Heathers The Musical is based on the popular 1989 film. It’s about a group of girls at high school – but it’s definitely not your typical high school musical. It’s just quite weird. Here’s my Heathers The Musical theatre review.
Overview of Heathers The Musical
Heathers The Musical is definitely a bit different than most other musicals or films based on teenage girls. My Heathers The Musical theatre review will give you an honest review of this show – so you can decide if it’s the show for you.
On one level, Heathers The Musical is a funny show, with plenty of moments that make you laugh. The music is fun and jolly, with some catchy tunes. I saw the 2023 Heathers The Musical UK tour and thought all the singers and dancers were great.
However, the plotline of the musical is not what you’d expect from a happy, funny, silly show. The plot deals with murder, rape, suicide, eating disorders, and other triggering issues. But these very serious plot issues are juxtaposed with the happy, silly, funny style of musical. It’s quite a weird combination. I feel like it sort of works, but also sort of doesn’t work.
Heathers The Musical follows the story of Veronica as she gets involved with the popular crowd at school, the Heathers. She also meets JD, who becomes her boyfriend. However, Veronica and JD soon end up murdering various people at the school who have crossed them. And then there’s the attempted rape, resulting in more murders. And suicide awareness assemblies at the school. And gay empowerment songs. And it’s all kind of fun, but also weird that it’s fun but it’s about these issues.
What I liked about Heathers The Musical
I enjoyed the songs in Heathers The Musical. I thought the singing and acting was great. And the dancing, set and costumes were all great. On one level it was a really enjoyable musical. I was keen to listen to the songs again when I got home.
There were also some really funny parts of the show. The start of Act 2 began with the ‘My Dead Gay Son’ song. And then two men who played the two fathers were brilliant in this song. It was so funny, and the whole audience was roaring with laughter.
There was also another really funny part, from the teacher at the suicide awareness assembly at the school. She picked on someone in the audience, pretending he was part of the show, and dropped some great lines including the iconic ‘Steve, I faked it every time’. It was such a random moment in the show but the whole audience loved it. It was a bit weird (as I keep saying, Heathers The Musical is weird…) but there were definitely some very funny moments in the show.
What I wasn’t so sure about
The more I think about Heathers The Musical, the less I understand it. I guess it’s a black comedy, and it’s trying to treat serious issues with humour. But I’m just not sure if that works that well.
Some of the scenes were quite disturbing. I found the attempted rape scene very uncomfortable to watch. And even the song lyrics -‘in a cow field no one can hear you scream, you’re not in real danger until they grab your hair’. I mean, it’s sung in a happy song, but those are still lyrics that are difficult to hear. And (spoiler/trigger warning) when Veronica fakes her suicide, and we see her body hanging in the closet before realising it’s fake. These scenes are triggering and difficult to watch. But the musical treats them with light-hearted humour, with colourful songs and dances and happy, feel-good type of songs.
I felt that the show didn’t publicise the trigger warnings anywhere near enough. I hadn’t seen the 1989 film that Heathers The Musical is based on, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I definitely wasn’t expecting this. And I think a lot of people could struggle with a lot of the themes. Seeing attempted rape, murder and suicide live on stage definitely needs to come with some serious trigger warnings for the audience. And I felt that the show didn’t warn the audience anywhere near enough.
Would I recommend Heathers The Musical
I think I would recommend Heathers The Musical, but only if you fully understand the trigger warnings and the themes that this show deals with. Even though it deals with everything with humour, with light-hearted happy songs and dances – these are still serious issues. And someone who is affected by these issues could easily find it upsetting to see these issues dealt with so lightly. It’s a black comedy, and sometimes it’s ok to make a joke out of serious issues. But I think I’d only recommend someone sees Heathers The Musical if they’ve got a full understanding of what it’s about, so the triggers aren’t surprising.
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