METRMAG Spotlight On: Abe Goldfarb coming to the Hanover Theatre as "Otho" in the American Tour of "BEETLEJUICE THE MUSICAL" (Worcester, MA.)
(Cover Photo: ABE GOLDFARB portrays the character "Otho" in the latest tour of "BEETLEJUICE THE MUSICAL" coming to the Hanover Theatre in Worcester, MA. from January 2 through January 7, 2024. Photo Courtesy Hanover Theatre)
By Kevin T. Baldwin
METRMAG Reviewer
# 774-242-6724
METRMAG Spotlight On: Abe Goldfarb coming to the Hanover Theatre as "Otho" in the American Tour of "BEETLEJUICE THE MUSICAL"
The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts
Presents the Broadway Smash
"BEETLEJUICE THE MUSICAL"
It's showtime!
Music & Lyrics by Eddie Perfect
Book by Scott Brown & Anthony King
Based On The Geffen Company Picture, with a Story by Michael McDowell & Larry Wilson
Directed by Alex Timbers
Musical Supervision, Orchestrations, & Incidental Music by Kris Kukul
Choreography by Connor Gallagher
Cast Includes: Justin Collette as “Beetlejuice”; Isabella Esler as “Lydia”; Megan McGinnis as “Barbara”; Will Burton as “Adam”; Jesse Sharp as “Charles”; Sarah Litzsinger as “Delia”; Jackera Davis as “Girl Scout, U/S Lydia”; Veronica Fiaoni as “Miss Argentina”; Abe Goldfarb as “Otho” (U/S Adam, Charles, Maxie Dean); Kris Roberts as “Maxine Dean,” “Juno,” Ensemble (U/S Delia); Brian Vaughn as “Maxie Dean (U/S Charles)”; Swing: Lexie Dorsett Sharp (U/S Barbara, Delia, Maxie Dean, Juno, Miss Argentina), Matthew Michael Janisse (U/S Beetlejuice, Adam, Charles, Otho, Maxie Dean), Ryan Breslin (Dance Captain, U/S Adam, Maxie Dean, Otho), Haley Hannah (Assistant Dance Captain, U/S Barbara, U/S Maxine Dean, U/S Juno, U/S Girl Scout); Ensemble: Kenway Hon Wai K. Kua, Mateo Melendez, Drew Minard, Lee N. Price (U/S Beetlejuice, Otho), Larkin Reilly (U/S Lydia, U/S Girl Scout, U/S Miss Argentina), Michael Biren (U/S Beetlejuice, Maxie Dean, Otho), Haley Fish (U/S Barbara, U/S Delia, U/S Miss Argentina), Corben Williams (NOTE: Information obtained from tour website subject to change)
Additional Creative Team:
David Korins - Scenic Design; William Ivey Long - Costume Design; Kenneth Posner - Lighting Design; Peter Hylenski - Sound Design; Peter Nigrini - Projection Design; Michael Curry - Puppet Design; Jeremy Chernick - Special Effects Design; Michael Weber – Illusions; Charles G. Lapointe - Hair & Wig Design; Joe Dulude II - Make-Up Design; Lorenzo Pisoni - Physical Movement Coordinator; The Telsey Office & Rachel Hoffman, CSA - Casting; Eddie Perfect & Kris Kukul - Additional Arrangements; Matt Stine - Music Producer; Kristy Norter - Music Coordination; David Dabbon - Dance Arrangements; Andy Grobengieser - Music Director/Conductor; Alan D. Knight - Production Stage Manager; Joel T. Herbst - Company Manager; Catie Davis - Associate Director; Michael Fatica - Associate Choreographer; Allied Global Marketing - Tour Marketing & Press; Spotco - Digital & Social Media; The Road Company - Tour Booking; Networks Presentations / Walker White - Production Management; Jenny Gersten - Line Producer; Gentry & Associates / Gregory Vander Ploeg - General Management Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures – Producer; Networks Presenations / Mimi Intagliata & Seth Wenig – Producer; Original Broadway General Manager – Bespoke Theatricals. (NOTE: Information obtained from tour website subject to change)
Performances:
January 2, 2024 until January 7, 2024
(Contact Box Office for Exact Times)
Presented at the HANOVER THEATRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, 2 Southbridge St., Worcester.
For More Information:
877-571-SHOW (7469) info@thehanovertheatre.org
COVID 19 PROTOCOLS
Contact Venue for Most Updated COVID-19 Safety Protocols and Information.
METRMAG Spotlight On: Abe Goldfarb coming to the Hanover Theatre as "Otho" in the American Tour of "BEETLEJUICE THE MUSICAL"
Coming in January, 2024, the Hanover Theatre in Worcester brings to its stage the musical adaptation of "BEETLEJUICE" and METRMag chats with one of its stars, ABE GOLDFARB, who plays “Ortho” on this latest American tour.
