Eddie Perfect tells Jo Litson how he wrote the music and lyrics for Beetlejuice The Musical and why he agreed to play the deranged poltergeist in Melbourne.

Eddie Perfect, creator of Beetlejuice the Musical, sits in an armchair.
Eddie Perfect. Photo © Benny Capp

Keen to collaborate on a Broadway musical, Eddie Perfect had been going back and forth to New York for two years before Tim Minchin told him that pitches were being accepted from composer-lyricists for Beetlejuice The Musical.

Knowing this was an opportunity he couldn’t let slip, he immediately talked to his agent, who asked the creative team if Perfect could submit a pitch. The answer was ‘no’. 

But he wasn’t giving up that easily. “They didn’t want...