Nightmare Fuel / Romeo et Juliette: De La Haine a l'Amour

• Death in the 2019 Toho production: We first see him in the opening scene, choreographing the nuclear war that happened to create the postapocalyptic Verona the production takes place, he is actively choreographing the feud, and he has a fixation on Romeo. As opposed to some productions, where Death is holding him during "J'ai peur", in this one, they're actively dancing together, with Death matching his movements and vice versa. Death is there on his wedding night to Juliette, hanging over their bed, he's the Apothecary that Romeo buys the poison from. And then, when the families reconcile, he can be seen on the crucifix that hangs over the stage, entwined with the figure of Jesus, smiling at the events happening below him, a red light flooding over him. Even though both sides have reconciled, it seems like there's only one clear victor here.
• In the Hungarian adaptation, Juliet awakens not with Romeo's peaceful corpse beside her, but rather tied to him. As he hangs from a noose. It's bad enough in the show itself, where the actor just has to swing there in his harness and look dead, but then imagine what it would look like in real life, with Juliet waking up face-to-face and tied to a bulging-eyed, purple-faced Romeo with a protruding tongue hanging over his chin...
  • Additionally, Juliet commits suicide by slitting her wrists, which is an iconically charged method of death, and in real life horrifyingly slow and painful.
• Also in the Operettszinhaz adaptation, the very concept of Tybalt becomes frightening. A man groomed from childhood into mindlessly defending his house at any cost, and indoctrinated with such misogyny that he can't love anyone romantically but his own kinswomen. His brainwashing is so complete that the sight of Romeo kissing Juliet sends him into a full blown grand mal seizure.
• "Avoir une Fille" in the 2019 Toho production begins with Lord Capulet admitting that, when Juliette was one year old, he discovered that she wasn't his biological daughter and nearly strangled her until she smiled at him and he realized he'd grown to love her. Romeo and Juliet: Now with additional near infant murder.
• Less so in the proshot, as detailed in the Tear Jerker entry, but Romeo's death in the Italian version. The cast recording provides an absolutely charming experience for the listener, with Davide Merlini's coughing, retching, and cries of pain.
  • Also from the cast recording, Giulia Luzi's Giulietta snapping from hysterically crying ^note some of the sounds she makes sounds like laughing, which borders Narm and Black Humor to coldly telling Father Lorenzo that she's not leaving Romeo, and then back to having her scheduled mental breakdown.
• The Takarazuka versions add a reprise of "J'ai Peur" after Romeo's banishment, where Romeo has a Heroic BSoD while Death and the ghosts of Tybalt and Mercutio dance around him. Then Death and the ghosts disappear through a doorway filled with red light, which gives the impression that Tybalt and Mercutio are in Hell.

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