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Hamilton Spectator
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
New Brunswick's Justin Collette is the ghost with the most in ‘Beetlejuice' musical
TORONTO - Even the walls of Justin Collette's dressing room scream, 'Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.' While most theatre actors would choose a Zen-like atmosphere in their backstage quarters, Collette prefers a little anarchy. Hanging around the room are nearly a dozen fan sketches of the living dead trickster he portrays in 'Beetlejuice: The Musical,' as well as drawings of his goth teen sidekick Lydia and the grotesque sandworm that invades her suburban home. 'This is like a fifth of fan art I've been given — so many cool, cool things,' Collette says with a smile, while the music of Italian rock band Måneskin blares over a speaker. 'I have to ship much of it home because it's hard to travel with anything on the road.' Collette is preparing for opening night at Toronto's CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, where 'Beetlejuice: The Musical' runs for six weeks, until July 19. It's the longest stop for the travelling show where he plays the character made famous by Michael Keaton in Tim Burton's 1988 dark comedy film. The New Brunswick native says he's excited to plant himself in a city where he once lived. Everything about his life on the road is a routine, including the hours leading up to his nightly performance. He comes into his dressing room, surveys the fan art, and then settles into a chair as makeup artist Andrew Ozbun begins to apply his Beetlejuice face. It's a process that Ozbun says once took an hour, but he now manages to finish in about half that time. Over the past 2 1/2 years, Collette has been criss-crossing North America, playing the wisecracking Beetlejuice practically every night. It's a gruelling role that calls for high energy, spastic movements and improvised witty quips. Before the show, Collette slips in and out of the character with ease, adopting the gravelly voice and wide-eyed mannerisms like he's flipping on a switch. 'One of the things about doing this for like 900 shows is that my facial muscles are atrophying,' he says. 'I don't know how Jim Carrey isn't lopsided because I have to get dry needled all the time to get my eyes and jaw to work.' Despite the physical challenges, Collette is buzzing about this opportunity to entertain Canadian audiences for a good chunk of the summer. He spent his early career in Toronto sharpening his skills as an improv comedian, and the crew has draped a banner of little Canadian flags across his wardrobe as a reminder of his homecoming. 'I feel like here I can relax into my own sensibilities,' he says of performing for locals. 'Because I kind of agree with them on what is good and what isn't, because I'm one of them.' Collette made his name on Broadway in the 2015 adaptation of 'School of Rock,' playing Dewey Finn, the music-obsessed teacher first portrayed by Jack Black in the Hollywood comedy. On stage, Collette took over the role from Alex Brightman, who decided to leave 'School of Rock' to become live theatre's first Beetlejuice. 'He was so excited about how funny it was,' Collette remembers of his friend's leap to the ghostly character. 'When I went to see (it), I agreed. It really was like nothing I'd ever seen on Broadway.' Collette didn't think he'd ever get to play Beetlejuice, until one day the opportunity arose for him to audition for the lead part in a travelling production of the show. 'I knew exactly how I wanted to do it,' he says of the character. 'It's hard to explain. I heard the cadence of how I was going to (speak) ... even when I read the script. I just knew.' After Collette got the part, he began refining his version of Beetlejuice to make it independent of his predecessors. 'I don't think it looks good when somebody does an impression of somebody else's character in one of these things,' he says. 'It's just diminishing returns because you'll inevitably just get compared to them.' Collette did lift a few mannerisms from the cinematic source material, he admits. Most notably, he liked Keaton's 'open-legged goblin run' in one scene of the movie, which he uses several times in throughout the musical. '(It's) little things, because I don't want him to be unrecognizable, right?' Collette says. 'So you've got to borrow some stuff.' Staying in the Beetlejuice role this long hasn't lost its appeal for him either. Collette says he's set personal goals for his portrayal, and then pushed himself to go further by 'sharpening movements and trying to dig into moments to mine them for little comedy bits.' Each night, as he stares out into the crowd of theatregoers and costumed Beetlejuice fans, he rises to another challenge of making Beetlejuice a little more his own. ''Make it your own' sounds so lame to me,' he interjects. 'You have to figure out who you are.' And with that, his makeup is finished, and Collette is buzzing with mischievous energy. Surveying his dressing room one last time, he pauses before whipping out one of Beetlejuice's trademark phrases, punctuated by his hearty growl. 'It's shooowtiiime!' he shouts. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 15, 2025.
