Okay, hang on, I’m still caught up in the tornado that swept me out of the theater and smacked me in the face with one of the most amazing live performances I’ve ever had the fortune of seeing in my life.

All right, now that I’ve picked my jaw up off of the ground, let’s talk about the current national production of The Wiz.

I had mixed emotions heading into the San Diego Civic Theater’s national production of Mamma Mia. I was excited because Abba was one of my father’s favorite bands, and having lost him recently, it felt good to do something I felt honored in his memory. Having a local actress, Alisa Melendez, in a starring role as Sophie Sheridan was also exciting, and I couldn’t wait to see her blow her hometown house down.

What I was nervous about, however, was the fact I hated the movie.

There’s a lot going on in Les Mis, and with the source material being over 1,000 pages long, it’s easy to see how the stories can get so complicated as they weave together. That said, there’s also a reason this show is so timeless, and the production of it at the San Diego Civic Theater was nothing short of a masterclass in how live theater should be done.

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.