Latest / The BSB Podcast / Exclusive Interview: Rocco Morrow & Riley Chu of Stagecrafter's 'Beetlejuice Jr.'

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Exclusive Interview: Rocco Morrow & Riley Chu of Stagecrafter's 'Beetlejuice Jr.' · The BSB Podcast

• 0:00
  Thank you so much, you two, for joining me today.
• 0:01
  How you doing?
• 0:02
  You're so good, how are you?
• 0:03
  We're doing good, we're doing good.
• 0:04
  So you're currently in Tech Week for Beetlejuice Jr.
• 0:07
  at Stagecrafters.
• 0:08
  How's that going?
• 0:09
  It's going great, it's going great.
• 0:11
  We're really, really ahead of the game.
• 0:13
  I mean, we've been doing full runs like even two weeks before tech.
• 0:17
  like, it almost feels like it's in our bones at this point in our DNA.
• 0:22
  Yeah, we go dark tomorrow and then up on Friday.
• 0:26
  So not much time left.
• 0:28
  It's kind exciting.
• 0:28
  Yeah.
• 0:30
  you get nervous right about now and like in the timeline of the production you're about to go dark is there the nerve set in?
• 0:35
  Little bit, little bit, you know, just like with any show.
• 0:38
  I mean, I will say like in terms of nerves, like for this show, since it's kind of like how it functions is pretty like loose, like riffy, like it's I'm a little less nervous, a
• 0:51
  little more excited.
• 0:52
  Yeah, me too.
• 0:53
  I'm really excited for everyone to see it.
• 0:55
  And I don't know, maybe I'm nervous for like the production as a whole.
• 0:58
  Like I want it to go well.
• 0:59
  But for us, I feel like we're both really locked in on our characters.
• 1:02
  So yeah.
• 1:04
  I love that.
• 1:04
  And for the people who don't know, we have Beetlejuice and Lydia sitting in front of us.
• 1:08
  I mean, this is super, super exciting.
• 1:11
  Rocco what's it kind of like to step into the shoes of Beetlejuice?
• 1:15
  Dude, it's pretty insane.
• 1:17
  I'm just really, really, really stoked that I get to step into such a storied character.
• 1:27
  Great actor Michael Keaton played him initially, and then just all the actors who've played him in the Broadway show and stuff.
• 1:34
  It's really cool.
• 1:36
  He's an interesting character.
• 1:38
  He's definitely the wackiest I've played.
• 1:42
  you know, being Beetlejuice.
• 1:44
  But I think like that's also great because, you know, I get to kind of improvise a little bit, get to riff kind of.
• 1:53
  So yeah, it's very, very, very, very fun.
• 1:55
  I'm very fortunate.
• 1:57
  to say not only is he like such an iconic character, but he's also, like you said, wacky.
• 2:00
  He's kind of weird.
• 2:01
  He's kind of different.
• 2:02
  And you get to play really a lot with that.
• 2:04
  Yeah, exactly.
• 2:05
  It's so fun.
• 2:05
  Like as an actor, just like, I don't know.
• 2:08
  It's such an incredible experience to kind of like, okay, how do I make this like demon creepy old guy like super grounded and like actually relatable?
• 2:21
  Because I feel like also a part of it as an actor is like kind of making him seem like, yeah, this guy could exist.
• 2:29
  You could see this guy in like a coffee shop.
• 2:32
  You know what I mean?
• 2:32
  Like, it's kind of like, I don't know, making him grounded too was like very, I mean, not grounded of course, but like, you know, a little relatable.
• 2:44
  Like I found that, you know, even though we don't want to admit it, we all have a little bit of a Beetlejuice in us.
• 2:49
  You know what I mean?
• 2:49
  Like, there's going to be moments in this show where you're like, yeah, that's something I do or that's pretty funny.
• 2:55
  I've seen somebody that reminds me of somebody.
• 2:57
  You know what I mean?
• 2:58
  So.
• 2:59
  Thousand percent.
• 3:00
  mean, I think that he is truly I think he's even funnier in the musical than he is in the movie um And Riley for you, I mean where would beetlejuice be without Lydia.
• 3:11
  What is it like for you to kind of step into that role?
