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‘Heather – The Musical’ returned for an open-ended run The Other Palace in 2021 with a new cast. This review is from its limited original 2018 run.
I think I’d have warmer feelings towards ‘Heather The Musical’ if I’d not previously seen the 1988 film ‘Heathers’. One of the all-time great high school flicks, its scabrous wit and weapons-grade cynicism are in no way recreated by Laurence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy’s glossy reimagining. Their adaptation clutches the basic plot points of the cult film about the demise of the eponymous clique of identically-named schoolgirls, but there’s rarely any sense they understood its appeal.
I’ll say three things in the defence of this production, transferring from a sold-out preview stint at The Other Palace, and helmed by the show’s original off-Broadway director Andy Fickmann.
One, a musical in which the main antagonist is essentially a high school shooter – Jamie Muscato’s JD, channelling Christian Slater, but without the menace – is a big ask in 2018. It’s not really a shocker that they’ve toned his character down, or tried to take the edge off the teen suicide stuff.
Two, the tunes are big, bright things, sweet and crunchy and hooky. That they’re often completely unsuitable for the story – the second act becomes unforgivable bogged in sentiment and exposition – won’t necessarily matter to those approaching ‘Heathers’ as fans of the music rather than the film.
And three, singer and YouTube star Carrie Hope Fletcher really is terrific in the role of Veronica, the protagonist and de facto fourth Heather, who finds herself torn between them, JD, and her conscience. She’s a top-flight vocalist, but more than that she’s a great comic actor, cynically commenting on the action or affecting an ironic detachment that cuts through some of the schmaltz laid on here. She’s nothing like original star Winona Ryder and that’s just fine - she has an appealing snark that often carries the show, especially in the first half when she features more prominently.
However. It’s not really enough to counteract the fact that the musical consistently fumbles the source material. The second half, in particular, is unforgivably mawkish. Details are consistently fiddled with: JD gains a more tragic back story; there are fewer killings and less brutal executions; Veronica’s inadvertent slaying of one of her jock tormentors is shifted to JD; the two of them sing songs about their feelings for each other; but what is the actual point when you’re dealing with a story that has multiple homicides baked in? It feels like an ersatz ’80s kitsch edition of ‘High School Musical’.
‘Spring Awakening’ showed us that edgy high school musicals are possible; but it also showed us there isn’t necessarily a West End audience for them. ‘Heathers’ looks like it’ll go the distance - but at what cost?