Beetlejuice the musical. Photo Credit: Michelle Grace Hunder
Arturo Hilario
El Observador
The loveable but mischievous demon who conjures when you say his name three times is coming to the Bay Area to teach us about family, love and making the most out of life.
Beetlejuice the musical is returning to the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts from March 31-April 5, 2026 with a chaotic and hilarious production which takes the story of the beloved Michael Keaton film and turns up the charm, spookiness, and irreverence as high as it can go.
We recently spoke with a performer on the show, Alessandra Casanova, who is from Puerto Rico and has had a very interesting journey to get to this stage. This included performing on a condensed cruise ship version of Beetlejuice that had caveats that included participating in some ship crew member duties and managing to hurriedly change costumes and makeup while maintaining the focus on the show.
Find out why Casanova has been so excited about this opportunity with the national tour of the show, the importance of family in her career, audience engagement and acquiring super fans, the power of carrying ones culture and being a proud product of Puerto Rico.
For more information and tickets for Beetlejuice visit broadwaysanjose.com. Follow Alessandra Casnova on Instagram @alecsnva.
To start off, I wanted to ask if you could touch a little bit on your journey of getting into the arts and what inspired you and led to that spark to pursue this career?
It’s really silly because I did a show. I did like, Into the Woods, Jr. when I was in fifth grade. I remember how my mom, after we did that show, I was like, “I’m going to do this for the rest of my life.” And she was like, “Yeah, sure. All right.” And I never grew out of it, which she was expecting. So I just decided, and that just kept on being the dream. And then at some point, my mom was like, “Maybe you should take dance classes.”
So I started dancing at 15. And then went off to do it in college. Luckily, I got into a program. And I never strayed away from it, even when I had my doubts. But now that I’m on a career path, actually, and I’m working professionally, and I worked other jobs, [but] I just don’t think I can be happy doing anything else. It kind of confirmed to me now as an adult, which is nice.
So it was like something that started when you were young. You always liked musicals and things like that?
Yeah, I totally did. My cousin, actually, I owe it all to her because when we were maybe six or seven, she showed me Cats the musical, which is notoriously not amazing. But I loved it because there was this recorded version from the ’70s or ’80s on the West End, and we would watch that religiously. And ever since then, I was like, “Oh, I’m definitely musically inclined. I love doing that type of stuff.” She showed me what Wicked was. I owe it all to my cousin, honestly.
So prior to this touring version of Beetlejuice, you worked on your first national tour with the Pretty Woman musical and before that the cruising production of Beetlejuice. Could you talk about that unique experience?
I did Pretty Woman last year for five months, and that was really fun. It was my first time touring the country. The year before, I did the cruising production of Beetlejuice.
Pretty Woman was super fun. It kind of hit me over the head of how touring was, and I had to adapt pretty quickly, but it was really nice. I mean, the cast was really good, and I had two Puerto Ricans from the island there with me, which was so amazing. We were three peas in a pod. And it definitely taught me a lot. It was the first time I was doing eight show weeks consistently, and it was a nice way to prove to myself that I can do this career successfully.
And then before that, I did the ship, the “Beetle-Cruise”, which was really fun. It was really crazy to do this musical and then be in the Caribbean at the same time and go to the beach during the day and then just do the musical at night. It was such a weird experience, but really, really fun, too. Beetlejuice has been a dream show for a very, very long time, and this has been a long time coming for me, so I’m happy I’m here.
That’s great. And what are the differences of being on tour on a ship as opposed to being… Obviously, location changes a lot compared to just being on one location on the cruise line. But what are some differences, some good, some bad? Totally. Now, there’s a lot.
Right off the bat, the show was different. It was the same show, right? But it was cut down. So for cruise lines, they’ll essentially take the intermission away and then to try and make the show a straight hour 30, hour 45 minutes show because cruising audiences are [different]. They can do whatever they want. They’re there for the cruise, they’re not necessarily there to watch entertainment.
So I believe with an intermission, people would try to get up and leave and go explore and stuff. So I think that was the thought process behind that. So it was more of a marathon, honestly, the show itself. No breaks in between the numbers, really, which was a little difficult, but still really, really fun.
We only did it four times a week. It wasn’t a true eight show week because there was just other stuff going on. So we would do two, two-show days in a row at night, which was very, very tough, but still really good and really fun. And we had the rest of the week off from the show, which was cool.
