Suicide Note Lyrics – Beetlejuice

Song Overview

A stark snapshot from the show’s development, this cut solo captures Lydia at a breaking point - weaponizing wit, lashing out at her father, then aiming herself toward the one place she thinks she can find her mother. It’s not in the final cast album, but the piece lingers in the musical’s lore as a bridge between the early, darker drafts and the produced version that pushes Lydia toward connection.

Review and Highlights

Quick summary

1. Workshop-era Lydia solo positioned on the roof after she learns of Charles’s proposal to Delia.
2. Leans sardonic and confessional - the harshest portrait of father-daughter rupture in the show’s development.
3. Circulates via fan and event performances; not included on the 2019 cast album or the Broadway running order.
4. Shares DNA with “Invisible/On the Roof” and plot beats later handled by “Home” and the Act I finale.

Creation History

In early drafts, Lydia’s grief arc flirted with frank self-harm language. As the piece moved toward Broadway, the team rebalanced tone and pace, trimming several Act I songs to keep propulsion. “Suicide Note” fell away, while the core conflict - Lydia’s grief and anger at her father - survived in dialogue and other numbers. According to Playbill’s demo-album overview, the project ultimately documented 24 demos and 17 cut songs from 2014 to 2019, charting that evolution; and as stated in a 2019 Rolling Stone feature, part of the pruning came from having “too many songs in act one.”

Song Meaning and Annotations

Plot

Lydia drafts a farewell. The lyric is part curse, part confession: she brands her father heartless, calls Delia a cliche, and imagines leaving to see her mother. In staging terms, the moment sits just before Beetlejuice wedges himself into her plan, redirecting her toward his agenda.

Song Meaning

The piece is grief with teeth. It dramatizes a teenager confusing agency with annihilation - if no one will acknowledge the loss, she’ll force the issue. The text previews the later pivot the produced show makes: the same pain, but carried forward by community instead of isolation.

Annotations

“Who’s marrying a cliche”

Her slam on Delia is less about the woman than the vacuum Lydia feels - a fast, ugly shorthand for “someone is replacing my mother.”

“It’s like my dad’s Ophelia - and I’m just Hamlet going insane”

The Shakespeare nod is pointed. In Hamlet, grief curdles into paralysis and collateral damage; Lydia spots the spiral and names it. That self-awareness is what the final show later harnesses toward a different ending.

Style and delivery

Musically, versions heard in circulation sit in midtempo Broadway-pop recitative: short, percussive lines; rhyme used as bite more than balm. The vocal asks for clear speech rhythm, then a controlled belt on the final line - a cliffhanger musical cadence the produced show replaces with Beetlejuice’s entrance and a tonal swerve back to mischief.

Cultural and theatrical touchpoints

Two shadows hover here. First, the 1988 film’s own “suicide note” sequence - a tonal tightrope of black comedy and melodrama. Second, the Broadway production’s later choice to let the same stakes surface in “Say My Name,” where Beetlejuice literally burns Lydia’s note onstage - a nod that keeps the danger visible while preventing the story from endorsing the act.

Key Facts

• Artist: Original Broadway Cast of Beetlejuice; tied to Lydia Deetz as performed by Sophia Anne Caruso and, in events, Presley Ryan
• Featured: Lydia solo focus
• Composer: Eddie Perfect
• Producer: Workshop/demo contexts; not on the 2019 cast album
• Release Date: Not commercially released as a standalone track on the OBCR; workshop and event renditions circulate online
• Genre: Musical theatre pop with confessional lyric
• Instruments: Piano-led demo textures in known renditions
• Label: N/A for the OBCR; related demos were later issued by Ghostlight Records on a separate compilation
• Mood: Caustic, hurt, volatile
• Length: ~1 minute in most circulating clips
• Track #: Absent from the 18-track cast album
• Language: English
• Album: Beetlejuice Apocrypha - fan-used banner for outtakes; not an official commercial release
• Music style: Talk-sung verses into short belt
• Poetic meter: Speech-like scansion over 4-beat bars

Canonical Entities & Relations

People

Sophia Anne Caruso - originated Lydia on Broadway; associated with early versions of the rooftop beat. Presley Ryan - Lydia alternate who performed the cut lyric at events. Eddie Perfect - composer-lyricist of the musical.

Organizations

Ghostlight Records - later released the 24-track demos set documenting cut material and early versions. Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures - producer of the stage musical.

Works

Beetlejuice (Original Broadway Cast Recording) - 2019 album excluding this cut. Beetlejuice - The Demos! The Demos! The Demos! - 2020 compilation of composer demos and cut songs.

Venues/Locations

Winter Garden Theatre - Broadway home for the 2019 run; fan-captured appearances of the cut lyric surfaced from events like the Black and White Ball.

Questions and Answers

Where would “Suicide Note” have appeared?

On the roof after Lydia learns about Charles’s proposal, right before Beetlejuice disrupts her plan.

Why is it not on the cast album?

It was cut during refinement - the show shifted those beats into other scenes to balance tone and momentum in Act I.

Is there any official audio?

No commercial track on the OBCR; workshop and event performances circulate online, and the broader demos project documents the era of cut material.

How does it connect to the 1988 film?

It mirrors the film’s “suicide note” moment tonally, then the Broadway version reframes that peril with Beetlejuice’s intervention and comic intrusion.

What literary reference pops up in the lyric?

Hamlet - Lydia likens herself to the prince “going insane,” flagging how grief can twist judgment.

Did any element survive in the final show?

Yes. The rooftop danger remains, and in “Say My Name” Beetlejuice torches Lydia’s note - the threat is acknowledged while the story steers her away from harm.

Is there a content note here?

Yes. The song references suicide. In performance, modern productions add theatrical guardrails - humor, interruption, and community - to keep the narrative from glamorizing self-harm.

Additional Info

According to Playbill’s release-day note, the demos album gathered 24 tracks from 2014 to 2019, including a trove of cut songs. As stated in Rolling Stone’s 2019 feature, the creative team trimmed Act I substantially on the road to Broadway - context that explains why a blunt-edged piece like “Suicide Note” made way for different storytelling tactics. Event clips of Presley Ryan and other materials circulating on YouTube keep the song in the fandom’s conversation.

Sources: Playbill, Rolling Stone, Ghostlight Records, BroadwayWorld, D.C. Theater Arts, YouTube event footage.