Source : the age
When Karis Oka found out she had been cast in Beetlejuice the musical she cried a lot, the performer says. “Imagine booking your dream job, then times that by 1000 – and that was probably how much I was crying.” She pauses then laughs. “I was very glad I wasn’t in public.”
The announcement of her casting, however, will be very public – taking place on Saturday evening at Rod Laver Arena’s centre court, where Oka will perform a song from the musical in front of a crowd of tennis fans.
Karis Oka will play Lydia in the Australian production of Beetlejuice.Credit: Benny Capp
Beetlejuice tells the story of two families, one dead, one living, who find themselves sharing a home. Oka will be taking on the role of Lydia – played by Winona Ryder in the original 1988 film – a (living) teenage girl who bridges the gap between her dysfunctional family and the ghosts haunting the house she now lives in.
Oka, who grew up in Melbourne, has always had her sights set on a performing arts career.
“I always knew that that was what I wanted to do. I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else. Careers counsellors were like, ‘You need to have other plans’, and I said, ‘Well, I don’t,’” she recalls with a laugh.
The arts are important, she reflects, “because you get to see people that are nothing like you but then also that are everything like you – and it makes you remember that the world is so much bigger than just you and that is a really scary thing sometimes. But also that’s a really, really important and amazing thing.”
In just a few years she has built a career that spans stage, film and television – including three years as a swing on high-octane musical Six, which centres on the wives of Henry VIII. In her time on the production, Oka estimates that she performed about 150 times, covering every one of the six roles, sometimes with as little as a few minutes’ notice.
Karis Oka (cente) pictured in 2022 when she was a swing for the musical Six. Credit: Simon Schluter
“I think in the long-run being a swing was the best for me, just brain-wise – it gives me so much confidence in being able to get out there and whip out a performance,” she says. “It just gives you a very grounded attitude on performing. You can’t afford to be too precious about it … So I think it was really good for my ego.”
Playing Lydia will not be Oka’s first lead role, but it will be her first one on this scale – and Beetlejuice is a story that holds particular resonance for her.
Karis Oka as Lydia DeetzCredit: Benny Capp
Oka had seen the film as a child and when she heard that a musical – penned by Eddie Perfect, who will star alongside her in the Australian run – was in the works, she was counting down the days until the soundtrack was released. “I feel like I’ve had tabs on it my whole life,” she says. When the opportunity to audition arose, she couldn’t hide how badly she wanted the role.
Lydia has always been “that weird-girl archetype”, Oka says. “She’s a goth icon in media alongside Wednesday Addams and Nancy from The Craft – I kind of think of them as my Father, Son and Holy Spirit of weird girls,” she reflects.
“As a goth kid myself I feel very much drawn to exploring her relationship with the supernatural because when else do you get to do that, especially in a musical?”
While Beetlejuice has always been a dark comedy that takes a skew-eyed look at death and what comes after, the musical foregrounds grief more than its 1988 inspiration – in particular via the character of Lydia, who in the stage production is grappling with the recent death of her mother.
Though the circumstances have shifted a little bit, Oka feels the film Lydia and the stage version are still firmly the same person. “She is still the same character, just put in a different situation,” Oka says. “I think that they do a really good job of keeping all the little golden bits that we really love, the iconic scenes, and then giving her room to grow into this really beautiful and multidimensional version of the character.”
Since debuting on Broadway in 2019 the musical has been well received, garnering eight Tony nominations and touring around the world. This year, however, marks the first time it has been staged here, in the writer’s home country.
“I’m just excited for Australia to see this type of show,” says Oka. “It’s wacky and unapologetically dark and … it levels with the audience in a way that I think a lot of musicals try to float above. I just don’t think we have another musical like it.”
