Beetlejuice: The Musical features Edmonton theatre grad in the orchestra pit

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Julia Sunay is very excited to introduce the cast of Beetlejuice: The Musical to Canada.

“I’ve already made my PDF of recommendations for both Edmonton and Calgary,” says Sunay, associate music director for the Broadway touring production. “We have a lot of people in our company who are fairly new to touring Canada and especially Alberta, so I’m urging them to maybe get down to the Rockies if the weather isn’t too dicey.”

Sunay has lived in a number of places since leaving Alberta, but the Calgary-born musical multi-hyphenate still has a soft spot for the home province. Her initial exposure to the thrills of musical theatre in both Calgary and Edmonton nurtured a growing passion, one that saw her attending performances at the Citadel, Lunchbox Theatre, Stage West and other theatrical venues. She was heavily involved in community marching bands in her youth. Foreshadowing her later occupation she conducted hundreds of other kids as a drum major.

Eventually she made the move up north to Edmonton, where she enrolled in the Grant MacEwan music program in 2005. There she worked with such local luminaries as vocal teacher Janet Nichol, actor and playwright Ken Brown, and Tim Ryan, founder and program director of the theatre arts program. Sunay feels that the skills she learned from the University helped shape her into the versatile performer she is today.

“Not just in terms of having an understanding of what it’s like to be in the orchestra pit,” she says, “but also to be on stage. From what I’ve been told I think one of the things that I’m good at is being able to connect with performers on that level because I know what it’s like to be there. I know what it’s like to deal with nerves and vocal insecurities, that kind of thing. So it was a great experience at Grant Mac.”

The road to Broadway was a long one, but Sunay has never lacked for gigs. She’s worked as accompanist at the Kiwanis Festival, and picked up jobs in both regional theatre and cruise ships both as musical director and pianist. It was while working on productions of shows like Jersey Boys and Shrek that Sunay began making contacts on Broadway. Her first job as an associate music director came with a national touring production of an Officer and a Gentleman in 2019, a gig picked up through connections made when working for Norwegian Cruise Lines.

“It really was baby steps,” she says. “Every opportunity would lead to another, and I always believed in giving 100 percent. I think sometimes about how I would see these Broadway Across Canada shows as a kid and wonder, oh, how do you work in the U.S.? It just seems like such a dream. How do you get there? So it’s just slowly working and meeting people that contributed to future success, I suppose. If there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s to trust in the timing of your career.”

Sunay has been with Beetlejuice: The Musical since rehearsals for the national tour began in October of 2022. In her position as associate music director, she collaborates with the music department to maintain all of the musical aspects of the show while on the road. That means working with the 10-piece band as well as a cast of singers and dancers for anything related to vocal coaching or the constant understudy rehearsals. Sunay is also the keyboardist for the show, and quite often you’ll see her conducting as well.

With a schedule of eight shows a week she’s had plenty of time to reflect on the original music written by composer Eddie Perfect.

“He’s infused so many musical genres in this,” she says. “It’s such a blast to play. It’s not a typical musical theatre sound. You can really actually hear that in the opening number, which has everything from rock, to jazz to Broadway. There’s ska and a little bit of reggae. We have tango in the second act. And then, of course, there are the songs that were made popular by Harry Belafonte like Jump in the Line as well as the Banana Boat Song.”

Sunay feels that fans of the 1988 Tim Burton film as well as the recent sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will be pleasantly surprised at the musical. The stage visuals remain suitably Burton-esque, sound effects and pyrotechnics keep the film’s edge of Looney Tunes wackiness. There are changes in the story, of course, but Sunay is confident that the production straddles the line between appeasing fans of the movie and those who come expecting a theatrical experience.

Beetlejuice: The Musical has been touring successfully around the States for two years now, with a couple of stops in Mexico. It has attracted some high-profile audience members, including U.S. representative Lauren Boebert, who along with her date was kicked out from a performance in Denver in 2023 for, among other things, accusations of vaping and other (ahem) improprieties. The American politician’s enthusiasm can be seen as on the outer edge compared to more sedate younger fans, who have not only embraced some of the signature Belafonte songs on TikTok, but also the characters themselves.

Sunay attributes this to the way in which the characters are fleshed out a little bit more in the musical. Tim Burton films tend to focus on outsiders, and the musical digs into this. For all of the manic energy and whirlwind music, Beetlejuice the film and the musical can be seen as paeans to community.

“That is a very big theme in the show,” says Sunay. “You’ll often see people at the stage door in various cities. They’re all dressed up, sometimes with different characters each time. You can tell that it means so much to them to see someone like Lydia on stage dealing with real feelings of being alone. It really resonates with their young audiences in a way that’s very, very emotional for them, and you’ll sometimes see that at the stage door. It’s quite touching and beautiful.”

Beetlejuice: The Musical

When: Tuesday to Sunday at 7:30 p.m., with 2 p.m. matinees on Saturday and Sunday

Where: Jubilee Auditorium

Tickets: are $75.50 and up, including taxes, available in advance from jubileeauditorium.com

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