Alex Brightman says he's tired, but you鈥檇 never know. It鈥檚 a bright Sunday afternoon on his day off from rehearsals and previews of Beetlejuice, the high-energy musical adaptation of the 1988 film, and the Tony nominee, who has arrived early to his photo shoot, is cracking jokes. Gone are Beetlejuice鈥檚 pale makeup, big hair, and iconic striped suit. Instead, it鈥檚 just an actor in a black T-shirt and relaxed jeans, with the gleam of a man who wants to simultaneously put a room at ease and keep it on its toes.
But then again, that鈥檚 what Brightman has been doing since joining Beetlejuice three years ago鈥攃reating a character who walks a line between grotesque, rude, and menancing and charming. It takes craft, it takes showmanship, and it takes finding the honesty within the chaos. And Brightman is up for the challenge.
半岛体育 sat down with actor to discuss creating his own Beetlejuice, finding the heart within a demon, and more.
You鈥檙e fresh off a two-show day in this massive, kinetic show. You鈥檙e dancing, you鈥檙e belting, you鈥檙e doing magic tricks. As an actor, how do you take the spectacle on the page and begin to make real?
I鈥檓 an outside-in actor. All the exterior stuff comes first for me. What color is his hair? How long is his hair? Does he have a stutter? How low is his voice? What does he find funny and how does he laugh? The black nails. His posture. He doesn鈥檛 have social graces so why would his body be anything that feels postured. He鈥檚 a millennia old, he鈥檚 been dead forever. Everything about him is falling apart because he is dead. His vocal chords are completely gone and his throat is collapsing on itself and so are his legs half the time.
After reading a script, I like to take references from other things. There鈥檚 a little bit of the walk from Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow [in The Wizard of Oz]. I鈥檓 always fixing myself, which I think is ludicrous because he looks terrible 鈥� that鈥檚 a little bit of [stand up comedian] Rodney Dangerfield, who always plays with his tie.
It took a little bit [of time] but once that鈥檚 all in place, the rest of it feels very easy to me. Because I just get to live. I put on Beetlejuice and then it happens naturally.
You鈥檝e been building your Beetlejuice through workshops, the D.C. production, and now. What are you eager to explore for Broadway, now that you've created the infrastructure of the character?
The challenge between D.C. and New York is that we wanted the show to be as interesting as a classic musical, deep and human, but with the source material that is absolutely off-the-walls bonkers with a leading character that is a monster. After D.C., we learned to soften him up a little bit. Because he鈥檚 a monster. He is a totally unabashed, degenerate-adjacent, filthy, vile guy. He doesn鈥檛 know where the line is because he鈥檚 never had a line. So the fact that he can be nice doesn鈥檛 take away from the fact that he鈥檚 a monster.
You continually break the fourth wall. You never know how an audience is going to react. What is it like acting alongside that variable?
[Director] Alex Timbers and I had a big conversation about this: what do the fourth wall breaks mean? I think the audience is aware I鈥檓 just an actor onstage. It鈥檚 this sort of meta thing where [Beetlejuice] is even aware that he鈥檚 in a musical so when he鈥檚 talking to the audience, he鈥檚 his real self. You鈥檙e supposed to be, as an audience, peeking in on something. If all of a sudden, the audience is aware that I鈥檓 also peeking back at you, it creates this very strange symbiotic energy between me and the audience, which I think is paying off huge dividends.
With a show like Beetlejuice, the audience may be drawn to it because of the dark humor that they know from the movie but this production also has so much heart in it. How is it tapping into both sides of the spectacle?
The show has these great, deep, heartfelt moments. It鈥檚 wonderful, especially for a character that I didn鈥檛 think would get to have those moments. We get the demon from hell that spills out expletives left and right, but we also get the guy who鈥檚 just lonely, which I think is important. He鈥檚 not just this degenerate. He鈥檚 lonely. He鈥檚 legitimately never been seen, ever, and that鈥檚 heartbreaking. He really could ruin a lot of things, but he wants people to like him which I think is so relatable on a human level. Which I think speaks to the breaking the fourth wall again. He鈥檚 like 鈥淵ou鈥檙e with me, right?鈥�
So you all have built this unique, spectacle of a show for Broadway from this film that people already know. How was it for you to make it your own while paying homage to the original source material?
I think a good adaptation for a show and character is to not just do the thing in a different medium. You need to have a take. You need to have a point of view. What we try to do is take all the ingredients that were there, our writers added a lot of other ingredients, and I got to read those ingredients and slap them on to me. And for me [as an actor], I go, 鈥淥K, what would I do if I have never been seen before?鈥� And I can relate to that. That doesn鈥檛 just mean being invisible. I have had plenty of moments where I have felt not seen. I think that鈥檚 a very big universal quality that people can latch on it.
The stealthy think that we are doing is we are doing this big comedy show that does harken back to the movie but under the current, there is this heart. And our show really leans into that heart. We are bringing acid to Broadway: real hard truths, really funny comedy, really big emotion in an unexpected way. I would not gush this much over something I鈥檓 in usually but [even if I weren鈥檛 involved], it鈥檚 something I would be very happy to know was on Broadway!
Go Inside 半岛体育's Feature Photo Shoot with Brightman below:
