really don’t notice it

So she can like casually straddle this thing and rest herself on it and it will lift her up safely

I’m sure there’s more to it than that to make it totally safe, and also she can bring her legs and feet pretty close together while she’s up in the air so there has to be some explanation for that, too, since that would be difficult if she were sitting and she’s also clearly standing and not sitting

But it’s awesome

And Adam has been hanging out near there with a mop and mop bucket, cleaning up little things onstage, which is totally on-brand for him and you don’t question it for a second

But then when Lydia comes down and steps away from the stairs, Adam just dances right over to the seat, stands in front of it, and knocks it into the bucket with the mop

Again, I was looking for it

They do a really great job covering that kind of stuff

Guys this show and the entire team that puts it on is just so, so incredible

If anyone has any questions about the show that I didn’t address here, feel free to ask

And if I don’t know the answer at first, I’m seeing the show at least one more time and can pay attention to something more specifically to get you an answer

[true-halloween-tales]

2017: #5-THE QUESTION OF THE DAY 5

In the 1990’s I asked my Question of the Day frequently at work at the Everyday is Halloween retail corporation in Chicago (see 2013: #11-THE QUESTION OF THE DAY).  I frequently formulated frivolous questions and jotted down the answers from customers, coworkers, celebrities, the homeless, the psychologically divergent, and even the police.  On a Saturday afternoon, shortly after I injured my back, I stood on Clark Street looking north towards Wrigley Field (see 2009: #9-PARALYSIS, PAIN, AND THE POWER OF SHAKESPEARE).  I picked up a call on my security walkie-talkie of a criminal action occurring in one of the Everyday is Halloween stores.  I could not hear what the lady was yelling about.  Then I saw her down the block as a figure ran past me.  That was the criminal!  Fleeing on foot right past me!  She shouted for me to stop him, so I began chasing the fugitive.  My back hurt badly, and my legs were weak from nerve pain.  I could hardly run!  I saw that the fugitive was over six feet tall… wearing high heels… in a leopard print dress… rather broad shoulders… yup, it was drag queen… he eventually threw away the high heels… the chase continued… heading towards Halsted Street… I yelled out to him, “Just stop, it’s tiring,”… proceeding north on Halsted… he got flustered… I had steered the chase directly towards the nearby police station at Halsted and Addison Streets… various interceptors appeared and caught him ahead of me.  I stopped to catch my breath as I was told it was all about a leopard print leotard thing he misappropriated.  I walked back to the store, thinking of an appropriate question of the day involving this escapade.

Here are five original questions of the day from the 1990’s and answers with names of those who answered, when available, maybe even yours…

1-What is a very strange word?

Aardvark Platypus Globulous Bulbous Ointment Salve Squeegee Pervert Ecclesiastical Pumpernickel Bamboozle Glog (Swedish drink) Phlegm Google Oblique Juxtapose Kumquat Fern Huffenagle Farfegnugen Onomatopoeia Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Sjohundra sjuti sjo (777 in Swedish) Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

2-If you could visit anywhere, where would you go?

Amsterdam -3 London – 3 North Pole to see the aurora borealis – 2 California -2 Australia -2 Germany -2 Heaven – 2 New York Paris Egypt Japan Tibet Brazil Tahiti Africa Antarctica Woodstock Mars Happy where I am at Kingdom come The third grade when things were simpler - Calbee Fantasy Island The planet of the Little Prince Up a chicken’s ass to get a sandwich Somewhere over the rainbow

3-If you could be immortalized in the Guinness Book of World Records, what would it be for?

Giving away the most amount of money – 2 The longest orgasm in the world – 2 Make an even bigger ball of twine than the one in Darwin, Minnesota. Longest time without sleep. Holding my breath. The person who stands still the longest. Most amount of body piercings. Person who can deal with the most amount of stress without going insane. Doing the nicest thing to change someone’s life. Masturbating the most. To change periods from women to men. Most amount of penis eaten in one hour. The guy who ate the most amount of fat from Pork n Beans. Already are in the Guinness Book of World Records as members of the largest Twister contest.

4-What lurks in the dark?

Shadows Cockroaches –  Nikki Boogeyman Eyes Fear – Angelo The overlord Spooky stuff and dust bunnies – Marco Smelly feet – Gabby Souls of the forgotten and meaningless – Matt My penis – Paul R. Elvis

5-What cartoon would it be fun to live in?

Cool World Bugs Bunny Daffy Duck Scooby Doo Flintstones Dangermouse Star Trek X-men – Ray Rocko – Glenna Kid Video – Zoe Little Mermaid Beetlejuice Speed Racer Smurfs – Mary City world/country world – Kate Mighty Mouse – Marco Tweety and Sylvester – Myrna Bambi - Paul R. Felix the Cat – Mark Z. The Nightmare Before Christmas – Gene

One Friday evening while working at the Everyday is Halloween stores, I was alerted to a special project.  A lower basement, previous unknown to me, was flooding.  Could I assist someone in this basement to remove something before there was flood damage?   I agreed, and found my way down crumbling stone stairs into what very much looked like a dungeon (see 2012: #10-DUNGEONS).  I found myself in a dark, foul, stinky, cluttered room with a crowd of partial mannikins with arms and legs reaching out desperately.  I soon found the other worker, and we soon located the unknown something that had to be moved since the dungeon was rapidly flooding.  It was a coffin – so I opened it… I was surprised to find inside of it a skeleton occupant!  Apparently the owner of the corporation’s father was a mortician, and this was his extra skeleton from his office.  Seemed too short for Hoffa.