INTERVIEW: Adam Dannheisser is back on Broadway in ‘Beetlejuice’
Photo: Beetlejuice stars Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer and Adam Dannheisser. Photo courtesy of Matthew Murphy / Provided by Polk & Co. with permission.
Actor Adam Dannheisser has had quite the journey with the Broadway musical Beetlejuice. He originated the role of Charles, a business man who moves in to a haunted house, back when the show first opened pre-pandemic at the Winter Garden Theatre. The ghostly musical shut down to make way for The Music Man with Hugh Jackman, and then then theater world shut down for the balance of the COVID-19 crisis.
Would Beetlejuice reopen at a new theater? Thankfully, the answer was a supernatural YES! The musical is now playing to sold-out audiences at the Marquis Theatre in the heart of Times Square, regularly grossing more than $1 million on a weekly basis. Joining Dannheisser is Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer (playing his wife, Delia), Alex Brightman as the paranormal title character, and Elizabeth Teeter as Lydia, Charles and Delia’s wonderfully weird daughter. Rounding out the cast are Kerry Butler and David Josefsberg.
“It has been a wild journey,” Dannheisser said in a recent phone interview. “We were supposed to be leaving the Winter Garden, but the plans were to move it to another theater. So to have everything sort of shut down and not know whether the thing is going to even come back now is a bit harrowing over the last several months. Then, we caught word that we had a home, so that was comforting to know because there was nothing else going on. And then to be able to come back and open stronger than ever was an absolute thrill and joy and relief.”
At this point, Dannheisser’s time at the Winter Garden is almost erased from his memory. He has been focusing on the present and the future, enjoying every second of Beetlejuice’s residency at the Marquis. He had high praise for Teeter, a new addition to the cast, calling her an insanely hard worker and incredibly talented.
“She is just a positive force in the show now, and Alex is also so grateful to be back in the stripes again,” he said. “It’s just a renewed sense of joy and gratitude for being able to do it.”
Dannheisser, who has also appeared in Oslo, Fiddler on the Roof and Rock of Ages, came to the musical because of its director, Alex Timbers. He had always wanted to work with the man behind such hit shows at Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Peter and the Starcatcher and Rocky.
“I was brought in very early on a workshop of it,” the actor said. “I was attracted to just the idea of who I was going to be working with and the talent around me, and then the role really intrigued me because in other hands — and this is not a pat on the back — it can be a very bland role. And getting in on the ground floor with it I was able to make a dynamic character that wasn’t necessarily there to begin with sort of pop off the page, not that it was in the writing or anything, but in the performance of it, it could have had a secondary feel to it. But now I feel very much a part of things. I was able to sit around the table and help create the guy and say what I needed or what I thought Charles needed to give him a successful journey ultimately, and the writers and Alex and everyone were so open to ideas and trying things and changing things, as you should do in a workshop situation.”
He added: “But I was really, truly able to create the role, so that was a gift. I’ve only ever done that once before where I get to create something that’s never been seen before, and that was Rock of Ages when I had a similar process with that show. … To be an advocate for your character is a really, really cool thing.”
Performing eight shows a week can be draining for any actor, especially for those performers in a musical, and in particular those in a musical that caters to a younger crowd. For Dannheisser, his Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday feel somewhat “civilized,” as he put it. Then comes the weekend.
“We do two on Saturday and two on Sunday,” he said. “So certainly there is a level of fatigue after the weekend, but it’s our job. It’s what we do, and we pull each other along when we get tired or feel under the weather or feel a lack of focus or whatever. We’re really a company in that sense in that we keep each other light and laughing, and joke about our various injuries and foibles on stage and everything. We’re really a cohesive company, which makes it a lot of fun, and then of course having an audience clapping and standing doesn’t hurt either.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Beetlejuice, featuring Adam Dannheisser, is now playing at the Marquis Theatre on Broadway. Click here for more information and tickets.