• 3:14
  my gosh, it's insane.
• 3:16
  Lydia has been one of my dream roles since I started doing theater.
• 3:20
  And I don't know if you've heard this, but I've had lots of acting coaches and vocal coaches who tell me when you walk into an audition room, you never sing dead mom as your
• 3:29
  audition song.
• 3:29
  Because everyone's heard it.
• 3:31
  Everyone's heard it.
• 3:31
  Everyone's done it.
• 3:32
  Everyone's tried to do it because it's so iconic.
• 3:35
  And the fact that I just get to perform such a big, sought after, iconic girl power role, I just...
• 3:43
  It's so empowering and exciting.
• 3:47
  I was gonna say, like all the songs from the show, first off, the whole Being Dead thing, but that song is like the show that everybody knows from Beetlejuice, whether they've seen
• 3:56
  it or not.
• 3:57
  If you know theater, you know Dead Mom, and that is an iconic song.
• 4:03
  And so, with the two of you, the show is the two of you, granted there's other characters, but how are you feeding off of each other when you're on there?
• 4:12
  Because Lydia and Beetlejuice have some great chemistry.
• 4:14
  yeah, yeah, I mean so me and Riley have done shows with each other for years and like It so that definitely helped with like the chemistry like we already had that built in but
• 4:26
  like going into the show Even though they seem like kind of different characters We sort of realized that they're on the same path pretty much like, you know Lydia kind of wants
• 4:36
  to die and Beetlejuice wants to be alive.
• 4:39
  They want to trade places and it's an interesting dichotomy where like
• 4:43
  you by the end of the show they almost realize that like well you know even though this is what you want it's not necessarily what you need and I think we play off that pretty well.
• 4:52
  Yeah.
• 4:54
  Yeah I think it really helps that we're like best friends in real life too and we get to get to the point where we're like I don't know they're kind of like magnets like they get
• 5:03
  close and close and they're like friends and then they like repel apart.
• 5:06
  exactly.
• 5:07
  They make each other mad but we've yeah we like he said we've played good friends in other shows too so.
• 5:13
  on.
• 5:14
  I mean, I think that kind of explores real-life friendship too.
• 5:17
  Sometimes you are mad at each other and sometimes you're the best friends in the world.
• 5:21
  Exactly.
• 5:22
  But Beetlejuice and Lydia definitely like, they need each other.
• 5:25
  Yeah.
• 5:25
  For sure.
• 5:26
  For sure.
• 5:27
  So when you're kind of developing your characters, mean, first off, I should ask, you guys were familiar with Beetlejuice the movie before, right?
• 5:34
  Okay.
• 5:34
  uh And probably also the stage show.
• 5:37
  So like, how do you develop your character while like honoring what's happened before, but also making it your own?
• 5:43
  And you know, Riley, I'll kind of start with you.
• 5:44
  How do you make Lydia your own?
• 5:46
  Well, I am a very bubbly person in real life and very smiley, so not exactly the same character type as Lydia.
• 5:56
  I have tried to explore a lot more of her emotions besides just like angry and gritty and resentful because that's how she's normally played a lot.
• 6:07
  And of course I'm playing that into it too, but I'm trying to find like her softer sides and really show the audience all.
• 6:15
  the whole process of all the emotions that go through people's heads when they're dealing with grief and loss and trying to find themselves.
• 6:23
  So that's really what I have been focusing on.
• 6:26
  I mean, think that really is the humanization of that character.
• 6:29
  even though she's a human, can be kind of, um you can feel kind of distant from her as an audience member if she gets to like teenage angsty in that role.
• 6:39
  And how about you, you, Rocco how do you develop Beetlejuice?
• 6:42
  Well, I think that, you know, of course it's very hard to like not just want to copy Michael Keaton or even, you know, the original Beetlejuice guy on Broadway, Alex
• 6:54
  Brightman, because, you know, they're just like geniuses in how they play the role.
• 6:58
  But I think you can almost learn from them because like before Michael Keaton, there was no idea of the Beetlejuice.
• 7:06
  Like he just kind of walked on the set and was like, this is this guy.
