Show: Heathers The Musical
Location: Chester Storyhouse
Date: Tuesday, September 17– Saturday, September 21
Time: 7.30
Running Time: 150 minutes
Age Rating: 14+
Book, Music and Lyrics: Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe
Based on the film by Daniel Waters
Director: Andy Fickman
Designer: David Shields
Arrangements and Orchestration: Laurence O’Keefe and Ben Green
Costume Supervisor: Robin Lill
Musical Director: Tom Slade
Choreographer/Associate Director: Gary Lloyd
Sound Designer: Dan Samson
Lighting Designer: Ben Cracknell
All human life is here; cast list alone, you have Beleaguered Geek, Hipster Dork, Stoner Chick and Young Republicanette,,,, and all the tribes you can think of in this High School from Hell. It may be set in 1989 but things ain’t improved much, and what education often teaches so many people is just what a nightmare it can be.
This bleakest and blackest of comedies is uprorariously funny, maybe surprisingly given the very dark undertow, the horrendous pull of suicide. As well as date rape, slut shaming and horrendous bullying. Oh and a psychopath on the rampage.
So perhaps an odd choice for a musical – even odder, this is the first time I’ve had a programe which, other than photos, tells you nothing about the show. So I’m guessing, the poignant Hey to Westerburg was the song from pretty, popular Heather Macnamara about her struggles; by contrast, bullied outsider, Martha Dunnestock (Amy Miles), rendered the sweetly sad Kindergarten Boyfriend. I personally most enjoyed Veronica belting out I Say No and Dead Girl Walking, but the funniest was Ram and Kurt’s duet, You’re welcome. And the most popular without doubt: My Dead Gay Son
The set is largely Westerbrook High with brief excursions eg, JD’ s bedroom; the garden of Veronica’s parents.But it’s the costumes which set the scene, from the Heathers’ preppy uniform via garish, hippy dippy Ms Fleming, exuberatnly portrayed by Lucy Sinclair, who fondly imagines she is the most popular teacher evah, to the man in black, JD. Keelan McAuley is equally brillant whether the charismatic loner who charms heroine Veronica or the fatally troubled soul. His story is a classic example of how your parents can bring you down. No accounting for what made the Heathers so poisonous, however, although a glimpse into Veronica’s family (good) and the jocks Kurt and Ram with their Dads (bad) is illuminating.
These twin souls (more accurately, a word with two syllables…) are completely obnoxious yet somehow, Ivan Fernandez Gonzales and Jason Battersby respectively, way, way over the top, never mind running around for most of the time in the teeniet of trunks, are so comical, even at their worst, and that’s really, really bad, you actually feel sorry for them. Likewise, the truly awful Leader of the Pack, Esme Bowdler as Heather Chandler revels in the role of poisonous, capricious Queen Bee. But you do wonder what keeps the three of them together; H. Duke is shown by Sedona Sky to be even more ambitious and nastier, while Dairy Swells winningly shows the nice girl lurking deep inside H. Macnamara.
On the face of it, the usual good girl gets taken under the wing of the bad girls, and by wing, think Dragon or Harpy, not Angel. So what we need is a heroine who can withstand the Heathers’ blandishments and avoid their pernicious influence, as well as those of JD. Initially, she appears to be his match, just as cool, but his emotions are frozen, and she is all feeling. Step forward, Jenna Innes doing a magnificent job no matter what is required of her with an expressive face and incredible voice – incredible everything in fact.
I’m not a huge fan of musicals but there’s something rather beguiling about a song with a chorus of ‘Holy Shit’; a few might baulk at the use of bad language but it is employed appropriately, if you can allow for that contradiction. The show covers a lot of grim subjects but it is cleverly and expertly done. And one more tribe of course: the fangirls, a couple of them happily throwng themselves into cosplay. The audience was packed out and every song greeted with ecstatic applause. At the end, the standing ovation swept round the theatre as irresistible as a Mexican Wave.
