I saw Heathers in 2024 and what a show! The main plot of the musical is based on Veronica Sawyer and how she tries navigating through her senior year of high school with her best friend Martha Dunstock. Poor Martha deals with bullying in the school due to her being “overweight”. They both throughout the musical deal with some common problems in high schools like bullying, depression, body shaming and even suicide. In Westerberg High School popularity is a matter of life and death. You’re either a popular predator or a nobody who is seen as prey to the popular cliques.
In this high school the 3 main popular girls are the Heathers. Heather Chandler, the leader in charge ruling over the school with an iron fist. If you cross her, you may as well move schools. Heather Duke desperately wants Heather C’s praise and approval, seeking her attention and validation, and finally Heather McNamara. Despite her somewhat popular mean girl exterior, later in the musical we find that she’s just as fragile as any other high school girl.
Then there’s the main male lead Jason Dean, or better known as JD. He has had a hard life constantly moving from school to school, city to city, for his dad’s work as a demolition expert. JD meets Veronica and they both fall in love, but we see this love turn dark as his views like “The only place that Heathers and Marthas can get along is in Heaven” imply the only way to survive this world is to blow up Westerburg, “essentially” getting rid of the “problems” in this world. He is shown through Act 2 of the musical trying to manipulate Veronica with his suffocating love for her to join him in blowing up the school, which she rejects.
The musical ends with Jason Dean dead, sacrificing himself for Veronica as everyone realises enough is enough and that its time for no more separation, and that we all have our own problems and issues and that we need to come together and be Beautiful, this being an homage to the show’s closing song Beautiful.
In my opinion I absolutely loved Heathers. The way it shows you what high school can be like for some people and how to overcome the problems that can occur is heart-warming. The songs are also very catchy like Candy Store, Meant to Be Yours, Seventeen and Freeze Your Brain. I highly recommend this musical.
By Marianne Breen