• 7:10
  So I think it's it's
• 7:12
  kind of an interesting experience as an actor to like be like, okay, I can kind of flow and like make this character my own without making him too different.
• 7:21
  like, you know, just like reaching from like personal experiences or something is, is very good because especially like, you know, that we do it, we do a lot of improv in this show.
• 7:33
  There's a lot of room to like riff and stuff.
• 7:35
  And I feel like that can't be pre rehearsed, right?
• 7:39
  Like it's got to kind of come from here.
• 7:41
  And so I think that really helps with this.
• 7:43
  And also just when you get the voice down, when you get the makeup and costumes on, it just kind of like the character comes out basically.
• 7:51
  I was gonna say, actually spoke with one of the actors who's doing the tour recently.
• 7:55
  yeah, the interview's coming out soon, I promise.
• 7:58
  uh there's, um he was talking about, he's the understudy for Beetlejuice, and he said that every person who's understudy for Beetlejuice has a distinct, a distinctness to their
• 8:08
  Beetlejuice because of how they.
• 8:11
  how it's going to be portrayed and you don't get you get to really play in a sandbox of like this the same character but it's not the same Beetlejuice for every person and so
• 8:17
  it's exciting that you kind of get to feel that and you get to improv and kind of riff with that.
• 8:21
  Yeah, exactly, exactly.
• 8:24
  So with this being Beetlejuice Jr., this is kind of a, it's kind of brought down from the Broadway show, kind of, I don't want to say boiled down, because it's still the same show,
• 8:32
  but how do you feel like maybe the story has changed or the narrative, like what sets Beetlejuice Jr.
• 8:37
  apart from Beetlejuice the movie or even Beetlejuice the Broadway musical?
• 8:41
  I feel like a lot of the adult humor that gets cut out of the main show to make it the junior show, it's not necessarily lost more implied.
• 8:53
  So it's kind of more work for actors such as Rocco, where most of the jokes originated from, to like land the jokes that people in the audience will get but go over kids' heads
• 9:04
  or just it's a lot more work to be funny.
• 9:07
  Yeah.
• 9:08
  with junior scripts.
• 9:09
  it really takes a talented actor to be able to do that.
• 9:12
  Thank you.
• 9:12
  too.
• 9:12
  You're welcome.
• 9:13
  And I also think that like, personally, like, of course, like auditioning for this show is like Beetlejuice Jr.
• 9:21
  How's that going to work out?
• 9:22
  I saw the tour when it came to Detroit.
• 9:24
  So was like, dude, that was so raunchy.
• 9:27
  How does that work?
• 9:28
  But I was pleasantly surprised to find that like, the essence of the show isn't gone.
• 9:34
  Like, it's still the same wacky, zany humor that audiences have come to love.
• 9:42
  I really, like, I don't think that anybody's gonna be like, yeah, I mean, the show is great, but, you know, it's kind of lacking stuff in the swear word category.
• 9:55
  You know what I mean?
• 9:56
  I don't think it takes away from it at all, to be honest.
• 10:00
  Okay, so it sounds like it's pretty, it remains pretty true to the Beetlejuice experience.
• 10:05
  yeah, yeah.
• 10:06
  So how do you feel that this production of Beetlejuice, the musical has challenged you as an actor?
• 10:12
  And Rocco, I'm gonna start with you.
• 10:14
  Uh, well...
• 10:15
  I it's challenged me because you kind of have to just let yourself be your silliest and craziest self.
• 10:26
  I think even though that sounds pretty easy, it's a little harder than you think because you got to take risks.
• 10:33
  You got to try stuff, especially with improv.
• 10:39
  I personally like doing improv, but we have a lot of it in the show.
• 10:43
  And I feel like...
• 10:44
  at first I was a little worried I was like I didn't know if it was gonna land but I think that definitely challenges you but also just like honoring the character like you know I
• 10:56
  don't want people to walk away from this thinking man that was such a departure from anything I've ever seen you know what mean that wasn't even the same character like I
• 11:07
  don't want people walking away thinking that was just Rocco up on stage like I want it to be
• 11:14
  to the character without being like an exact carbon copy.
• 11:16
  So that was really challenging, but we'll see.
• 11:20
  I'm sure you've knocked it out of the park with this one.
