Original air date: August 28th, 1992
Melody is showing off to Ting-a-Ling and Jing-a-Ling, practicing being a princess in the hopes she'll be chosen for the part in the upcoming school play. Later at school, once everyone has auditioned, Miss Hackney tells them the list of who has what part will be viewable tomorrow, and that "there are no small parts, only small actors".
The next day, it turns out Clover is a guard, Bon is the wise old woman, and Melody is none other than the princess! They then go backstage to help out, except for Melody, who decides being the star of the play means she's above working behind the scenes, much to the chagrin of the friends who now have more work to do.
Later at Starlight's place, the girls are doing Bon Bon's make-up. Melody enters to flaunt her new hairdo... which she had done while she was supposed to be making the masks for the ballroom scene. Melody dismisses their concerns, then, after bragging about the interview she'll be having on PTV later, insists Clover can't have her hair done like Melody's. Fed up with her behavior, her friends plot to teach her a lesson.
At the rehearsal, Melody finds everything's going wrong; the spotlight keeps moving around, forcing her to chase it, her throne gets yanked away before she can sit on it, the speech from the prince consists entirely of croaking frogs, and she brings the set down trying to open a stuck door. Her friends reveal their actions, and refer to themselves as Melody's "former friends" before storming off.
When it's time for Melody's interview on PTV, the other girls tune in and are delighted to find Melody now understands the importance of members other than the star. On the day of the play, everything goes off without a hitch, resulting in uproarious applause from the audience. Ace gifts Melody some flowers, but instead of accepting them as a gift only for herself, Melody takes the time to credit everyone else for making the play happen.
"The Play's the Thing" provides examples of:
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: Being cast in the starring role of the princess goes to Melody's head. As such, she pawns her work off on her friends and insists only she's allowed to have a nice hairdo.
- An Aesop: Less glamorous roles in a team are important too.
- Argument of Contradictions: Melody starts one of these with Starlight when the former insists that nobody else can sport her new hairstyle because she has to stand out as the star of the play.
- Blowing a Raspberry: Melody does so at Clover and Starlight when she (Melody) gets her way regarding her hairdo and Clover agrees to have a different hairdo.
- Circling Birdies: Clover gets the spinning stars and planets with the sound of chirping birdies variant while being spun around in a barber's chair.
- Crosscast Role: Patch plays the role of the prince.
- Curtain Call: The play, as well as the episode itself, ends with this, providing the page image.
- Extreme Doormat: Clover wants her hair done like Melody's, but after Melody throws a tantrum and spins Clover around in her chair, Clover agrees to it done differently.
- Fake Brit: In-universe, Bon Bon and Patch in the play.
- Fauxshadow: Teddy whips out his catapult briefly during Melody's rehearsal, and it... never comes up again in the episode.
- Fictional Counterpart: Miss Hackney mentions "Shakespony".
- Golden Moment: The simpler, softer version of the theme song accompanies this speech from Melody:A play can never work with just the star. Let me bring out all my friends and hard workers from backstage! (the curtains part to reveal the other six girls) They're the ones who really made this show happen!
- The Heckler: Teddy shows up at Melody's rehearsal and laughs at her, and Ace eventually joins in with him.
- Hostility on the Set: In-universe. Melody's friends teach her a lesson by ruining her rehearsal, then confront her about her poor treatment of them.
- It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: Melody describes the start of the play's story as a "cold and evil night".
- Jerkass Realization: Melody is forced to confront the fact that she's been insufferable to her friends, and decides to better appreciate them and their contributions.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Melody feeling entitled to treat her friends like dirt comes back to bite her when they ruin her rehearsal and humilate her in front of Ace and Teddy.
- Literary Allusion Title: The title of the episode is a line from Hamlet.
- Not So Above It All: Ace doesn't initially join Teddy in laughing at Melody's rehearsal, instead assuring him that she'll do better in the next scene. But when things continue to go wrong onstage, Ace agrees with Teddy and laughs along with him.
- The Prima Donna: Melody becomes egotistical in the starring role and refuses to do work she considers beneath her or let Clover have hair like hers.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Melody's princess character in the play succeeds in vanquishing a dragon with her sword and freeing her people.
- School Play: The episode's plot concerns the school having one of these.
- So Bad, It's Good: Ace and Teddy's in-universe reaction to Melody's disastrous rehearsal.
- Swivel-Chair Antics: Melody and Starlight grab Clover's chair away from each other while arguing over whether Clover can have her hair done like Melody's, and end up spinning it around with Clover still in it.
- Throwing Out the Script: Patch does so in her rehearsal, thinking what she has prepared is better.
