Beetlejuice: The Musical at the Kravis Is a Spirited, Scream-Worthy Haunt With Heart

By Joanie Cox Henry

West Palm Beach’s Kravis Center hosted a rollicking, high-polish Beetlejuice: The Musical that crackled with comic voltage and theatrical wizardry. Over its June 2–7 run in the Alexander W. Dreyfoos Concert Hall, the touring production delivered a gleefully ghoulish evening that balanced irreverence with an unexpectedly tender core, transforming Tim Burton’s dark fairy tale into a full-bodied stage feast.

Visually, the show conjured a “spooky, a lot spectacular” panorama. The designers marshaled goulishly clever projections, dreamlike fog, and pop-up set mechanics to keep the eye startled and delighted. Lighting carved out comic jump scares one minute and elegiac warmth the next, honoring the film’s ink-blot whimsy while giving it theatrical musculature. The aesthetic felt both referential and newly minted with Burton filtered through a funhouse lens, then rendered in living, phosphorescent color.

At the center of the pandemonium, Ryan Stajmiger’s portrayer of ghost with the most Beetlejuice commanded the night. He tore through the fourth wall with caffeinated mischief and timing, vaulting from deadpan insult to slapstick eruption without losing the character’s sly intelligence. The chaos had craft. He shaped laugh after laugh while grounding the demon’s antic bravado in a recognizable hunger for attention, making the role feel owned rather than inherited.

As Lydia Deetz, Leianna Weaver anchored the production with a luminous vocal line and piercing emotional clarity. Her grief pulsed beneath the comic glitter, and her duets landed with a plaintive ache that gave the evening its soul. Opposite her, Kaitlin Feely’s Barbara and David Wilson’s Adam proved ideal comic foils making it endearingly awkward, rhythmically precise, and vocally assured. Their journey from timid haunters to self-possessed protectors provided a sweet, steady counterpoint to Beetlejuice’s kinetic mayhem, and their chemistry felt effortless.

The crowd amplified the occasion. Fans arrived in Beetlejuice stripes and Goth-Lydia finery, turning the lobby into a catwalk of playful macabre; the production, in turn, rewarded their devotion with wicked winks and communal shivers. While the humor skewed merrily dark and the frights occasionally sharp, the show is recommended for ages 13 and up. This show ultimately celebrated family, forgiveness, and the audacity of second chances. It was showtime, yes, but it was also show-heart, and this tour delivered both in glorious, undead abundance.

Beetlejuice: The Musical runs at Kravis Center through June 7, 2026! Click here for tickets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MileYmc8_Wg