Prologue: Invisible Lyrics
Lydia and EnsemblePrologue: Invisible
[ENSEMBLE:]Daylight come and we wan' go~
[PASTOR, spoken:]
In times like these, we have no words
We have only each other
Today we come together to mourn the passing of Emily Deetz
Devoted wife of Charles
Beloved mother to Lydia
Scripture tells us
"Sorrow not, for we do not walk alone."
[LYDIA:]
You're invisible when you're sad
Clocks tick and phones still ring
The world carries on like mad
But nobody sees a thing
Whispering behind their hands
Lost for kind words to say
Nobody understands
And everyone goes away
Grownups wanna' fix things
When they can't it only fills them with shame
So they just look away
Is it being greedy to need somebody to see me
And say my name?
Seems when you lose your mom
No one turns off the sun
Folks carry on, that's that
You're invisible when you're sad
[BETELGEUSE, spoken:]
Holy crap, a ballad already?
And such a bold departure from the original source material!
Song Overview
The curtain rises on a funeral and a feeling. “Prologue: Invisible” sets the emotional ground of Beetlejuice in under three minutes: Lydia names the ache of grief, adults fumble for comfort, and a sardonic demon can’t resist interrupting. The track launches the Beetlejuice (Original Broadway Cast Recording) and tees up the show’s tonal swing - sincerity cut with snark, heart threaded through spectacle.
Review and Highlights
Quick summary
- Album opener for the Broadway cast recording; performed by Sophia Anne Caruso (Lydia) with Alex Brightman (Beetlejuice) and ensemble.
- Music and lyrics by Eddie Perfect; produced for the album by Kurt Deutsch, Eddie Perfect, Alex Timbers, and Matt Stine.
- Introduces Lydia’s loss and the show’s blend of grief, wit, and fourth-wall mischief.
- Digital release via Ghostlight Records in 2019; physical CD followed later that year.
- Running time about 2:42; lyric video and official audio circulate widely online.
As an opener, it’s lean and pointed. The pastor’s spare eulogy makes space for Lydia’s confessional verse - intimate melody, simple accompaniment - then Beetlejuice barges in with a barbed aside. The tonal whiplash is the point: this is a world where sincerity and sarcasm keep bumping shoulders. Orchestrations stay transparent so the words land; the joke is timing, not noise.
Creation History
Eddie Perfect threads a small thesis into the first song: invisibility, grief, and the hunger to be seen. The slowed, shadowy “Day-O” wink at the top plants a comic seed the show waters later with full crowd-pleasers. On record, the cut functions like a prologue and a promise - we’ll honor the ache, then we’ll blow the doors off.
Song Meaning and Annotations
Plot
The town mourns Emily Deetz. Lydia sings through the disconnect: clocks tick, phones ring, but no one really sees her. Adults avert their eyes. The world has not paused for her private earthquake. Then - crash - Beetlejuice punctures the solemnity and points at the show itself, ushering us toward the riot of the next number.
Song Meaning
It’s a thesis on visibility. Lydia wants someone to notice and name her pain. The language is plain-spoken; the tune sits close to speech. The interruption reframes the grief as part of a larger carnival where death, jokes, and longing share a stage. The tension - earnest kid vs. chaos agent - drives the night.
Annotations
“Daylight come and me wan’ go-”
A hushed, darker nod to “Day-O (Banana Boat Song),” a motif the production later turns into a party trick. The echo at the top is a quiet nudge that this score can – and will – flip from elegy to party on a dime.
“Sorrow not, for we do not walk alone.”
Foreshadowing. Lydia feels abandoned; Beetlejuice, for all his bluster, is starving for attention. The show grinds those mirrors until both learn to be seen without devouring the room.
“You’re invisible when you’re sad.”
The central metaphor. Invisibility ripples through later songs - for Lydia, for the newbie ghosts, even for Beetlejuice, who can’t get traction without a human saying his name.
“And say my name?”
The seed of a later showstopper. The phrase returns weaponized - part summoning, part consent, part punchline.
