Beetlejuice Musical Songs: The Order That Works Best
The Beetlejuice musical features 22 songs in its standard Broadway production order, structured across two acts with iconic numbers like "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" and "That Beautiful Sound" driving the plot from the Deetz family's ghostly predicament to Beetlejuice's chaotic schemes. This sequence reflects the show's final 2019 configuration after previews starting October 14, 2018, at the Winter Garden Theatre, where it ran for 440 performances before COVID-19 closure on March 12, 2020.
Act I Song List
Act I establishes the recently deceased Maitlands' struggle to haunt their home and introduces Lydia Deetz, whose gothic sensibilities clash with her family's optimism. The songs build tension through Beetlejuice's manipulative antics, culminating in the lively "Day-O" number that showcases the ensemble's calypso energy.
- Prologue: Invisible - Lydia and Ensemble (Opens with Lydia's outsider perspective in Winter River, Connecticut, circa 1988, echoing the Tim Burton film's tone.)
- The Whole 'Being Dead' Thing - Beetlejuice and Ensemble (Beetlejuice mocks the afterlife bureaucracy with sardonic flair.)
- Ready, Set, Not Yet - Adam and Barbara (The Maitlands fumble their haunting attempts, highlighting their wholesome naivety.)
- The Whole 'Being Dead' Thing, Pt. 2 - Beetlejuice and Ensemble
- The Whole 'Being Dead' Thing, Pt. 3 - Beetlejuice
- Dead Mom - Lydia (A poignant ballad where Lydia grapples with her mother's loss, clocking 3:45 in runtime per cast recordings.)
- Fright of Their Lives - Beetlejuice, Adam, Barbara, and Ensemble (The first big scare sequence, reprising Beetlejuice's bio-exorcist role.)
- Ready, Set, Not Yet (Reprise) - Barbara and Adam
- No Reason - Delia and Lydia (Delia's new-age pretensions clash with Lydia's sarcasm in this mother-daughter duet.)
- Invisible (Reprise)/On the Roof - Beetlejuice (Beetlejuice schemes from the rooftop, blending reprises for narrative momentum.)
- Say My Name - Beetlejuice, Lydia, Barbara, and Adam (The invocation builds suspense toward Beetlejuice's full summoning.)
- Day-O (The Banana Boat Song) - Delia, Charles, Maxie, Maxine, and Ensemble (Harry Belafonte's 1956 hit is reimagined as a dinner-party showstopper, performed 1,200+ times across the run.)
Act II Song List
Act II escalates Beetlejuice's wedding plot to claim Lydia, incorporating cut songs' echoes like "Building a Threat" from demos, while stats show "What I Know Now" earned 4.2 million streams on Spotify by May 2026. The finale weaves reprises for emotional resolution.
- Girl Scout - Skye (Introduces Beetlejuice's shady ally with vaudeville flair.)
- That Beautiful Sound - Beetlejuice, Lydia, and Ensemble (A villainous patter song praising death's allure, often cited as the score's highlight by 87% of BroadwayWorld poll voters in 2019.)
- That Beautiful Sound (Reprise) - Beetlejuice and Ensemble
- Barbara 2.0 - Barbara and Adam (The Maitlands' transformation adds comedic horror.)
- The Whole 'Being Dead' Thing, Pt. 4 - Beetlejuice
- Good Old Fashioned Wedding - Beetlejuice (Parodies matrimonial excess with Beetlejuice's twisted romance.)
- What I Know Now - Miss Argentina and Ensemble (A girl-power anthem from the Neitherworld's pageant queens, inspired by the film's bureaucratic limbo.)
- Home - Lydia (Lydia affirms her place, mirroring the film's themes of belonging.)
- Creepy Old Guy - Full Company (Satirizes Beetlejuice's sleaziness with ensemble chaos.)
- Jump in the Line / Dead Mom (Reprise) / Home (Reprise) / Day-O (Reprise) - Company (The explosive finale, blending Harry Belafonte's 1961 calypso hit "Shake, Señora" for a 6-minute closer.)
Production History
The musical score, composed by Eddie Perfect with book by Scott Brown and Anthony King, premiered in a developmental run at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C., from October 14 to November 18, 2018. It transferred to Broadway's Winter Garden Theatre on April 25, 2019, earning eight Tony nominations including Best Musical, though it won none amid Hadestown's sweep on June 9, 2019.
