Heathers: The Musical

Fans of the dark comedy, Heathers, starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater, will be excited to hear about the concert presentation based on the classic high-school thriller.

Heathers: The Musical, directed by Andy Fickman, contains all of the movie's key elements: It's full of love, murder, power politics and even a little hope.

The show opens to the ensemble singing about their typical morning of high school. Insults are thrown out in every direction until the three Heathers enter from the audience. Everyone stops and begins chanting "Heather, Heather, Heather," confirming their godlike status within the high school.

The trio of Heathers is played by Jenna Leigh Green as Heather Chandler, Corri English as Heather McNamara and Christine Lakin as Heather Duke. Green's portrayal of Heather Chandler shows how powerful one queen bee can get when given that much control over her school and how a hierarchy like that can affect the rest of school's population. Both English and Lakin bring depth to their characters by making them more than just simple-minded followers who are lucky enough to be on top too. English has a shining moment where she breaks away from being a follower and shows her true colors and her inner feelings of unhappiness within the hierarchy system. Lakin shows there is more to her character — taking on the queen bee role when Heather Chandler is unexpectedly forced to abdicate her thrown.

Veronica, played by Annaleigh Ashford, is nobody until she gets taken under the wing of the most powerful and popular of the three Heathers, Heather Chandler. Veronica quickly becomes disenchanted with the popular world to which she now belongs and falls into a fast relationship with the dark and mysterious new guy, Jason Dean (Jeremy Jordan).

Ashford does a wonderful job portraying a girl trying to find her way within the clique-driven high school. When Veronica realizes popularity is not all it seems to be, Ashford is able to make us love her even when she and Jason Dean help to start a suicide phenomenon in their school. Jordan, at first glance, looks too sweet to take on the twisted character of JD. He proves that can be believable as a creepy new guy who is a little to obsessed with killing people off. The chemistry between Ashford and Jordan is undeniable from their awkward meeting to their explosive goodbye.

Tony Award- nominated composer Laurence O'Keefe collaborated with author Kevin Murphy on book, music and lyrics to bring the film's plot and characters to life on stage.

 Many of the movie's classic lines were integrated into the script including, "Did you eat a brain tumor for breakfast," "Corn nuts" and "F--k me gently with a chainsaw." O'Keefe and Murphy even added a gospel themed production number derived from the line "I love my dead gay son!"

Every person in Joe's Pub, including those on stage and in the audience, was having the time of their lives during the concert presentation of Heathers: The Musical. If the musical goes to Broadway it will be a success with the film's fans as well those who have never seen the movie before. It is a fun show about the trials of high school, and most importantly, the show doesn't take itself too seriously.