Style, tone, and staging DNA
Ballad contours with a theatrical hush; small acoustic footprint to foreground text; a hard cut to comedy. Onstage, the staging isolates Lydia in the crowd - a simple, theatrical way to make “invisible” visible.
Key Facts
- Artist: Sophia Anne Caruso; Alex Brightman; Beetlejuice Original Broadway Cast Recording Ensemble
- Composer/Lyricist: Eddie Perfect
- Producers (album): Kurt Deutsch; Eddie Perfect; Alex Timbers; Matt Stine
- Release Date: June 7, 2019 (digital); later CD issue in 2019
- Album: Beetlejuice (Original Broadway Cast Recording) - track 1
- Label: Ghostlight Records (primary release)
- Genre: Broadway, pop-influenced theatre song
- Length: 2:42
- Instruments: pit band with strings, reeds, rhythm section; transparent mix under lead vocal
- Mood: elegiac, candid, then sly
- Language: English
- Music style: intimate ballad with a metatheatrical button
- Poetic meter: conversational iambs with lyric anacrusis on key lines
Canonical Entities & Relations
| People | Sophia Anne Caruso - Lydia lead vocal; Alex Brightman - Beetlejuice interjections; Eddie Perfect - composer/lyricist; Kurt Deutsch, Alex Timbers, Matt Stine - album producers. |
| Organizations | Ghostlight Records - label; Winter Garden Theatre / Marquis Theatre - Broadway homes during the album era and later moves; American Theatre Wing/Tony Awards - awards body. |
| Works | Beetlejuice (musical) - source work; Beetlejuice (1988 film) - source material; “Day-O (Banana Boat Song)” - recurring motif referenced in the show. |
| Locations | New York, NY - Broadway production base; The DiMenna Center - recording facility for the cast album sessions. |
| Relations | Eddie Perfect - score author; Caruso + Brightman - originating leads on album; Ghostlight - distributor; Tony Awards - 2019 nominations for the production. |
Questions and Answers
- What does this opener accomplish that the film never tried?
- It centers Lydia’s grief from the first bar, so the hijinks grow out of something human rather than just camp.
- Why the quick Beetlejuice interruption?
- To brand the tone. The show will keep vaulting between heart and irreverence, and he is the lever.
- Is the “Day-O” nod just fan service?
- It’s setup. The motif later explodes into crowd-pleasing set pieces; here it’s a soft foreshadow in minor colors.
- How does the recording handle balance?
- Lean support under the vocal, with diction-forward mixing so the text reads cleanly without staging.
- Did the album make noise outside the theatre bubble?
- Yes - the cast recording piled up substantial streams and showed up on charts dedicated to cast albums.
- Are there language versions?
- Brazil’s licensed staging includes a Portuguese “Prologo: Invisivel,” reflecting how the theme travels.
- How does this prologue echo later numbers?
- “Say my name” returns as a summoning gag; invisibility flips when Lydia claims attention on her own terms.
Awards and Chart Positions
Show honors: The Broadway production earned eight Tony Award nominations in 2019, including Best Musical and Best Original Score.
| Year | Body | Category | Result |
| 2019 | Tony Awards | 8 nominations overall for Beetlejuice (including Score and Scenic Design) | Nominated |
Album performance: The cast album was among the most-streamed theatre recordings of 2019 and notched high placements on cast-specific charts in the U.S. and U.K.
Additional Info
On digital storefronts, “Prologue: Invisible” is track 1 with a listed 2:42 runtime. Ghostlight handled the primary 2019 release, with a later physical CD issue that fall. The official album audio is widely available, and a lyric video helped the opener travel beyond the theatre-going crowd. According to Playbill’s year-end tally, the album ranked among 2019’s most-streamed cast recordings, a bright sign of the show’s afterlife beyond the proscenium. And - as stated in several nomination rundowns - the production’s eight Tony nods underscored how strongly the stagecraft and score landed with voters.
Sources: Ghostlight Records YouTube, Apple Music, AllMusic release notes, Playbill, Tony Awards site, Official Charts Company.