In actuality, the actor was just about to "step into" the title role on Broadway just before the pandemic shutdown occurred, but more on that later.
First, a little background history on the show itself:
After a 2018 tryout in Washington, D.C. "BEETLEJUICE THE MUSICAL" premiered on Broadway in 2019.
Like all of Broadway at the time, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the show halted performances in March, 2020, remaining dormant until April, 2022.
The American tour began in December, 2022 and the Broadway show closed in January, 2023.
The musical adaptation of "BEETLEJUICE" is based on the 1988 film of the same name (directed by Tim Burton), features music and lyrics by Eddie Perfect with its book by Scott Brown and Anthony King.
As indicated from the very start of the show, the musical departs from the original source material as the story concerns a ghostly couple who try to haunt the new inhabitants of their former home.
The ghosts call seek help from a mischievous and malevolent ghost named “Betelgeuse” (aka "BEETLEJUICE"), who can only appear by saying his name three times.
One of the new inhabitants is a young girl, Lydia (played on this latest tour by Isabella Esler), who copes with both her mother's death and her neglectful father.
As stated, GOLDFARB was appearing in the original Broadway production just before it shut down.
Q - According to your Playbill biography from the original run of "BEETLEJUICE," you made your Broadway debut in this production, not only as part of the Ensemble but also understudying for many roles including the role of "BEETLEJUICE." Did you ever have the opportunity to play the part?
AG – “You know, it is both funny and heartbreaking,” GOLDFARB recalls. “I had my ‘put in’ rehearsal for 'BEETLEJUICE' just a week before the (pandemic) shutdown. Not one week later, everything shut down.”
Q – Where is ABE GOLDFARB from and where do you live now (when not on the road touring)?
AG – “I was born in Port Washington, a small town on Long Island. I now live in Brooklyn Heights and that came about after a significant amount of moving around.”
Q – When you decided to venture into acting as a profession, were your parents supportive or did they advise you to pursue another line of work?
AG – “My parents were foolishly supportive of my chosen profession,” GOLDFARB says. “My mother still loves the theatre. My dad did a lot of amateur acting with my earliest recollection being him playing the orderly in the show, ‘House of the Blue Leaves’ at a local theatre. So, they were incredibly affirmative and probably more so, considering.”
GOLDFARB also studied at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, a noted drama school in Bristol, England. Also, as indicated in that same aforementioned Playbill bio, GOLDFARB indicates being a “world-wide burlesque emcee (seriously).”
Q - Somewhere in the middle of these two experiences, one can only assume this is where the truth lies. But can you elaborate on these two separate experiences a little?
AG - “Well, I went for three years at the VIC. The hours were absolutely insane,” GOLDFARB remembers. “Very hard work which helped prepare me for work in the theatre.”
“When I got back to New York, there wasn’t a lot of work. So, I ended up, through bizarre happenstance, doing burlesque work and it has turned into a huge thing where I have hosted burlesque shows all over the world for 17 years. It is a lot of fun.”
GOLDFARB continues, citing these two ostensibly different experiences being, what he describes, as “congruent.”
AG - “Both are based in classic roots of theatre,” GOLDFARB explains. “The audiences, back then, were providing responses for those moments when they either liked or didn’t like something - which is much the same with burlesque. My classical training (at the VIC) has also fed into this. Had I not studied Shakespeare I wouldn’t be as good at emceeing.”
In addition to ABE GOLDFARB'S stage work on Broadway, the actor has done a lot of film work and is a veteran voice work actor.
GOLDFARB recently co-directed and starred in the film “First Time Caller” which has been making the rounds at film festivals and is due out ‘on demand’ in 2024.
AG - “That movie was based on a podcast I did during the pandemic and is a very, very good film, I believe,” GOLDFARB notes, saying, “The response we’ve received has been impressive. It’s a disaster movie set entirely in a guy’s basement.”
GOLDFARB voiced 156 episodes of the animated series “The Jungle Book” as the character of panther “Bagheera” and also did 146 episodes as “Professor Kukui” among other voices on the “Pokemon” series.
AG - “I started doing that (voicework) in 2015 and it is a really fun gig,” GOLDFARB says.
Q - When you made your Broadway debut in "BEETLEJUICE," do you feel your voicework, especially, prepared you for the understudy role and in portraying the divergent number of characters in this production?
AG – “Actually, I don’t see it that way,” GOLDFARB says. “I feel that my combined classical training along with the burlesque training I experienced was probably the best training for this job.”
GOLDFARB elaborates.
“I see a distinction between ‘Broadway funny’ vs. ‘downtown funny,’ GOLDFARB says. “‘Downtown funny’ - which comes more from my burlesque experience - is a kind of earthy humor and sensibility, which you don’t get to experience a lot in other Broadway shows. I think that ‘downtown funny’ sensibility really filters through in 'BEETLEJUICE' and has made the show more of a comfortable fit for me.”