But yeah, it was just different in that way. And the living of it all was interesting, too. You’re not really in a theater company. You’re a crew member over everything.
So you had to respond to the ship and its needs on top of being a performer on it.
Yeah. So it’s like you have an extra job on top of the performing?
We had to be a part of the crew drills, and we had to adapt to what the ship was going through. If we have to change a show because this or that was happening. It was just a very nontraditional way of going about putting on a production, which was neither good nor bad, just very interesting, and we had to adapt to it. But at the end of the day, the experience was incredible. I got to travel the world. I went to West Africa, which is insane.
Yeah, I performed Beetlejuice the musical in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. How do you even do that!
In the show you play the character of Miss Argentina, and you’re part of the ensemble. Can you touch on the role and what you knew or if you had any interest in the character from the film? Although it’s short screen time, it is pretty iconic role that now has its own song (“What I Know Now”) in this production.
It’s so iconic to me that she has the three lines on screen and the creators of the musical decided to do a whole number with her character. I’m so grateful. I think what’s really iconic from her in the movie is the design of it all. How random to have this little co-star role be just very, very detailed. She’s green, she has red hair, she’s clearly dead, and she has this whole backstory of being a beauty queen. So I think that’s really cool.
In the musical itself, she has just the most iconic song, I think, which is amazing. It’s so good, the style of it, the funniness of it. And honestly, her song, it gives us the message of the show, it’s the 11 o’clock number. It’s at this point where Lydia is seriously considering leaving the living world to go find her mom in the Netherworld, when you go into the Netherworld, you don’t come back to the living world, that’s the rule. And she’s just so desperate to find her mom that she’s willing to give up her living life to keep looking for her.
And then Miss Argentina comes in and she’s so adamant about her going back to the living world. Because in Miss Argentina’s brain, if she knew then what she knows now, she wouldn’t have taken her own life.
It’s this message of being grateful for what you have now because someday you won’t have it anymore. So just not jumping the gun and getting rid of that all quickly, even when things are really bad. Because in her brain, I created this whole backstory for her where she couldn’t really take the pressure of the beauty queen life, and she won, and all this stuff. And the pressure of having that title was too much for her that she decided to take her own life. She doesn’t want that for Lydia, essentially. It’s the whole thing. She’s cool.
I’ve been chasing after this role for a very long time. Because I’m a huge Leslie Kritzer fan (Original Broadway role of Miss Argentina). I’ve been a fan of her for a really long time. When I was in college, it was a song I sang in my class all the time. I did it for my college showcase, and then now I get to do it at the Pantages Theatre and San Jose and around the country. It’s all very full circle for me. It’s very, very, very exciting.
I’m kind of doing my part as a Puerto Rican artist, working in the US industry and making my mark. I’m doing my own part in this bigger mission of making sure that we’re included in the conversation.
-Alessandra Casanova, actress Beetlejuice the Musical
So you already knew that character. You knew that song, that performance.
I did. I worked on it quite a bit in college. It was something I guess I just manifested. It’s just a really good song. It’s a really good number. I also love to, in some way, represent my community on there.
The song is very Latin-infused.
This role can really be played by anyone. It has been played by a lot of different people. But it’s fun when a Hispanic person does it because I feel like I really add my own flavor to it. I’m speaking Spanish during the number and doing all this stuff and interjections, and I feel like if I was a kid and I saw that on stage in a national tour, I’d be like “Oh, my God. That’s so cool. That’s kind of me up there.”
Going off of that, what does it mean to be Latina and be in the performing arts, being from Puerto Rico, and a career where in the past, Latinos were few and far between? What does it feel like to be on stage and be the inspiration to other Latinos that are watching up and saying, “Hey, I can do that, too. That person looks like me, she can speak Spanish.”
It feels awesome. It feels really cool. I know this is like beating a dead horse, but this representation does really, really matter. I was always so surprised. Growing up in Puerto Rico, I didn’t feel super connected to the musical theater world just because you’re so far. And just now, the industry in Puerto Rico is growing, the theater industry. It wasn’t really present when I was a kid so it can feel really detaching.
In the Heights was huge for me, so even just seeing little moments of like, “Oh, my God, she speaks like me,” in this show that doesn’t really have anything to do with our community, you know? “It’s just this one little number, and she says this one thing, and this one Spanish word.” It’s like, “Oh my God, I caught that! I can do that, too.” It just feels cool also just being in this industry, too. And I’ve been growing in it for the past couple of years, and I’ve been meeting other Latina artists and connecting with them.
