By Meg Watson
“Everybody in this room, including myself, is going to die.” That’s the mantra that actor-composer-comedian Eddie Perfect repeats to himself every time he steps on stage – an unconventional way to calm his nerves and lower the stakes of the situation.
But those words will be particularly relevant next year as he treads the boards of the Regent Theatre for the biggest role of his career. Perfect will play the title character in his hit Broadway musical Beetlejuice, set to open in May 2025 – a show that “takes the taboo [of death] and kicks the shit out of it”.
Eddie Perfect in costume as Beetlejuice.Credit: Benny Capp
This moment has been a long time coming for the Melbourne local. It’s been 10 years since Perfect wrote the Tony-nominated music and lyrics for the show, “making crazy noises” out the back of his home in Brunswick (you can listen to the demos on Spotify).
It’s also been 16 years since his now-iconic production Shane Warne: The Musical debuted across the street at the Athenaeum. He recalls having a beer after the show, “an untested entity”, enviously watching the giant crowds gather for Wicked across the road at the Regent Theatre.
“To play the big room I had to go all the way to New York and do five years of development and two years of performances and survive a pandemic,” he says. “It’s been a long journey to get across Collins Street.”
A raucous adaptation of Tim Burton’s 1988 movie of the same name, Beetlejuice is now bound to be the big show in town. Its successful Broadway run (a surprise to some after early negative reviews) resulted in eight Tony nominations, including best musical, and the production has since toured the US and been staged in Japan, Brazil and Sweden.
“When Beetlejuice arrives in Australia, it will have been stress-tested and developed over about 10 years and had numerous productions on Broadway to see what works and what doesn’t,” he says.
After Washington Post critic Peter Marks took particular issue with a possessed pig’s penis, for example, it was cut – literally – from the show and mounted on a board at New York’s Winter Garden Theatre. “As you were walking through the underpass, you’d go past the Peter Marks Memorial Pig’s Penis,” Perfect says.
Perfect announced last year the show would be heading to Australia, but has been coy about the casting until now. And though he didn’t write the role for himself – Alex Brightman played the undead agent of chaos on Broadway – the 46-year-old always had the local lead in his sights. He was the first person locked in for the Melbourne show and then helped find the rest of the cast (which is yet to be announced).
“There’s not a huge number of places to hide if it doesn’t work. I can’t blame the music and the lyrics. I wrote them.”
Eddie Perfect: “Beetlejuice is gonna be my Everest.”Credit: Benny Capp
“I’m at that age where a lot of people I know are finding grown-up, physical challenges for themselves,” he says. “They’re doing marathons, or they’re riding their bike across Europe, or they’re climbing snow-peaked mountains … Beetlejuice is gonna be my Everest.
“It’s a scary thing. There’s not a huge number of places to hide if it doesn’t work. I can’t blame the music and the lyrics. I wrote them.”
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