(Cover Photo: The CAST of the latest tour of "BEETLEJUICE THE MUSICAL" coming to the Hanover Theatre in Worcester, MA. from January 2 through January 7, 2024. Photo Courtesy Hanover Theatre)
GOLDFARB points out some of the differences between the movie and the musical.
AG – “Musical adaptations of hit films have received a bad rep for being just ‘that movie with some extra songs,’” GOLDFARB explains. “With 'BEETLEJUICE,' this show is such a radical reinterpretation of the story. The writers (Eddie Perfect, Scott Brown and Anthony King) have opened it up, reconfigured it and mixed it so that it is unbelievably new.”
Continuing, ABE GOLDFARB speaks to the legacy of the show and its impact on those who may not even have seen the 35-year-old film.
AG – “You know, we have a whole new generation of kids who, for them, this is their first exposure to the 'BEETLEJUICE' story - and I feel incredibly honored to be a part of it. Maybe they will go back and watch the original film. If so, then that is an added benefit, as well.”
GOLDFARB plays the character “Otho” which some folks of...<ahem>…”a certain age” might recall from the motion picture and who can best be described as a “classic borderline narcissist.”
GOLDFARB describes how his character “Otho” in the latest "BEETLEJUICE" adaptation is an example of the huge departure taken from the original movie.
AG – “The ‘Otho’ onstage is completely different. On film, he is more subdued, and his function a little bit different,” GOLDFARB says. “On stage, this ‘Otho’ is a flamboyant huckster. He is so mystical and greedy - it is ridiculous. On stage he is responsible for a bit more calamity.”
GOLDFARB explains why he also sees 'Otho' as a “wild card.”
AG – “He is a wild card in that, since joining the show, I have seen five actors play ‘Otho’ and all of those ‘Othos’ were approached very differently. The character is written in such a way that it is opened up for interpretation.”
Q - What comes after "BEETLEJUICE" for ABE GOLDFARB? Do you have any more emceeing gigs lined up?
AG - “I hope to do some (emceeing) again as it is such a direct form of communication,” GOLDFARB says. “But I’m also focusing on another film to direct but this time NOT act in; and more wonderful theatre to prepare for.”
Ultimately, what does GOLDFARB hope people walk away from after having seen "BEETLEJUICE?"
AG – “'BEETLEJUICE' is a show that takes grieving very seriously but is also very vaudevillian,” GOLDFARB says, first explaining one of the more serious aspects of the show.
“It ('BEETLEJUICE') takes the feeling of this one woman (the young girl, Lydia) very seriously, evoking great empathy by those who might have also been struck by a great loss - but also maybe by those who haven’t. Perhaps they also will walk with way with a bit more empathy, as a result.”
Tying in the tears with the laughter, GOLDFARB concludes, saying, “So, while every night, we have folks walking away with laughter they are also, at times, holding back tears. I want people to walk away with a lot of love in their hearts because life is finite. So, given that, we should all love those we have in our lives now and honor those we have lost.”
"BEETLEJUICE THE MUSICAL" arrives to haunt the Hanover Theatre in Worcester January 2nd through the 7th, 2024. For tickets and more Information contact the Hanover Theatre at # 877-571-SHOW (7469) or email info@thehanovertheatre.org.
Approximately two hours, 30 minutes with one intermission
Kevin T. Baldwin is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA)
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ABOUT THE SHOW
It’s showtime!
Broadway's “SCREAMINGLY GOOD FUN!” (Variety) musical comedy is now haunting houses all across the country!
He earned his stripes on Broadway… now the "ghost-with-the-most" is coming to Worcester!
Based on Tim Burton’s dearly beloved film, "BEETLEJUICE THE MUSICAL" tells the story of Lydia Deetz, a strange and unusual teenager whose whole life changes when she meets a recently deceased couple and a demon with a thing for stripes.
With an irreverent book, an astonishing set, and a score that’s out of this Netherworld, "BEETLEJUICE" is “A FEAST FOR THE EYES AND SOUL!” (Entertainment Weekly).
And under its uproarious surface (six feet under, to be exact), it’s a remarkably touching show about family, love, and making the most of every Day-O!
CONTENT ADVISORY
Contains strong language, mature references, and a lot of the crazy, inappropriate stuff you would expect from a deranged demon.
2 hours and 30 minutes with a 15 minute intermission
Please contact the box office at 877-571-SHOW (7469) for more information.
ABOUT HANOVER THEATRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
Worcester Center for Performing Arts is a registered not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization, which owns and operates The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts. All donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.
HANOVER THEATRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
2 Southbridge Street
Worcester, MA. 01608
877-571-SHOW (7469)
