(So the first part of the musical will continue as usual until about the middle of Act I where everything shifts and changes. I've also added a song or two.)
A group of people at a graveyard mourn the passing of Emily Deetz. Emily's daughter, Lydia, reflects on the death of her mother and her own inability to be noticed by her father, Charles ("Prologue: Invisible"). A millennia-old demon named Beetlejuice appears and mocks the idea of living life to the fullest, as it will all be worthless once death comes ("The Whole "Being Dead" Thing"). Beetlejuice then tells the audience how as a demon, he is invisible to all living beings unless he gets a living person to say his name three times, and reveals that he has come up with a plan to accomplish this.
Beetlejuice then introduces Adam and Barbara Maitland. They are a normal married couple who desperately want to start a family, but are not emotionally ready and project their insecurities onto their hobbies. As the Maitlands reason to themselves why they are not ready for a child, they fall to their deaths through unstable floorboards in their home ("Ready, Set, Not Yet"). The Handbook for the Recently Deceased falls from the sky, but Beetlejuice burns it, wanting the newly deceased Maitlands to haunt their house and get a living person to say his name three times. When the Maitlands awaken from their fall and realize that they are dead, Beetlejuice reveals himself to the couple and offers to help them adjust to the Afterlife ("The Whole "Being Dead" Thing, Pt. 2"). He reveals to the Maitlands that the Deetzes have bought their house and that in order to remain alone, they will have to scare them away, so the Maitlands accept his help ("The Whole "Being Dead" Thing, Pt. 3").
While moving in, Charles reveals to Lydia that he wants to start a gated community, using the house as a flagship model home, and is holding a dinner party with some business friends. Lydia expresses her desire for her mother to return, mentioning the fact that nobody seems to care that she is gone. Praying for her to send a sign that she is still there, Lydia vows to make her father acknowledge the fact that tragedy struck their family ("Dead Mom").
In the attic, Beetlejuice is trying to teach the Maitlands how to be scary. Despite his best attempts, they prove to be not scary at all ("Fright of Their Lives"). Beetlejuice becomes frustrated with the couple and abandons them, so they vow to scare the Deetz family away themselves ("Ready Set (Reprise)").
Meanwhile, Delia, a woman who Charles hired to be Lydia's life coach and his secret lover, tells Lydia how everything happens for a reason, but fails to get her in a positive state of mind ("No Reason"). After their session, Lydia meets the Maitlands as they are roaming the house trying to scare the Deetzes. Lydia wants to leave the house just as much as the Maitlands want her family out, so she tries to convince her dad that the house is haunted, only to find out that he and Delia are engaged.
Angry and distressed, Lydia lashes out at her father and completely shuts him out. Seeing the behaviour, Delia's suggests that Charles invite someone who can help Lydia cope a bit better, considering she does not know the girl very well. The father then invites his daughter's two best friends to come to the house and visit, mentioning that the three were inseparable growing up. This move would also hopefully improve her outlook on life and help her move on from her grief. Twin siblings, Lily and David come to the house for a few weeks. Both are intuitive, often referring to it as their "twin telepathy," and very empathetic towards others. Lily is a talented artist who also practices alchemy and spirituality; while David is an athlete who is also a scholar of unusual topics such as demons and divination. The twins' arrival ends up temporarily delighting Lydia until she realizes this is a tactic from her father and Delia to make her feel happy and accept the engagement. The life coach tries to give the twins techniques to make Lydia cheer up, but the two ask why the adults they're not letting the girl grieve. The brother and sister suspect that Charles is moving on way too quickly but they decide to focus on the friend they treat like a sister. Instead of trying to force their friend to be happy, they offer to help her through this hard time ("Not all Heroes...").
Still thinking that this is a trick by her father and that he's using her friends as his puppets, Lydia flees to the roof, where a depressed Beetlejuice laments that he will never be seen by anyone ("Invisible (Reprise)"). He becomes ecstatic however when he realizes Lydia can see him and tries to convince her not to kill herself, with the intention of getting her to free him from his curse. Lydia teases Beetlejuice but does not say his name. The Maitlands come to check on Lydia, only to be possessed by Beetlejuice into saying positive things about him to further convince Lydia. Upon learning about possession and that any ghost can do it, regardless of skill, Lydia decides not to work with Beetlejuice and instead work with the Maitlands to ruin Charles' party ("Say My Name").
