Before there was “Mean Girls,” the movie or the stage musical, there was “Heathers,” a darker, more genuinely subversive account of the havoc that can be wrought in that age-old quest for high school popularity.
Like “Girls,” “Heathers,” which had its premiere on screen in 1988, features as its heroine a smart, independent-minded girl who finds herself mixed up with a trio of teenage furies, led by one preternaturally controlling, noxious diva. But whereas “Girls” ends with the principal characters learning their lessons without anyone getting broken irreparably, the havoc in “Heathers” descends into literal carnage.
A musical theater adaptation, “Heathers The Musical,” also preceded one of “Girls,” opening off-Broadway in 2014. “Heathers” has since been produced on London’s West End and in various countries, emerging as a cult favorite. For a revival that marks its return to New York, Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe have slightly tweaked their book and often catchy score, but have retained the giddy irreverence that define both, and director Andy Fickman has recruited an energetic cast led by young performers with notable Broadway credits.
The heroine, Veronica Sawyer, is now played by Lorna Courtney, who received a Tony Award nomination for her amiable turn in the title role of “& Juliet,” the regrettable, and regrettably resilient, jukebox affair. As before, Ms. Courtney sings and acts capably, but even with sharper material she doesn’t match the bite that Winona Ryder brought to the film, or that Barrett Wilbert Weed delivered in the original off-Broadway production.
Rising actor Casey Likes, who seems to be making a habit of playing young male leads in musicals based on hit movies — first “Almost Famous,” then “Back to the Future” — brings a bit more spark to the part of Jason “J.D.” Dean, the new kid in town who leads Veronica down a twisted path. Mr. Likes patently channels the bad-boy sardonicism that a young Christian Slater, whom he resembles somewhat, exuded in the movie.
©Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade
But the brightest, funniest, and most lacerating portrait in this “Heathers” comes from McKenzie Kurtz, an alumna of Broadway’s “Wicked,” “Frozen,” and “The Heart of Rock and Roll.” Where Ms. Kurtz played essentially sunny figures in those shows, she is cast here as Heather Chandler, the apex predator — to borrow a term applied to a similar character in “Mean Girls” — in both her clique and her class.
Whether holding court with a pair of friend/supplicants also named Heather — a cheerleading captain and a bulimic with her own authoritarian streak, deftly played by Elizabeth Teeter and Olivia Hardy, respectively — or alternately baiting, terrorizing, and haunting (literally) Veronica, Ms. Kurtz’s Heather proves one of the most entertaining monsters you’re likely to witness on stage this season. During one ensemble number at a recent preview, her gestures alone had the audience in stitches.
There are other winning performances, all of them guided with charm and vigor by Mr. Fickman. Xavier McKinnon and Cade Ostermeyer are hilarious as a pair of dim-witted, bullying jocks, and Erin Morton contributes gentle pathos — and a sparklingly pure singing voice — as Martha, Veronica’s closest friend until our protagonist is lured, at least temporarily, into the Heathers’ coven.
Designers David Shields and Siena Zoë Allen also deserve praise for their period-perfect costumes, which include color-coordinated outfits for each Heather — and Veronica, once she has been adopted — that capture the era’s vision of preppy chic, at least as it was appropriated by aggressively girly types.
For all its mock brutality, in fact, this “Heathers” left me nostalgic for a more innocent time, before contemporary developments such as social media had expanded, exponentially, the ways in which people could be cruel to one another — and inexperienced, malleable young people in particular could be damaged by that cruelty.
Happily, you needn’t consider any of this to enjoy the mischievous fun that “Heathers The Musical” provides.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
