Tony nominated star talks Beetlejuice The Musical

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Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! A new musical has brought the beloved character to Broadway — and in a play about death and the afterlife, Tony-nominated star Alex Brightman told us how the role helped him understand the deaths of loved ones.

Transcript

00:00I'm Alex Brightman, and I play Beetlejuice in Beetlejuice the Musical, the Musical, the Musical.

00:06It's Showtime!

00:19The idea that darkness can be a subject that is not taboo,

00:23and death can be a subject that's not taboo, and it's celebrated.

00:27I think it's a perfect time for that these days.

00:29Over the last couple of years, I've had experiences with death close in my family.

00:35I had my grandfather die, and then my grandmother die,

00:41and then my other grandfather die, pretty back-to-back.

00:45And it's an odd feeling.

00:48What's great about this show, and what's great about the character I get to play,

00:51is I get to sort of tell the audience and tell myself that death is not an end.

00:56Death is a beginning. To what? We don't know, but isn't that fascinating?

01:00When you see a gray, foggy road ahead of you,

01:04you can either be the person that says,

01:06I'm terrified of what's on the other side of that,

01:08or you can do what I'm doing and just say,

01:10I can't wait to see what's on the other side of that.

01:12I'm in no rush to get there, but when I'm there, I think I will be person B,

01:17and just sort of saying, like, let's just close my eyes, leap through, see what's there.

01:20I think it's important to not think of death necessarily as bad.

01:26Death equals bad, death equals dark, and life equals light.

01:32Because I think there are shades of gray to all aspects of life,

01:36so why wouldn't there be shades of gray to all aspects of death?

01:39Our show is a really good way in to being able to have this conversation with people's kids,

01:43with people that may not feel comfortable bringing it up to their loved ones.

01:46We offer them a way in to sort of leave our show and say,

01:51hey, wasn't that crazy? And also while I'm at it,

01:53let's continue chatting about this subject that people have deemed taboo for so long.

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