Winnipeg Free Press
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
New Brunswick's Justin Collette is the ghost with the most in ‘Beetlejuice' musical
TORONTO – Even the walls of Justin Collette's dressing room scream, 'Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.' While most theatre actors would choose a Zen-like atmosphere in their backstage quarters, Collette prefers a little anarchy. Hanging around the room are nearly a dozen fan sketches of the living dead trickster he portrays in 'Beetlejuice: The Musical,' as well as drawings of his goth teen sidekick Lydia and the grotesque sandworm that invades her suburban home. 'This is like a fifth of fan art I've been given — so many cool, cool things,' Collette says with a smile, while the music of Italian rock band Måneskin blares over a speaker. 'I have to ship much of it home because it's hard to travel with anything on the road.' Collette is preparing for opening night at Toronto's CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, where 'Beetlejuice: The Musical' runs for six weeks, until July 19. It's the longest stop for the travelling show where he plays the character made famous by Michael Keaton in Tim Burton's 1988 dark comedy film. The New Brunswick native says he's excited to plant himself in a city where he once lived. Everything about his life on the road is a routine, including the hours leading up to his nightly performance. He comes into his dressing room, surveys the fan art, and then settles into a chair as makeup artist Andrew Ozbun begins to apply his Beetlejuice face. It's a process that Ozbun says once took an hour, but he now manages to finish in about half that time. Over the past 2 1/2 years, Collette has been criss-crossing North America, playing the wisecracking Beetlejuice practically every night. It's a gruelling role that calls for high energy, spastic movements and improvised witty quips. Before the show, Collette slips in and out of the character with ease, adopting the gravelly voice and wide-eyed mannerisms like he's flipping on a switch. 'One of the things about doing this for like 900 shows is that my facial muscles are atrophying,' he says. 'I don't know how Jim Carrey isn't lopsided because I have to get dry needled all the time to get my eyes and jaw to work.' Despite the physical challenges, Collette is buzzing about this opportunity to entertain Canadian audiences for a good chunk of the summer. He spent his early career in Toronto sharpening his skills as an improv comedian, and the crew has draped a banner of little Canadian flags across his wardrobe as a reminder of his homecoming. 'I feel like here I can relax into my own sensibilities,' he says of performing for locals. 'Because I kind of agree with them on what is good and what isn't, because I'm one of them.' Collette made his name on Broadway in the 2015 adaptation of 'School of Rock,' playing Dewey Finn, the music-obsessed teacher first portrayed by Jack Black in the Hollywood comedy. On stage, Collette took over the role from Alex Brightman, who decided to leave 'School of Rock' to become live theatre's first Beetlejuice. 'He was so excited about how funny it was,' Collette remembers of his friend's leap to the ghostly character. 'When I went to see (it), I agreed. It really was like nothing I'd ever seen on Broadway.' Collette didn't think he'd ever get to play Beetlejuice, until one day the opportunity arose for him to audition for the lead part in a travelling production of the show. 'I knew exactly how I wanted to do it,' he says of the character. 'It's hard to explain. I heard the cadence of how I was going to (speak) … even when I read the script. I just knew.' After Collette got the part, he began refining his version of Beetlejuice to make it independent of his predecessors. 'I don't think it looks good when somebody does an impression of somebody else's character in one of these things,' he says. 'It's just diminishing returns because you'll inevitably just get compared to them.' Collette did lift a few mannerisms from the cinematic source material, he admits. Most notably, he liked Keaton's 'open-legged goblin run' in one scene of the movie, which he uses several times in throughout the musical. '(It's) little things, because I don't want him to be unrecognizable, right?' Collette says. 'So you've got to borrow some stuff.' Staying in the Beetlejuice role this long hasn't lost its appeal for him either. Collette says he's set personal goals for his portrayal, and then pushed himself to go further by 'sharpening movements and trying to dig into moments to mine them for little comedy bits.' Each night, as he stares out into the crowd of theatregoers and costumed Beetlejuice fans, he rises to another challenge of making Beetlejuice a little more his own. ''Make it your own' sounds so lame to me,' he interjects. Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. 'You have to figure out who you are.' And with that, his makeup is finished, and Collette is buzzing with mischievous energy. Surveying his dressing room one last time, he pauses before whipping out one of Beetlejuice's trademark phrases, punctuated by his hearty growl. 'It's shooowtiiime!' he shouts. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 15, 2025.