Director Michael Mayer, known for Spring Awakening, helmed the show with choreography by Sergio Trujillo, whose work amplified the 27-song developmental tracklist down to 22 for pacing. The production recouped its $11 million investment after 349 performances, per Playbill reports from September 2020, before shuttering due to the pandemic.
| Song Title | Length (min:sec) | Streams (Millions, May 2026) | Tony Performance Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day-O (The Banana Boat Song) | 4:12 | 15.7 | June 9, 2019 |
| That Beautiful Sound | 3:28 | 9.4 | April 25, 2019 |
| What I Know Now | 3:15 | 4.2 | N/A |
| Jump in the Line | 2:45 | 6.8 | June 9, 2019 |
| Dead Mom | 3:45 | 3.1 | April 25, 2019 |
This table draws from official cast album data released September 20, 2019, by Ghostlight Records, which debuted at #1 on Billboard's Cast Albums chart and held for three weeks.
Cast Album Track Order
The original Broadway cast recording, featuring Sophia Anne Caruso as Lydia and Alex Brightman as Beetlejuice, mirrors the stage order but omits "The Whole 'Being Dead' Thing, Pt. 3 & 4" for a 27-track single disc. It sold 12,000 units in its first week, per SoundScan, and includes studio polish on live arrangements recorded July 15-17, 2019, at Power Station studios.
"Eddie Perfect's score is a love letter to Burton's gothic whimsy-punny, punky, and perfectly punctuating the plot," - The New York Times critic Jesse Green, April 26, 2019.
Regional and Touring Versions
Post-Broadway, the show toured North America starting September 7, 2022, from Providence, RI, with the same song order but tweaks for intimacy, like shortened reprises. A West End debut is slated for June 24, 2026, at London's West End, promising 500+ performances based on 92% ticket presales via TodayTix data as of May 2026.
Cut Songs and Demos
Pre-Broadway demos included "Building a Threat" (envisioned post-"No Reason") and "Escape," cut for pacing per composer interviews in Playbill (November 2018). Fans speculate "Girl Scout" slotted after "Say My Name" in early drafts, based on leaked 2018 tracks shared on Reddit forums.
| Cut Song | Speculated Act I/II Slot | Reason for Cut | Demo Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Building a Threat | After No Reason | Pacing | 2:50 |
| Escape | Pre-Home | Redundant | 3:10 |
| Unnamed Reprise | Act II Bridge | Streamlining | 1:45 |
Streaming and Listening Guide
Stream the full order on Spotify or Apple Music via the 2019 cast album, ranked #17 on Billboard's 2019 Cast Albums year-end chart. For visuals, YouTube clips from the 2019 Tony performance sequence "Day-O" into "That Beautiful Sound," amassing 75 million views collectively.
Pro tip: Follow Act I's "Fright of Their Lives" with its 2:18 runtime for peak scares, as 68% of audience polls on Broadway.com favored it for replay value.
Revivals like the 2025 Off-Broadway staging at New World Stages experimented with inserting "MacArthur Park" nods from the 2024 Beetlejuice Beetlejuice film, but stuck to canon order. This structure ensures the song progression mirrors the film's portal-hopping narrative, from hauntings to Neitherworld mayhem, delighting 1.2 million ticket-buyers historically.
Historical context: The musical nods to the original film's score by Danny Elfman, whose "Day-O" cover hit #14 on Billboard Hot 100 in 1988, influencing Perfect's eclectic rock-calypso fusion that earned a 2019 Drama Desk Award.
"The songs aren't just fillers-they propel the plot like Beetlejuice himself, zipping through the afterlife at warp speed," - Director Michael Mayer, Playbill interview, April 2019.
What are the most common questions about Beetlejuice Musical Songs The Order That Works Best?
When did Beetlejuice the Musical premiere on Broadway?
Beetlejuice the Musical officially opened on April 25, 2019, at the Winter Garden Theatre after previews from March 28, following its D.C. tryout.
What's the most famous song from Beetlejuice musical?
"Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" stands out, reprised from the 1988 film and performed at the 73rd Tony Awards on June 9, 2019, garnering 50 million YouTube views by 2026.
Are there differences in song order for tours?
Tours maintain the core 22-song structure but occasionally merge "Whole 'Being Dead' Thing" parts for 90-minute school editions, approved by Music Theatre International since 2021.
Who wrote the Beetlejuice musical songs?
Eddie Perfect penned music and lyrics, drawing from Danny Elfman's 1988 film score elements like the sandworm motif, with orchestrations by Jason Michael Webb debuting March 14, 2019.
How to watch full Beetlejuice musical performances?
Full proshots remain unreleased, but bootlegs from the 2022 tour circulate fan sites; official highlights air on PBS's Great Performances specials, last on December 15, 2023.
Is Beetlejuice musical family-friendly?
Rated PG-13 equivalent for innuendo and mild gore, suitable for ages 10+ per Broadway League guidelines; 76% of attendees were families during the 2019 run.