Heathers: The Musical - Review
to a few years later and I stumble across 'Candy Store' on YouTube and subsequently the cast recording of the original Off-Broadway production of Heathers starring Barrett Wilbert Weed (who is a queen!!!!) and I became obsessed! Heathers was all I listened to for a solid 2 months straight and now I still rarely go a fortnight without listening to the album.
I was gutted that I missed seeing the Off-Broadway production (which was already closed when I discovered the musical) and even more gutted that I missed the London workshop of the show that happened last year as I live so close to London and go a couple times a year; so you can only imagine my excitement when I found out a fully developed production was going to run for a few weeks at The Other Palace in London! The second I found out about it I texted my sister and told her we were going and nothing or no one was getting in my way! And finally the day came and now I can finally scream "I SAW HEATHERS THE MUSICAL LIVE AND IN PERSON" and it was everything I wanted it to be and more!!!!
For anyone who doesn't know (shame on you) Heathers: The Musical is about a girl named Veronica Sawyer (Carrie Hope Fletcher) who tries to survive her senior year of high school by joining a clique of popular girls consisting of Heather Chandler (Jodie Steele), Heather Duke (T'Shan Williams) and Heather McNamara (Sophie Isaacs). However their cruel ways get too much for Veronica who starts a relationship with JD (Jamie Muscato), a mysterious newcomer at school with a questionable moral code and sociopathic tendencies which leads to a roller coaster of events in order to rid Westerberg High of the cruel popular kids, forever (sorry I'm not the best at writing short synopses)
One thing I wasn't a fan of with the original Off-Broadway run of Heathers was the lack of set design. The Off Broadway run consisted of just a raised platform at the centre back of the stage and the rest was left up to the imagination. While I understand this was probably due to a low budget or just the director's/designers choice but personally I'm a huge set design kind of guy and I appreciate it when shows clearly put so much love and attention into the set design, lighting and costumes. And this production of Heathers answered my prayers and gave me a fully realised set design! For such a small stage they were able to fully utilise the space to tranform each scene into something different. I dont want to go into too much detail about the set design because, if like me youre a sucker for that stuff, i want you all to experience the magic yourself and hopefully be just as awestruck as i was!
The costumes designed by David Shields are just fantastic. I love that they kept the feel of the original run but with a fresh new twist, especially with Veronica. I love her costume at very start of the show during 'Beautiful' and I also love that they used Carrie's own hair colour and texture and just cut it up shorter. It adds a fresh take to Veronica and I feel like it gives Carrie more freedom to be her own version of Veronica rather than a copy of Barrett's Veronica (I also did a fan art of Carrie as Veronica when I found out about the casting which she retweeted and the show reposted on their instagram page, and which I gave the physical copy of to Andy Fickman last night who said he'd pass it on to her for me, with her curly blonde hair, so I'm a little biased to a curly blonde Veronica.). And there's a certain costume reveal near the end of act one which was fantastic and made the audience erupt with applause. Now time to talk about the cast. Lets start with Carrie Hope Fletcher as Veronica, shall we, seeing as her and Dominic Andersen are the only two cast members I knew of prior to seeing the show. It's no secret that Carrie Hope Fletcher is one of my all time favourite theatre performers. I have seen her as Eponine and Wednesday in the past, but I think Veronica might be my favourite role character she has played so far. I loved Carrie as Eponine but felt like she was even better as Wednesday Addams because Carrie is a very funny person and was able to share that comedic side in The Addams Family. But Heathers has allowed her to do this even more! And she is bloody HILARIOUS! She acted the hell out of Veronica. Her voice is stunning as always but I feel like Heathers is her moment to let her acting shine through which she did wonderfully!
Jamie Muscato as JD was also fantastic. This was my first time seeing Jamie live but I have heard good things about him in the past. He has a voice as smooth as butter and just like Carrie he is hilarious on stage and acts the part of a sociopath perfectly, in the best way possible! He also does this thing with his eyebrow that just made my laugh out loud every single time. I think he might just be my favourite JD to date!