• 11:23
  ah Riley, how about for you?
• 11:26
  What has been the most challenging aspect of this production for you?
• 11:30
  um I think definitely, you know, living up to Winona Ryder as the original Lydia is a whole thing in its own, it's obviously a very vocally challenging role, but I've never
• 11:44
  done so much acting in a show before and I think that probably is my weakest part of, you the triple threat, but I've been having so much fun getting better acting and working with
• 11:56
  so many more people in scenes instead of just singing and
• 11:59
  I don't know what else has been challenging.
• 12:01
  It's just been trying to differentiate Lydia from myself because I've always played, I tend to play boys a lot and animals in shows I've done before.
• 12:10
  I've never really played a real girl before and she's just so different from me.
• 12:15
  So it's been just the process of learning, you know, like, I can't just be myself.
• 12:19
  I got to put myself into this character who already exists, is already iconic.
• 12:23
  And it's just been really fun getting to play like a real girl.
• 12:26
  What a great role to start off to have like a real, you know, like be a real girl.
• 12:30
  oh So with the music, what has been like, what like, is your favorite number to perform?
• 12:37
  You know, I know that you said, Riley, you said, Dead Mom is a great one.
• 12:40
  Is that your favorite or do you have another one that you really enjoy performing?
• 12:43
  My favorite to perform is home because there's, I think that's the most emotional part of the show.
• 12:51
  She's kind of lost in the netherworld.
• 12:53
  She's looking for mom and she's realized she's not going to find her in this big world underneath her world.
• 12:59
  And she's feeling so lost.
• 13:01
  She wants to know how to get back home.
• 13:02
  She's feeling so disconnected from her family.
• 13:04
  And so she sings about that.
• 13:06
  And halfway through the song, her father comes on and she realized that he's followed her and he cares about her and they have this
• 13:12
  really emotional talk about, you know, remembering her mother because she feels so angry towards him because she feels like he's pushed the image of her dead mom out of his mind.
• 13:25
  But they end up making up and deciding to journey back home together.
• 13:29
  And I feel like that's the most important part of the show to me.
• 13:32
  I mean, that truly is like the emotional crux of the show.
• 13:35
  um a great turning point.
• 13:39
  Rocco how about for you?
• 13:40
  What's your favorite number to perform?
• 13:43
  My favorite number to perform used to be my least favorite and it's slowly become my favorite.
• 13:49
  It's that beautiful sound, which is like the big dance number in Act Two.
• 13:54
  a little background on why that used to be my least favorite is dancing is like my weakest thing.
• 14:03
  I'm at a wedding, people are like, why is this guy on the dance floor?
• 14:09
  Like I'm messing it up, but messing up the vibe.
• 14:13
  I grew as a dancer definitely in this number because it's very, very dance heavy.
• 14:19
  And also Beetlejuice just has to be like kind of this like fluid like guy, which I've not really had to play before.
• 14:26
  So I think that ah it's become my favorite because I've really seen myself like grow in real time.
• 14:34
  And that's also thanks to our wonderful choreographer, Maria Mo Ochoa, like.
• 14:41
  She's just incredible and she usually does like adult shows, but she came to ours and she like really like was like, listen, this choreography is going to be difficult, but I have
• 14:51
  faith in you guys and really like pumped me up to be like, okay, I'm okay at dancing now.
• 14:57
  I can do it.
• 14:57
  So that's, it's my favorite.
• 14:59
  What a rewarding moment to be able to nail that and be like, yes, this is it.
• 15:03
  It went from my least favorite to my most favorite.
• 15:07
  So, Rocco what's a theme from the show that seems to resonate the most with you?
• 15:11
  um I think the theme that seems to resonate most with me is not really a theme that my character really experiences, but what struck me at our first read-through, which is
• 15:25
  something that feel like audiences usually forget, it's not just like a happy, zany show, know, or scary, like, wild ride, it's there's a strong emotional core, especially with
• 15:35
  like Lydia and the dead mom, like, I...
• 15:38
  There's moments in this show where I'm backstage and I'm getting choked up because I'm like, wow, this like, I think that this show functions so well because it's not just like
• 15:48
  in your face, like hooting and hollering, hollering, laughing, you know what mean?
