Review: Heathers The Musical – High School Edition

At first casual glance, Heathers might seem like an ideal, left-of-centre choice for a stage production for older teenagers. However, even the most liberal of teachers might want to have a proper look at the subject matter and its treatment before committing. That's not to say that Heathers doesn't have merit, but it's a curious piece which undoubtedly has a home somewhere.

Set in clique-ridden Westerberg High School in 1989, the musical's salty heroine Veronica Sawyer and her friends are tormented by the dumb jocks, airheads and the three Heathers (Chandler, Duke and McNamara) of the title, who rule the school's social hierarchy with cruel bullying and snide torment. Enter mysterious, dangerous and utterly cool JD, the ideal person to form a pact with Veronica. As their friendship blossoms into romance, their dreams of wreaking revenge on Westerberg become sinister and possible murderous.

It might sound as though Heathers is lifted from the pages of a true crime documentary or a Netflix slasher series. It's important to point that, first and foremost, it's a comedy – albeit a very dark one. The libretto, by Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe (also on music and lyric duties), is very smart and effectively skewers the awful social coding of high school whilst tipping its hat to the teen movie genre. Of course, older readers will probably be familiar with the source material, originating as a cult comic movie which helped to make stars of its leads, Christian Slater and Winona Ryder.

What's on offer here in this special teen edition is much more mainstream palatable than its source inspiration but has unavoidably lost some of its bite, grit and raison d’etre. A little like seeing a Quentin Tarantino movie with the swearing taken out, this Heathers sits on the fence a bit. That said, there are some fantastic, meaty roles for its principles, as well as a wealth of genuinely funny supporting characters, and a genuinely brilliant pop-gospel stomper in Shine A Light for Ms Fleming. The songs are fun, funny and propel the plot, but are unlikely to become long-term earworms.

On both sides of the Atlantic Heathers has developed a real cult following, with hysterical and devoted audiences making repeat visits. It's certainly well worth a look because, for the right cast, this might be an enjoyable, left-of-centre venture.