And now the Heathers themselves, Jodie Steele, T'Shan Williams, and Sophie Isaacs. Jodie Steele was just fabulous! The looks she was serving killed me and she perfectly embodied Heather Chandler. T'Shan Williams was also amazing but I'm afraid to say too much about her role in case I spoil the story for anyone who hasn't seen it yet or has no idea what to expect. What I will say, however, is she is an amazing performer and looks amazing in green (and also another certain colour...). But my favourite Heather has to be Sophie Isaacs, she is so cute and adorable but such a comedic genius! Her delivery of the 'meat cleaver' line in 'Beautiful' had me roaring! Also those arms girl! Toned as hell!! All three of these ladies are amazing actresses and astounding singers and their harmonies are on point. How very!
Finally, we have the rest of the cast. Jenny O' Leary as Martha was such a joy to watch and her rendition of 'Kindergarten Boyfriend' had me tearing up! I am so excited to see her career blossum and grow throughout the years. Dominic Andersen and Chris Chung as Ram and Kurt (Kram) respectively. These two work brilliant together and are hilarious. Also they spend the entirety of act two in nothing but a pair of briefs which was very pleasing to the eye and well worth the ticket alone! And Rebecca Lock as Ms. Fleming. What a voice! This woman has a set of pipes on her that I was not expecting! She absolutely slayed as Ms. Fleming and Veronica's mother. Yet again, another comedic genius! The rest of the cast was made up of Edward Baruwa, Jon Boydon, Lauren Drew, Charlotte Jaconelli, Alex James-Hatton, Olivia Moore, and Sergio Pasquariello. The entire cast was amazing and stayed in character the entire time. There was moments when I found myself watching them in the background and they would casually do things like smoke a joint (Charlotter Jaconelli), fix their glasses (Alex James-Hatton) etc. even when they were just standing around. Very dedicated bunch of actors/actresses right there.
The choreography by Gary Lloyd was also stunning, especially considering how small the stage in The Other Palace is. It was so much fun to watch especially 'Shine A Light' with a certain prop. Simply amazing!
As I already mentioned, I was and still am obsessed with the music in Heathers. Laurence O' Keefe (who is such a lovely man. I got the chance to speak with him at the signing after the show and he was just the definition of a gentleman) and Kevin Murphy are bloody geniuses (also responsible for the music in Legally Blonde: The Musical, Bat-Boy: The Musical, and more) and the lyrics and music in Heathers is just fantastic. It's fun, catchy, hilarious, and inspiring (in fact my blog was very nearly called Our Love Is God). My favourite songs from the Off-Broadway Cast Recording are 'Beautiful', 'Dead Girl Walking', 'Seventeen', 'Meant To Be Yours', and 'Blue' (which I was initially rather bummed about being cut but the replacement song is just as good). Having seen it live my love for these songs has only grown but I also loved Sophie Isaacs rendition of 'Lifeboat', 'Shine a Light', and Carries rendition of 'Fight For Me' which she made hilarious and completely her own! I also really liked the lyric changes they made for the London production and the new song they added into act one for Heather Duke is such an anthem!
Overall I just loved everything about Heahters: The Musical and would definitely go back if I could (but unfortunately for me its sold out now), Here's hoping the show will pull a Eugenius and it'll come back soon for another run!
Rating:
Plot: 10/10
Cast: 10/10
Music: 10/10
Choreography: 10/10
Set/Costume/Lighting: /10
Total Rating:10/10 (tens across the board!)
Venue and Seat:
I've decided that while writing these reviews for musicals and shows I've seen I'm also going to include a mini review of the venue where the show took place and the seat I chose. This was my first time seeing a show at The Other Palace and I'd happily be returning more in the future. It was a beautiful theatre and very intimate. the auditorium is considerbaly smaller than other london theatres ive been in so it was very easy to see everything, especially the actors' facial expressions which i feel is so important to this show! I sat in seat G17 which gave me an amazing view of everything and had sufficient leg space for an average sized adult (I'm 5'8"). The staff in The Other Palace are also very friendly. When we got to the theatre the man checking our bags spotted I had a Bat Out Of Hell bag with me cause I also saw that yesterday (check out my next post for my review of that) and asked me what i thought of it and initiated a conversation with me. And then when i got to the merch stand the girl behind the counter was so nice and complimented me on my accent and we had a short conversation about it as she is practicing a southern irish accent for an upcoming role she has. unfortunatley i never got either of their names but if they happen to read this i just want to say thank you for making my trip to The Other Palace an extremely pleasant one.
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