And it just feels like I’m included in it now. Not only am I admiring those people, but I am one of them, and I have peers that are also that. It feels really awesome. I feel like I’m completing this sort of mission I had when I was a kid. And yeah, it’s the same feeling I felt when I saw the Super Bowl.
We were on tour when we saw it, and the few Latinx people in the cast we all met and watched it all together and it was just awesome. Me seeing that, of course, I was jealous of the people out there because I wanted to be there, too. But it felt very like, “Wow, I’m kind of doing my part as a Puerto Rican artist, working in the US industry and making my mark. I’m doing my own part in this bigger mission of making sure that we’re included in the conversation.”
That was a very incredible thing to see, totally about humankind, but also representing the Americas and how we should all be proud of where we’re from. We are important in this country.
How beautiful is that feeling? When we watched the half-time show and one of my best friends that did the ship with me that’s on the cast with me right now, she looked at me and she was like, “It’s so cool to see you be so proud of where you come from.” I’m like, “Yeah, we should all be. We should literally all be.”
I always put it in my bio, too. Every time I do a show, I always put ” ¡DE PUERTO RICO PAL MUNDO!” or “From Puerto Rico to the world.” It’s always something that’s at the forefront of my mind.
What’s been your favorite part of this experience so far?
I think my favorite part is just the audience engagement. This is the first time I’m in a show that it feels like people really, really love it and that people go to the theater to specifically see it. Like, some of these people are just screaming in the audience when stuff happens because they’re so excited. And it’s so gratifying to feel that on stage. Our first preview in Fresno, I have never felt like this in my life, like our first preview in Fresno.
It was my second time doing the run of the show because I was injured in rehearsal and I had to sit out for two weeks, and I got to put back in, it was this whole thing. And we were in the first preview, and I do my entrance where there’s this little drum roll, and then the cymbal crash, and that’s Miss Argentina’s entrance. And I’m supposed to say my line immediately and keep the scene going. But I come out and people start screaming because they know who this character is and they know what this song is and they’re excited for it. And I was just so taken aback.
Oh, my God, I’ve never felt that in my life. And I wasn’t expecting that. It wasn’t really like that on the cruise ship. There wasn’t super fans on the cruise ship. So it feels so cool to feel like I’m a part of someone’s Beetlejuice history.
Theater kids are so obsessed with little things, and they keep tabs on like, “Oh, this person is playing this role in this version of this thing. I’m going to go see them and see how they are.” It’s so cool to feel like these people are paying attention to how you are portraying this character, this show, this dance or whatever.
So I think the audience engagement has been my absolute favorite part. And people are going to the stage door and asking me for an autograph, and it’s so fun. And they’re like, “This is my third time seeing the show, and I love this cast,” and all this stuff. I think that’s been my favorite part for sure.
People really do pay attention to that stuff, and it’s just created this whole Beetlejuice community. There’s a Beetlejuice reddit, and I go on there and I read what people say and all this stuff. They’re like, “Yeah, because this person did the cruise two years ago.” People pay attention. That’s been really, really cool. It’s like our little claim to fame moment.
I never thought I would be on BroadwayWorld.com. My name is on there! That’s just so cool.
What does your family think? Have they been to your shows?
My family haven’t come through quite yet because we’re waiting for Florida. We’ll be in Florida.
My parents have seen it a ton of times because they came on the cruise ship and they saw almost every show because they’re very supportive and they’re fun. But they’re super excited to see this full version. I’m really excited because it’s hard to get people on a cruise ship to come see your show because it’s a whole vacation.
So this time, it’s I’m excited to show not only my immediate family, but my extended family that will be able to come see this really cool production that I’m so, so proud of. This is by far the coolest thing I’ve ever done and the most challenging thing I’ve ever done. And I’m so excited for them to see… I’m kind of putting my money where my mouth is, right?
They’ve been waiting to see something cool, and this is it. This is it. So I’m so pumped for them to see it. And I just wanted to understand exactly what it’s about. My aunt Face Timed me in the middle of the show the other day, and my full face was green.
She had no idea what the heck is going on. “You’ll get it. You’ll get it when you see it. You’ll get it.” It’s just silly. They’ll finally get to understand what the weird niece is doing.
Last thing, if there’s anything you’d like to add, please do.
Oh, God, I don’t know, just, ¡DE PUERTO RICO PAL MUNDO!
