If you only know Sophia Anne Caruso as the goth icon Lydia Deetz from the Beetlejuice musical, you're basically missing the "before" picture in a massive career glow-up. Before she was belting about dead moms and wearing enough eyeliner to sink a ship, she was a 12-year-old in a dirndl.
Back in 2013, NBC pulled off what many thought was a suicide mission: a three-hour live telecast of Sophia Anne Caruso in the Sound of Music. This wasn't a pre-recorded movie or a Disney Channel special with edited-out flubs. It was a high-wire act with 18.6 million people watching live to see if Carrie Underwood would forget her lines.
And right there in the middle of the von Trapp lineup was Sophia, playing the observant and slightly "know-it-all" Brigitta.
Why the 2013 Live Special Was Such a Big Deal
We take live TV musicals for granted now. We've had Grease, Rent, and The Little Mermaid. But back then? NBC’s The Sound of Music Live! was the pioneer. It was the first time in over 50 years that a network tried to stage a full Broadway-style production live on air.
Sophia wasn't just some random child actor. She was part of a "stacked" cast, as she later called them. You had Audra McDonald—a literal Broadway goddess—singing "Climb Ev'ry Mountain." You had Stephen Moyer from True Blood playing the Captain.
For a kid from Spokane, Washington, this was the ultimate pressure cooker. One missed cue and you’re a meme forever.
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Bridging the Gap: From Brigitta to Beetlejuice
Honestly, it’s wild to look at the footage of Sophia as Brigitta von Trapp and then watch her as Lydia Deetz. In The Sound of Music, she’s polished, precise, and carries that specific "musical theater kid" energy that makes the von Trapp children so charming.
The Brigitta Energy
Brigitta is arguably the most interesting of the younger von Trapp kids. She’s the one who notices everything. She’s the one who tells Maria that she’s in love with the Captain before Maria even realizes it.
Sophia nailed that.
She brought a certain sharp-wittedness to the role that most child actors miss. Most kids just play "happy child #4," but Sophia’s Brigitta felt like she actually had a brain in her head.
Breaking the "Dirndl" Mold
Most people would have stayed in that lane. The "wholesome theater kid" lane. But Sophia is, by her own admission, a bit of an "outsider."
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After the success of the live special, she didn’t just chase more Rodgers and Hammerstein. She went dark. She went weird. She did The Nether, which is a pretty disturbing play about the dark corners of the internet. Then she worked with David Bowie on Lazarus.
She basically took the platform the Sound of Music gave her and used it to pivot into the edgy, "other-worldly" roles she’s famous for now.
What Most People Get Wrong About Her Early Career
There’s this weird misconception that Sophia Anne Caruso was an overnight success with Beetlejuice.
Nope.
By the time she stepped onto the stage at the Winter Garden Theatre, she’d already been working professionally for a decade. She started at age seven in Spokane. She moved to New York at eleven. The Sound of Music was just a high-profile pit stop on a very long journey.
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If you watch the 2013 special now, you can see the technical skill. Her vocal control in "Do-Re-Mi" is insane for a 12-year-old. She wasn't just "cute." she was a pro.
The Reality of Being a Child Star on Live TV
It wasn't all just singing and mountain climbing. Doing a live musical is grueling.
- Rehearsal Cycles: They spent months in a warehouse in Bethpage, New York, drilling the choreography.
- The "One Shot" Factor: In a movie, if you trip, you reset. On live TV, if you trip, you better hope you make it look like a dance move.
- The Critics: The internet was brutal to Carrie Underwood after the show. Sophia and the other kids (like Ariane Rinehart and Michael Nigro) were largely shielded from that, but they still felt the heat.
Why You Should Rewatch Her Performance
If you’re a fan of her current work, watching Sophia Anne Caruso in the Sound of Music is like finding an old demo tape of your favorite rock star.
You can hear the foundations of that powerful belt. You can see the stage presence that eventually won her a Theatre World Award. It’s also just a great reminder that even the "scary goth girl" of Broadway had to start somewhere—and for Sophia, that somewhere involved a lot of yodeling and a very strict Austrian father.
Actionable Next Steps for Fans
If you want to see the evolution of Sophia’s career beyond the headlines, here is how to track the journey:
- Watch the 2013 Special: It’s available on various streaming platforms and DVD. Specifically, watch "The Lonely Goatherd"—the kids' timing is impeccable.
- Listen to "Lazarus": After you've seen her as a von Trapp, listen to her sing David Bowie’s "Life on Mars?" It will give you whiplash in the best way possible.
- Check her Spotify: She’s released original music under her own name, like "Toys" and "Goodbye." It’s much closer to her Beetlejuice vibe than her Sound of Music days.
- Follow her newer projects: She's moved into film with The School for Good and Evil and recently joined the cast of the live-action One Piece as Miss Goldenweek.
Seeing her go from a 1930s Austrian orphan to a high-fashion, "trippy" artist is one of the coolest trajectories in modern theater. She didn't just survive the child star curse; she outran it.