Heathers The Musical
Liverpool Empire
Heathers is not your standard high school musical. Based on the 1989 film which was intended to be an anti-John Hughes portrayal of teen life, the musical version of Heathers retains all the dark comedy that makes the original film a cult classic, whilst mixing in catchy group numbers and hard hitting solo pieces.
The plot of Heathers is in someways what you would expect from a high school based musical; there’s a clique of girls all named Heather who rule the school, and the nerdy Veronica Sawyer wants to fit in with the popular girls. She ultimately gets her wish, but realises true friendship is more important than popularity. Along the way, Veronica falls for the mysterious bad boy JD who also happens to be a sociopathic vigilante, hell bent on blowing up the school. With Veronica’s involuntary support (a shift away from the source material), JD even manages to murder three students and gets away with it.
Obviously, murdering classmates is a dark topic, but the musical also covers suicide, homophobia, bullying, eating disorders and sexual assault. Make no mistake, this is a very dark comedy with mature themes.
The cast of this touring productions were fantastic and brought a lot of energy to the stage. Jenna Innes who played Veronica and Jacob Fowler as JD were very convincing, with a great chemistry between them whenever they were on stage. They both had fantastic voices and were able to switch between the high energy numbers and the more tender moments with ease.
The three Heathers Verity Thompson (Heather Chandler), Elise Zavou (Heather Duke), and Billie Bowman (Heather McNamara) each did an outstanding job. Verity Thompson is every bit the Queen Bee, ruling the school with the bullying cruelty synonymous with the leader of every clique in every high school. Elise Zavou and Billie Bowman were perfect as the followers of Heather Chandler, who are equal parts sycophants and utterly afraid of her power.
For us, the three stand out performances came from Kingsley Morton as Martha Dunnstock whose delivery of ‘Kindergarten Boyfriend’ in Act 2 was absolutely mesmerising, and from Alex Woodward as Kurt Kelly and Morgan Jackson as Ram Sweeney who were impeccably cast and brought fantastic high-energy performances.
The show we saw at the Empire didn’t seem to have the sound mix correct, so on quite a few occasions the audio totally drowned out the cast vocals. ‘Candy Store’, one of the musicals most memorable songs was largely inaudible which is a shame as the cast put their all into it on stage.
Heathers The Musical was written by Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe, with the latter also being behind Legally Blonde the musical. The similarities in the music of the two shows are endless, however, on more than one occasion Heathers just misses the mark. There’s a slight feel that the music is a collection of rejected Legally Blonde songs.
The storyline also feels too fast paced. There is a lot to cover in the musical, and rather than be selective Murphy and O’Keefe seem to have tried to cover everything within the film, albeit with some elements made less dark than in the film. The result though is a lack of opportunity to appreciate the individual moments within the musical.
This was the first time we have watched Heathers The Musical on stage. We had listened to the soundtrack multiple times, and seen a recording of the musical, but neither of those can compare to watching on the stage. Unfortunately, the audio issues impacted our enjoyment of the show. Whilst the cast were fantastic, this isn’t a show we’d rush to recommend as there just didn’t seem to be that wow factor within the live theatre version.
From the number of people dressed up in the typical Heathers plaid skirts we’re sure that this is a musical that will be touring for many years to come, and has easily reached a cult status of its own away from the film. We will try and see the show again, but it won’t be on the top of our to see list.
Heathers is touring through to the end of October 2023 across the whole of the UK. Locally, the show is on at The Palace Theatre, Manchester between 8th and 12 August 2023 and at Blackpool Opera House between 12th and 16th September 2023. Full tour details can be found on the Heathers website.
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