Stage Fright is the sixth episode of the first season of Beetlejuice: TAS.
Cast[]
- Beetlejuice (played by Stephen Ouimette)
- Lydia Deetz (played by Alyson Court)
- Bertha & Claire Brewster (played by Tara Strong; credited as Tara Charendoff)
- Prudence (played by Tabitha St. Germain; as Paulina Gillis)
- Charles Deetz (played by Roger Dunn)
- Delia Deetz & Miss Shannon (played by Elizabeth Hanna)
- Mr. Kane
Plot[]
On a beautiful day outside in Miss Shannon's School for Girls, Miss Shannon has an important announcement to make: As she introduces Mr. Kane, she declares that her school's annual Shakespeare festival this year shall be "Romeo and Juliet". As Lydia takes a look at the picture, Beetlejuice appeared, disguised as Juliet, only to see Lydia (and not everyone else) in person, though she is upset the school's annual Shakespeare festival isn't doing "Macbeth", she competes for the Juliet role against Claire, who later makes fun of Lydia's insect project (as she showed them to her friends and the professor), and Beetlejuice uses his spider form to scare Claire straight! At Miss Shannon's playhouse, Mr. Kane is serving as audition judge while Claire does the rehearsal of "Romeo and Juliet". To get even at Lydia and to make up for her pathetic acting skills at tryouts, Claire frames Lydia by using Lydia's spiders against her and Ernest who played Romeo as sabotage, and the rehearsal act is ruined because Claire used Lydia's beehive to throw onto Mr. Kane!
A short time later, Mr. Kane, recovered from the bee stings, has made the decision to Claire Brewster and not Lydia about the "Romeo and Juliet" rehearsal, but Lydia later recognizes the honey on Claire's sticky fingers from her own beehive while Prudence and Bertha show Claire the honey on the ruler so Lydia decides to start planning vengeance. Although Beetlejuice insists on personal, Renaissance-themed horror for Claire, Lydia takes an artistic approach and signs up for costume designer. Along with other designs (all approved by the corpse of Shakespeare himself) Lydia creates a Juliet costume she knew Claire would hate... even without the insects Beetlejuice wanted to add to the girdle because the parents, including Lydia's (Charles and Delia), will be present to watch the stage presentation the next evening. Beetlejuice overhears that Claire wouldn't wear it... in fact, being from a rich family she got an "original" design made in advance that not only looked better on her, but completely clashed with the Era of the play!
Beetlejuice doesn't get a chance to tell Lydia about it, as when she reprimands him for being nosy-- "Oh Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice... oops!"-- accidentally sends him into the Neitherworld, but she decides to leave him there until the end of the show to keep him from causing trouble. Luckily for Beetlejuice, Claire overheard (sort of) and makes fun of Lydia for using words like "Beetlejuice"... thrice. Set free, Beetlejuice possesses Claire and changes the costume to Lydia's design, and while in her body performs his own touch to the payback in ways both personal and artistic, scaring the kid who's playing Romeo and all audiences (including Charles, Delia, Miss Shannon and Mr. Kane) in the playhouse. The next day, Mr. Kane is very angry about the performance, though Miss Shannon read newspapers about the drama-turned-comedy, as such the play has become a hit. Claire however, declares that she doesn't want to be the star of this play, like this ever again. While the other girls are laughing at Claire, Lydia reads the Shakespeare book, privately admitting that Beetlejuice shook the Shakespeare.
Trivia[]
- This is the first appearance of Claire Brewster, Miss Shannon, Prudence and Bertha.
- Several of William Shakespeare's plays are referenced in this episode besides Romeo and Juliet.
- Lydia says she wished that her school did MacBeth as their play.
- B.J. says "To flush or not to flush", referencing the "To be or not to be" monologue from Hamlet.
- B.J. also calls his head spinning trick "A Midsummer Night's Scream", referencing A Midsummer Night's Dream.
- On some TV listings, this episode is placed after "Spooky Tree" despite it really being the other way around.
Home Video Releases[]
VHS[]
- Beetlejuice: Volume 3 (1990; Warner Home Video)
DVD[]
- Beetlejuice: The Complete Series (2013; Shout Factory)
- Beetlejuice: The Complete Series (2024; Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and Studio Distribution Services)
Image Gallery[]
See all screenshots from this episode.
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|---|---|---|
| Out of My Mind | Spooky Tree |