Heathers The Musical
Opening Night: March 31, 2014
Closing: August 4, 2014
Theater: New World Stages
In Heathers, Westerberg High is terrorized by a shoulder-padded, scrunchie-wearing junta: Heather, Heather and Heather, the hottest and cruelest girls in all of Ohio. But misfit Veronica Sawyer rejects their evil regime for a new boyfriend, the dark sexy stranger J.D., who plans to put the Heathers in their place—six feet under.
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April 1, 2014
All of the fantastically mixed-up characters in Heathers: The Musica seem plagued by the show’s timeless catch phrase, a telling rhetorical question: "What’s your damage?" There’s plenty of damage to go around in Westerberg High, the wildly chaotic, often cruel, but always colorful wonderland at the center of off-Broadway’s latest theatrical remake of a cinematic favorite. Like the cult classic movie it’s based on, this dark, demented comedy somehow keeps us in stitches though treading not-so-lightly on some of the most troubling subjects in the social curriculum of American youth — bullying, school violence and teen suicide. Even bulimia is fair game, though according to one of the musical’s three hopelessly shallow title characters, "it’s so ’87."
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March 31, 2014
Good musicals may not be getting any smarter but bad ones certainly are. Take Heathers, which at every turn vastly improves the 1989 cult movie on which it’s based. Alas, that’s a very low bar; the movie, starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater, is such a sloppy, poorly directed mess it can’t even figure out what genre it’s in. (It ends up glorifying the brutal high school culture it ostensibly means to satirize.) A thousand deft repairs and a thoroughly professional score by the musical’s gifted authors — the book, music, and lyrics are by Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe — can’t solve the problem, but do manage to lift Heathers all the way to terrible.
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March 31, 2014
Heathers, a musical comedy based on the 1989 film about a clique of domineering high schoolers, is a pleasant confection with little of the edge or angst you remember from the movie. At best, this adaptation, now open at New World Stages, is a chance to relive dozens of memorable quips that gave the celluloid Heathers its anti-“Breakfast Club street cred. Writers Lawrence O’Keefe (Legally Blonde) and Kevin Murphy (Reefer Madness) cram in oodles of the biting phrases you’ve been quoting for a quarter-century, from “What’s your damage?” to “It’ll be very.” But their cast is so gee-willikers adorable that the story has evolved from a dark parable into something that borders on send-up and satire.
READ THE REVIEWMarch 31, 2014
Heathers is a landmark teen film, a pitch-black comedy that takes a boldly deadpan look at the various forms of psychosis that lurk in a traditional suburban high school. It’s a movie about the monstrous secrets beneath all manner of facades, and despite its reputation as a big-hair camp classic, it’s brimming with nuance and subtly smart observations. Heathers: The Musical misses just about everything that made the film great, making it not only a colossally disappointing adaptation of a beloved property but also a generally unpleasant theater experience.
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March 31, 2014
In Michael Lehmann’s delectable 1988 teen cult classic, Heathers, the feared-and-revered school alpha bitches and the bullying jocks become emblems of a society of rottenness and inequality, where those in power are begging to be brought to their knees. Does the acidic comedy gain anything from being turned into a cartoonish pop musical? Hell, no. But as an extension of the movie’s wicked pleasures, this version has its silly charms, as demonstrated by the rowdy response of the predominantly young audience. It’s not exactly very — to borrow from Heather-speak — but for insatiable fans it might almost be enough, and the tacky high school-style staging seems somehow appropriate.
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April 1, 2014
Are there any souls out there brave enough to admit they were popular in high school? O.K., maybe Gov. Chris Christie, but that wasn’t a good career move. The teenage kings and queens of the prom, the homecoming and the keg party — the golden boys and girls who taunt and belittle the smart and sensitive — have become first-choice villains in contemporary pop culture. They’re the winners we love to hate, and one of the last minority groups (along with their parents, the 1 percent) that it’s acceptable to mock savagely. The latest entertainment to capitalize on this satisfying loathing is Heathers, the rowdy guilty-pleasure musical that opened at New World Stages on Monday night. This is a show that turns an Ohio senior class in-crowd into a lineup of piñatas, waiting to be busted open. And when I say busted open, I am not speaking metaphorically.
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March 31, 2014
Forget those big-budget, starry adaptations of beloved movies. If you want to relive a cult flick, head over to the ingenious, very funny Heathers: The Musical, which pulls off wonders on a shoestring. The 1988 teen-bitchery classic Heathers was the peak of Winona Ryder and Christian Slater’s careers, and a high-water mark of outrageous ’80s fashion and baroque expressions — “f–k me gently with a chainsaw,” anybody? Adapters Laurence O’Keefe (Legally Blonde: The Musical) and Kevin Murphy (Reefer Madness: The Musical) have preserved the movie’s memorable catchphrases and candy-colored palette while lightening up on the violent nihilism. The result is a spirited, naughty romp through a Midwestern high school. Even declawed, it’s very entertaining.
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