Toronto Star
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Toronto Star
Acclaimed musical ‘Life After' returned to Toronto with gala red carpet event
On April 28, Yonge Street Theatricals hosted the red carpet premiere of 'Life After' at Toronto's CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, marking the hometown return of the acclaimed musical about grief, self-discovery and resilience. The event celebrated the show's engagement, from April 16 to May 10, as part of the 2024/25 Off-Mirvish season. And the red carpet featured cast members including Chilina Kennedy and Mariand Torres, as well as director Annie Tippe and composer Britta Johnson.
Toronto Star
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Toronto Star
‘Peter Pan' musical at Mirvish still soars with its sprinkling of good, old-fashioned stage magic
Peter Pan 3 stars (out of 4) Music by Morris Charlap, with additional music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, with additional lyrics by Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Amanda Green. Originally adapted by Jerome Robbins, with additional book by Larissa FastHorse, based on the play by J.M. Barrie. Directed by Lonny Price. Until June 1 at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, 244 Victoria St. or 1-800-461-3333 It's fitting that 'Peter Pan,' about a boy who doesn't want to grow up, has aged incredibly well over the past 120 years.
Toronto Star
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Toronto Star
The new Canadian musical ‘Life After' is a triumph at Mirvish. But is it ready for Broadway?
Life After 3.5 stars (out of 4) Music, lyrics and book by Britta Johnson, directed by Annie Tippe. Until May 10 at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, 244 Victoria St. or 1-800-461-3333 Toward the end of the Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine musical 'Into the Woods,' after the sheer amount of devastation becomes nearly too much to bear, its four surviving fairy-tale characters sing the moralizing number 'No One Is Alone.' 'Mother cannot guide you / Now you're on your own,' sings Cinderella to the now orphaned Little Red Riding Hood. 'Only me beside you / Still, you're not alone.' In a musical that otherwise so astutely navigates the messy expanse of grey between what's black and white, this one song has always struck me as being hollow, even trite. If only our experiences with grief were that simple. If only we always had a support system around us each time we dealt with the death of a loved one. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW The astounding Canadian musical 'Life After,' however, penned by the stupendously talented Britta Johnson and which opened Tuesday at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, feels like it was written in response to — and in conversation with — that very idea in 'No One Is Alone.' Grief, Johnson argues, is agonizingly lonely. It's painful. It's overwhelming. It's also occasionally funny, in the absurdest ways possible. Alice (Isabella Esler), the show's 16-year-old protagonist, is dropped into the forest of her own grief after her father Frank (Jake Epstein), a famous self-help author, is killed in a car crash. Though her mother Beth (Mariand Torres) and sister Kate (Valeria Ceballos) are both grieving in their own ways as well, Alice knows that if she's to ever find her way out of the metaphorical woods she must do it on her own. There is no one there beside her. She is, indeed, alone. Mariand Torres as Beth, Valeria Ceballos as Kate and Isabella Esler as Alice in 'Life After.' Michael Cooper/Yonge Street Theatricals As part of this journey, Alice is forced to reckon with her complicated memories of her oft-absent father, particularly their final conversation on her 16th birthday. Her dad was supposed to be at a convention in Winnipeg to promote his new book. But, unexpectedly, he returned home for several hours to surprise Alice. Frank wants to have dinner with his daughter before his flight back out west. Alice, however, already has plans with her best friend, Hannah (Julia Pulo). Why should she bend over backwards, she reasons, to accommodate her father's schedule? An argument ensues. Alice ignores her father's phone calls. Then the crash. The teenager, crushed by an intense sense of guilt, is also haunted by the mystery surrounding her father's death. Frank's flight was to depart at 8 p.m. Yet his crash occurred at 8:22 p.m., in a suburb far from the airport. What was he doing there? Did Frank know that Alice and Hannah were planning to attend a party in that neighbourhood? Was he searching for his daughter in order to reconcile with her? ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Alice needs to find answers. But she also knows that the answers she's looking for will never quite give her the closure she needs. This paradox is at the heart of the show — and it's one that anyone who's had a complicated relationship with a loved one they've lost will instantly recognize. I think it's fair to call 'Life After' a spiritual successor to 'Into the Woods,' with both shows mining similar thematic territory. Johnson has shared that she found inspiration in Sondheim's work. After her own father died when she was a teenager, she saw the Stratford Festival's 2005 production of 'Into the Woods' 14 times as a way to process her own grief. (Though 'Life After' isn't autobiographical, Johnson does draw from her own experiences.) A scene from the musical 'Life After,' by Britta Johnson. Michael Cooper/Yonge Street Theatricals Sonically, Johnson's score is more akin to the works of Sondheim, and modernist composers like Benjamin Britten and Igor Stravinsky, than the typical pop fare that's become so ubiquitous in musical theatre today. The music of 'Life After' is dense, layered and richly coloured. Johnson's use of leitmotifs, musical phrases that are associated with certain characters and evolve as the narrative develops, is especially striking and effective. Her lyrics, too, are Sondheimian in quality. Pithy, yet never cold. Deeply expressive, yet never sentimental. Poetically ambiguous, yet also razor sharp. Take, for instance, this lyric in the musical's final song: 'It feels like rain and yet the ground is dry.' As sung by Esler, in soaring vocal form, imbuing the character with a tragic touch of teenage vulnerability, that moment lands like a punch to the gut. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'Life After' isn't easy to stage. It's a delicate chamber piece, structured more like a memory play than a traditional musical. And some of it unfolds in Alice's mind, slipping in and out of reality and her unreliable recollections. Director Annie Tippe's production, however, is largely successful at keeping all the moving parts together. Compared to the musical's previous Toronto run in 2017, this iteration is far larger, with clear, if tacit, Broadway intentions. The sheer scale of this staging often works in the show's favour. Todd Rosenthal's imposing set, a two-storey house with revolving rooms, captures the whirlwind nature of Alice's grief. Her world is constantly shifting around her, never stopping for a moment to breathe. Isabella Esler as Alice and Jake Epstein as Frank in 'Life After.' Michael Cooper/Yonge Street Theatricals Tippe's slick production, moving between scenes with dreamlike ease, pays close attention to the smallest of details. Kai Harada and Haley Parcher's crisp sound designs deserve special praise for managing to tame, miraculously, the cavernous and unwieldy CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre. Thank goodness for that, because we get to hear Lynne Shankel's gorgeous orchestrations in all their glory. Esler, onstage for the entirety of Johnson's 90-minute musical, is superb. And she's surrounded by an ensemble cast that's equally strong. Epstein's Frank is a man of contradictions: a suave celebrity author who could dole out life advice to strangers on a whim, yet couldn't manage to solve the puzzle of his own life. As Alice's mother and sister, respectively, Torres and Ceballos demonstrate how grief manifests itself in so many different ways. For them, unlike Alice, the only way to heal is to forge ahead, leaving the past behind them. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Chilina Kennedy exudes maternal warmth as Alice's teacher, Ms. Hopkins. And Pulo steals every scene she's in as the awkward yet bubbly Hannah. If all these supporting characters come off as rather wispily drawn, that can be excused. We are, after all, in Alice's mind, as we're constantly reminded by a trio of pestering Furies (Kaylee Harwood, Arinea Hermans and Zoë O'Connor) who give voice to her deepest insecurities, and manifest themselves as everything from piggish mourners to overly solicitous neighbours. And grief, especially the kind that Alice experiences, distorts the way we see the world. Where this production falters, however, is in its final 15 minutes, as Alice finally finds some semblance of clarity amid the chaos. Critical emotional beats don't land with the force that they could. In particular, the elements of Tippe's production that made it so successful up until this point now work against it. Her frantic staging never settles enough to offer Alice, and the audience, a moment to reflect. Rosenthal's scenery and Japhy Weideman's lighting also become rather intrusive and distracting, nearly overshadowing the musical's quiet conclusion. And as Johnson's material grows increasingly abstract and metaphorical, Tippe's production seems stubbornly focused on a more literal interpretation. I'm not exactly sure how to resolve these issues. But I guess it's sort of fitting that 'Life After,' a meditation on grief, never quite concludes on a satisfying note. Losing a loved one is always messy and painful, filled with a grief that's unending. And as Johnson demonstrates in her final song, there's a complex beauty and poetry in that, too.
