HEATHERS THE MUSICAL - AT THE ARTS
What is it with American high schools? They have spawned so many musicals from ‘Grease’ to well, ‘High School Musical’. ‘Heathers, the Musical’ is just another of these so-called ‘coming of age’ extravaganzas with more than its fair share of well-known stereotypes. There’s the tyrannical head teacher, the dimwitted bully boys, the glam girls whom everyone worships and of course, where would we be without the ugly duckling about to turn into a swan? ‘Heathers’ has all of these stock cartoon characters but with an added twist to the light-hearted cocktail: rape, fat-shaming, attempted suicide and murder.
Who’s the odd girl out?
The plot to this absurd and mildly offensive pop musical is the Broadway version of painting by numbers. And the show is stuffed with numbers – 22 songs taking the running time to well over two hours. It’s not clear why it takes so long to tell its ridiculous story. Veronica is the newby outsider with few friends save an equally unpopular dumpy girl called Martha. The whole school (set of course in the Mid-West where folks are dumb where they come from, they haven’t any learnin’) is in awe of three sexy Jezebels each called Heather. The leader is Heather Chandler who is a cross between an apprentice Cruella de Ville and Genghis Khan’s more horrible sister. The teachers in this school are almost nonexistent except for Ms. Fleming who is completely out of place as a New Age ex-hippy in a town of redder-than-red necks.
Actually I won’t bore you with the plot – it bored me so why should you suffer. Except to wonder if a musical clearly aimed at an adolescent market can really in 2024 make light of attempted suicide by jumping off a bridge, a mock hanging and cold-hearted murder. Add to this a raft of songs by book writers Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe which are loud, rumbustious but instantly forgettable. The songs do everything that Stephen Sondheim says a showtune should not do: they tell you what you already know.
Having said all this about a musical I really did not like (did you guess this) the production itself was all-out high energy with some great performances with actors trying their best to put some flesh on the brittle bones of their characters. Jenna Innes sang with power and surprising conviction as Veronica. Esme Bowdler worked hard to convince as the nastiest Heather who gets bumped off by poisoning (hilarious yes?). Keelan McAuley was at least genuinely scary as the damaged teeny murderer J.D. Fernandez Gonzales and Jason Battersby stole the show as the stock football dunces who become rapists and then semi-naked ghosts (don’t ask).
If you try to forget the plot (not hard to do) which is sort of based on the hit cult movie ‘Heathers’ (1989) and treat this is a pop concert with hi-octane dance numbers and great lighting, then you should enjoy it. But for me a night with Heathers was unlucky.
