everything must come to an end.
an eventual truth that plagues our daily lives, especially today. as i am writing this, it's january 3rd, 2026, the last day that justin collette will take up the mantle of beetlejuice. this day truly fills me with immense sorrow, as justin's interpretation of the character my absolute favorite. it's the one i kept up with the most, as well as the one i saw the most frequently due to his lengthy tenure.
it honestly saddens me that he'll never get the same attention or praise alex did. not that i expect him to, but truthfully he does deserve more from fans. if you go to a video on instagram, twitter, or so on with a video featuring his beetlejuice, the comments are filled with people mistaking him for alex, people clamoring for alex's return, people downplaying his chops an actor for alex, and then the occasional hellaverse comparison. i've never seen such blatant disrepectful for a broadway actor in my entire life. it's disheartening because his flavor of juice (how i refer to each actor's interpretation of the character) got me through some really tough times in my life. when hurricane helene hit my home, my all of my ultities were cut off save for water. i didn't have many videos/movies downloaded to my phone, but i did have a boot of one justin's performances as beetlejuice, so out of pure curiosity, i decided to watch it to pass the time and that was honestly the best decision of my life.
i was captivated by each and every actor giving it their very best in the show, and it really did help to pass so much time because i watched over, and over, and over again. it was honestly one of the few things i couldn't get bored of while essentially a prisoner in my own home. it honestly brought me a source of levity in a time that was truly anything but. when i went to see him live for my birthday, it was truly the centerpiece of one of the best days of my life. being able to laugh along with the audience and marvel at the set pieces, lighting, music, singing, acting and so on truly left me in such a great euphoria that i don't think i'm ever reaching anytime soon. it was fucking awesome, to put it lightly.
what i love most about justinjuice is that he truly takes the role by the neck and molds it into HIS own shape. he makes jokes that are exclusive to HIM. he does improv that's exclusive to HIM. he adds little mannerisms that are exclusive to HIM. and i acknowledge that every actor who went on to play as beetlejuice each added their own unique spin to the role, but he truly owned the role and made it his own. there's even a video of him going over to wake up a sleeping patron while cracking jokes, and while we'd never know if his predecessors would've did the same, he did because he's truly attentive with the audience. you can truly tell that over time he stepped away from the mannerisms and jokes of previous actors and went with his own material and that's what makes his flavor of juice shine the most for me. you can truly tell he gives it his all and nothing less. if you can nitpick differences between multiple actors and their takes on the same character, that's how you know the casting is on-point.
humanity has a strange habit of not appreciating greatness until it's gone, and from what i can tell, justin will be another victim to this cycle by the masses of greenhorn fans. nevertheless, i will always admire him for the work he put in, and i will continue to keep up with his ventures wherever they take him.
