The Tim Burton Musical Has Finally Found a West End Theatre; I Have Not Found a Ticket Price Within My Budget

From Bohiney and The London Prat.

By Lowri Griffiths | BigSmokeBroke.com

The Show

Beetlejuice the musical — the Broadway adaptation of Tim Burton’s 1988 film — has arrived at the West End having finally found a theatre large enough to stage it. Time Out London describes it as the biggest show coming to London in May 2026, which in a month that includes Gary Oldman in Glengarry Glen Ross and a separate all-female production of Glengarry Glen Ross is meaningful praise. May 2026 is either a Glengarry Glen Ross moment in London theatre or a licensing coincidence of significant proportions.

The Ticket Situation

I attempted to get tickets to Beetlejuice. The pricing structure begins at a level that represents a meaningful portion of my monthly energy bill that I am already paying attention to and extends upward through categories that I stopped reading about after the initial price. The demand for Beetlejuice tickets in May 2026 reflects its marketing, its Broadway reputation, and the specific West End moment of a show finding its home. I have not got tickets.

The Fringe Alternative

The Young Vic has Equus until July at prices that are more accessible and with a production that Timeout’s theatre coverage describes as its most intimate major staging. The Menier Chocolate Factory has a second Equus production simultaneously, which is either a planned theatrical exercise in comparison or a coincidence that the productions have decided to make thematically legible. Both are worth seeing. The Globe has its season for the price of standing in the yard.

North London’s Theatre Scene

The fringe theatre in North London — the Almeida in Islington, the Park Theatre in Finsbury Park, the Arcola in Hackney — produces work equivalent to West End work at prices that reflect fringe budgets rather than West End production values. The Almeida’s May programming is typically excellent. The Park Theatre is one of the better mid-size venues in London for new writing. The energy bill is less of a consideration at these price points. Read NewsThump.

More: The Daily Mash.

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SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/

London remains. The city absorbs every political crisis, every energy bill increase, every theatre ticket price surge, every development application, and every wave of newcomers with the specific resilience of a place that has been doing all of this simultaneously since before most other cities existed. The journalism that documents this absorption — the personal accounts of people living in specific parts of the city, paying attention to what living there is actually like — serves a function that official reporting does not: it makes the city legible to itself at the scale of the street and the neighbourhood rather than the policy and the statistic. This column is that journalism. It continues because the city continues, and the city will continue longer than any of the problems it is currently managing. The next development application has already been submitted. The next good coffee shop is already open. The next political crisis is already developing. We will cover all of them.

London remains. The city absorbs every political crisis, every energy bill increase, every theatre ticket price surge, every development application, and every wave of newcomers with the specific resilience of a place that has been doing all of this simultaneously since before most other cities existed. The journalism that documents this absorption — the personal accounts of people living in specific parts of the city, paying attention to what living there is actually like — serves a function that official reporting does not: it makes the city legible to itself at the scale of the street and the neighbourhood rather than the policy and the statistic. This column is that journalism. It continues because the city continues, and the city will continue longer than any of the problems it is currently managing. The next development application has already been submitted. The next good coffee shop is already open. The next political crisis is already developing. We will cover all of them.

London remains. The city absorbs every political crisis, every energy bill increase, every theatre ticket price surge, every development application, and every wave of newcomers with the specific resilience of a place that has been doing all of this simultaneously since before most other cities existed. The journalism that documents this absorption — the personal accounts of people living in specific parts of the city, paying attention to what living there is actually like — serves a function that official reporting does not: it makes the city legible to itself at the scale of the street and the neighbourhood rather than the policy and the statistic. This column is that journalism. It continues because the city continues, and the city will continue longer than any of the problems it is currently managing. The next development application has already been submitted. The next good coffee shop is already open. The next political crisis is already developing. We will cover all of them.