Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetle—

Okay, hang on a second, I’m getting a little ahead of myself.

Beetlejuice: The Musical (The Musical, The Musical) has officially hit San Diego on its national tour, and the mind trip of fun that took up the three-hour runtime was an awesome deep-dive into the themes and storyline from the original movie it’s based on.

After the lights flickered their final call to usher the eager guests to their seats, the ethereal drumbeat of “Etherland — Sound of Mystic Law” started trembling as the curtains opened, and a group of people surrounded a grown Tina Turner, who sat with her back faced away from the audience.

The chant is later revealed to be a Buddhist mantra that played a pivotal role in Turner’s life, which we quickly learned was full of hurt, abuse, and betrayal.