A study of the MHD stability properties of bean-shaped tokamak plasmas is presented. For ballooning modes, while increased indentation gives larger stable-beta configurations, the existence and accessibility of the second stable region are sensitive to the pressure and safety factor profiles. The second stable region appears at lower beta values for large aspect ratio and moderately high q-values. Finite-Larmor-radius kinetic effects can significantly improve the stability properties. For low-q (⪅ 1) operation, long-wavelength (n ∼ 2, 3) internal-pressure-driven modes occur at modest βp values and accessibility to higher beta operation is unlikely. Indentation modifies the nature of the usually vertical axisymmetric instability, but the mode can be passively stabilized by placing highly conducting plates near the tips of the plasma bean. At constant q, indentation has a stabilizing effect on tearing modes.