The twins find their friend talking seemingly to no one, but Lydia then tries to explain that there are ghosts in this house that want her family gone. Instead of immediately scoffing at the idea, the friends ask if they are nice or mean ghosts, surprising even the Maitlands at the question. David explains that their family is more open to ideas of life after death and he's done his fair share of research on the topic. Lily adds that it's actually kind of cool to live with ghosts and asks if they need to make any special crystals of elixirs to see said paranormal encounters. Considering that the twins are strange and unusual in their own way, the deceased couple becomes visible to them.
Barbara and Adam take an immediate liking to the kids, and along with Lydia, the group forms a new familial bond. David shares his knowledge of the paranormal with both ghosts, as well as teaching Adam how to throw a football properly on the roof of the house. Lily shows off her alchemy skills and both she and Lydia share their artistic interests with Barbara. All enjoy each other's company.
However, Beetlejuice becomes immediately jealous and "crashes the party." When Lydia goes off to discuss her plans with the Maitlands to ruin her father's business dinner, the ghost with the most and introduces himself to Lily and David, trying to convince them that he's also a nice spirit. At first, they do find his antics amusing, but their twins' intuition kicks in and they know that he's lying. They can sense his darker side and do their best to leave him. He tries to bait David into giving up some kind of knowledge to make the demon visible and when that doesn't work, he begs Lily to make him a potion or something to achieve the same thing. When both refuse, BJ gets frustrated and vows to them that he will be seen even if it's the last thing they do in this life.
At the dinner party, Barbara and Adam possess Charles, Delia, and their guests ("Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)"). The trio of kids laugh and have fun with the celebration. However, instead of being scared, the investors see the ghosts as a selling point; making them more interested in Charles' project. Feeling desperate and hating how this will lead her to continue to be invisible, Lydia decides to summon Beetlejuice. Against her friends' and the Maitland's pleas, she decides to negotiate with the ghost saying he can't hurt her friends before screaming his name three times. Now visible to the living and able to affect the world around him, he forces the Maitlands to the attic before throwing Charles, Delia and the investors out of the house, much to Lydia's joy and the twins' shock.
Act II
With the house all to themselves, Lily and David watch from the sidelines as Beetlejuice continues to wreak havoc everywhere, with Lydia cheering him on. After Skye, a girl scout with a heart condition where anything shocking could stop her heart comes to the Deetzes' house to sell cookies, the twins watch as Beetlejuice appears and frightens the poor girl into leaving("Girl Scout"). They then see their friend dance and celebrate as the demon summons more versions of himself to help scare every visitor that comes into the house ("That Beautiful Sound") and play mean-spirited pranks on the innocent civilians. The two notice the shift in their friend's personality, becoming crueller and more manipulative, something that neither of them like. They decide to confront her about it, only for their conversation to be overheard by the reining ghost. Knowing that this will destroy his chances of having a partner for life and connecting with people, he threatens the twins, warning them that the only reason he hasn't disposed of them is because of his agreement with Lydia. He repeats his threat from before and sends some of his clones to watch over them.
To distract himself, Beetlejuice tells Lydia that since she lives and works among the dead now, she should also follow their rules, and gives her a copy of the Handbook for the Recently Deceased. However, because she is not dead, Lydia cannot open it. Despite this, she realizes it could help her reunite with her mother and runs to the attic for Barbara and Adam's help. Feeling alone and betrayed again, Beetlejuice talks with his clones about how he wants to leave the house to finally connect with people now that he can be seen. To achieve this, he decides to trick Lydia into marrying him, which will allow him to roam free in the living world.
When Lily and David overhear this, they race to warn their friend only for Beetlejuice clones to lock them in one of the upstairs bedrooms to prevent anything from ruining the plans.
In the attic, Barbara and Adam help Lydia open the Handbook when they realize they should have gone straight to the Netherworld instead of remaining in their house. Adam opens the door to the Netherworld, but Barbara shuts it and the Handbook, afraid of leaving the house. Lydia berates them because she hoped to use the book to summon her dead mother and leaves disappointed and angry. Once the teen slams the door, Beetlejuice is able to lock it, preventing the Maitlands from escaping. Barbara realizes that all of their fear has held her and Adam back, so they decide to become bolder and better ("Barbara 2.0") until they realize that they are once again locked away, unable to help.