• 15:52
  Like it's, it's, there's a strong, they, they deal with grief in such like a poignant way where I'm like, I, I, I just, I don't know.
• 16:01
  It gets me every single night, no matter how long I see it, no matter how much I think of it.
• 16:06
  I'm just like.
• 16:07
  when we hit that number home and you know home part two like the entire cast is singing and it just feels kind of like okay even though like you can't see us we're singing off
• 16:19
  stage like it's almost like everybody's kind of got Lydia's back and it just really like in this grief stuff it just like really I don't know resonates with me.
• 16:30
  I mean, that's a beautiful answer.
• 16:32
  Riley, how about for you?
• 16:34
  think playing off of Rocco's grief answer stole my answer, Rocco.
• 16:39
  I'm sorry, dude.
• 16:43
  I think not only just the grief, but being able to like the acceptance of what you have and being able to be happy in the situations that you are in and accept the love and the
• 16:55
  people around you, I think is really important.
• 16:58
  And the whole show is about Lydia.
• 17:00
  spends so...
• 17:01
  long trying to find her mom and searching for this connection that she used to have.
• 17:06
  And by the end she realizes that like the last line of the show she says, I'm home because she's looking at the people around her and realizing how much love she has and like this
• 17:16
  journey has connected them all.
• 17:18
  And I think that it's really important how she is able to work through her grief and find people that will help her and like start to understand herself more deeply because of.
• 17:31
  her dealing with her mother's death.
• 17:34
  And I think that it's really important to be able to understand your emotions.
• 17:39
  And that's the biggest theme for me.
• 17:41
  While Rocco might have stole your answer, that was just the perfect part two there to that.
• 17:46
  They do kind of work hand in hand, those two themes.
• 17:48
  Final question for you then is just, are you hoping audiences take away from this production of Beetlejuice?
• 17:59
  I really hope that they take away the idea that like
• 18:05
  that we all sort of have like a Beetlejuice in us.
• 18:09
  We all have a like every character is is relatable in some way.
• 18:14
  And I feel like that's kind of what the show's about because the show isn't just about like, oh, look at this crazy demon guy.
• 18:20
  Like, he's so goofy.
• 18:21
  He's a bad person.
• 18:22
  Like, let's just cast him away.
• 18:24
  Like, I think it's also about like, hey, embrace your your, you know.
• 18:30
  your Beetlejuuice side or your Lydia side, know, feel emotions.
• 18:33
  That's really what this show is about, is like all these different feelings.
• 18:37
  I mean, there's even a part where, you know, I come alive and I become human and the whole point is that I feel all these emotions at once and it's super overwhelming.
• 18:48
  And I think that like, that's sort of what the show is about, is like, listen, it's okay to feel, it's okay to deal with these things.
• 18:56
  It's a part of life, like.
• 18:57
  and i think that's a message that's like not always you know supported especially like society like i've got to feel like it's really really important so that's what i hope at
• 19:09
  least like our main audience is kids too so it's a good thing to have like in the back of your mind is like a kid when you're like your brain is forming um...
• 19:22
  i mean first of all i really hope that
• 19:24
  we're able to make them laugh.
• 19:26
  It's a super funny show and I don't want the darkness of it, because I mean, every show has its roller coaster ups and downs and emotions.
• 19:34
  That's what makes it so deep and complex, but I really hope that we're able to make them laugh, because it's such a funny, funny show and I really hope that our audience has a
• 19:42
  good time.
• 19:44
  And another message I hope that they're able to take home is to love who you've got while you have time and to just like love with your whole heart and...
• 19:55
  I mean, as deep as Lydia loves her mom who's still not around, she wishes she had more time with her and she realizes by the end that she needs to appreciate her dad more and
• 20:04
  she appreciates Beetlejuice for saving her.
• 20:05
  Like, I think that everyone should just love more.
• 20:08
  beautiful answers.
• 20:09
  Thank you Rocco and Riley for joining me today.
• 20:11
  It has been such a pleasure.
• 20:12
  uh Beetlejuice Jr.
• 20:16
  runs at Stagecrafters from July 25th through August 3rd, so get your tickets now and we will see you there.