The hurt teen goes back to her friend and he begins to trick Lydia into believing that reading a passage from the book will resurrect her mother. When Lydia hears her friends calling for help, she leaves to find them, hurting the manipulating demon again.
When she releases Lily and David from the room, she tells them that she can bring her mother back and is excited about it. The twins tell her that she shouldn't mess around with things she doesn't understand and that they're worried that spending time around Beetlejuice is changing her. Lydia denies it and then lashes out at her friends, saying that they don't understand what she's going through and accuses them of being just like her father wanting to move on and be happy without her mother. David tries to reason with her, saying that they've tried being there for her since the beginning, but she's been running and ignoring the support they've been offering. Lily points out that if Lydia continues to push the people who love her away, she'll be just as alone as Beetlejuice. The teen then snaps back, saying that the demon is her only friend now. ("Hurt Me").
But before the siblings can tell her that he's just using her, Delia, Charles, and Delia's guru, Otho, re-enter the house to rescue Lydia, bringing a box that can supposedly trap souls. The distraction brings Lydia and Beetlejuice downstairs and the twins go to free Barbara and Adam in hopes that they can talk some sense into their friend as a last desperate effort. While Lydia continues to insult her father and pull away from the people around her, she decides that only her mother can understand. She reads the passage suggested by BJ, but instead, she unknowingly begins to exorcise Barbara from the home, right in front of Adam and the twins. In desperation, she is forced to agree to marry Beetlejuice to stop it ("The Whole "Being Dead" Thing, Pt. 4"). He stops the exorcism and opens a door to the Netherworld to send the Maitlands away for good, but Lydia jumps through the door, with Charles following. Enraged that his plan has failed again, Beetlejuice decides to kill everyone instead ("Good Old Fashioned Wedding").
Lydia and Charles enter the Netherworld and are greeted by Miss Argentina, who along with other Netherworld residents, urges them to return to the living world ("What I Know Now"). They then meet Juno, director of Netherworld Customs and Processing, who soon finds out they are still alive. Lydia runs from Juno and frantically searches for her mother in the Netherworld, but is unable to find her. Charles finds Lydia in distress and reconciles with her ("Home"). Lydia then realizes that what her friends were telling her was true and she realizes that she has a lot of apologizing to do when they get back. The teen then asks her father to try and develop a support system that they can both use to cope.
The Deetzes return to the house, where Beetlejuice is preparing to kill everyone. Lydia plans to trick him by marrying her as Charles, Delia, the twins, and the Maitlands get the demon ready ("Creepy Old Guy"). The wedding brings Beetlejuice to life, allowing Lydia to stab him and kill him again, making him "Recently Deceased". Lydia and the Maitlands try to send him back to the Netherworld, but Juno appears, reveals herself as Beetlejuice's mother, and tries to take Lydia back with her. Beetlejuice stands up to Juno, having learned to appreciate life in his brief experience. Juno pretends to be moved by Beetlejuice's speech and throws him out of the house.
Now at the mercy of another ghost from the Netherworld, David and Lily leap into action to save their friend, despite how she's treated them. David distracts Juno with his knowledge of the afterlife and demonology, pretending to know rules about death that she doesn't. While her brother is the distraction and against her better judgement, Lily goes to Beetlejuice and uses her alchemy skills to summon a giant sandworm to help them.
When Juno realizes that she's being duped, she attempts to grab Lydia again. But the Maitlands, Charles, the twins, and Delia refuse to let Juno take her, allowing the girl to realize the truth in Lily's words, that she can't push away the people who love her most. Lily deploys a quick elixir on the ghost that attracts a certain creature. Beetlejuice then crashes through the wall riding a sandworm, which eats Juno.
Beetlejuice says his last goodbyes to everyone before leaving to find his father. The Deetzes and Maitlands rejoice in their victory. As the adults clean up the mess, Lydia takes the opportunity to apologize to her best friends and ask them if they're willing to listen to her. They agree and hug their "sister." David then says that if Charles continues with his plans to build a new neighbourhood, he and his sister might try to convince their parents to move. Everyone agrees to share the house as they repair the damage. Lydia accepts that although her mother is gone, there is still so much left to enjoy in life and everyone celebrates. ("Jump in the Line")
(I'm hoping to expand and write out this story idea in the future).