Currently at Blackpool's Opera House, the latest UK tour of hit musical 'Heathers' is as sassy and as brash as ever!
Verity Thompson, Elise Zavoy, and Billie Bowman, as Red Heather, Green Heather and Yellow Heather respectively, rule the school. They are the prettiest, with the most influential daddies, and dress as a formidable threesome. All the guys want to be their boyfriends, and all the girls want to be like them. But they are mean and nasty, and use their "talents" in the wrong direction. Are they beyond salvation though? And that is very much the question which is the backbone of this musical. On the one hand there is an "angel", in the form of Veronica Sawyer, a dowdy swat girl who has both the intelligence and beauty to become one of them, and she tries to use this at first for her own image and glory, but later for much more altruistic reasons. However, is it too little, too late? Enter the "devil", Jason J D Dean, as played here by Jacob Fowler. He truly is evil, but he does love Veronica, so will his love be enough to save his soul and the carnage?? Oh, I didn't mention the killing did I?! What starts off as a 'High School Musical'-esque show with a hint of 'Grease' thrown in for good measure, soon becomes an altogether darker and more murderous show, with three of the protagonists dispatched before the act one curtain!
It is all very much tongue-in-cheek though, and the crass American humour of the piece is always there, even in the darkest of moments.... like a bomb being placed in the school, and only seconds until detonation...!
I fully understand why this show has become the semi-cult musical it has, with many audience members coming dressed as their favourite character. It has broad, facile humour, it has young sexy cast members strutting their stuff - in fact - two of the young men in the show spend the entire second half in just their underpants! It has simulated sex scenes, and right-on contemporary LGBTQ messages. But on the flip side, it also does seem to glorify and promote murder as a way of advancing the cause...!
As a middle-aged, straight, white male, I was definitely not the show's target demographic, and so perhaps did not join in with the spirit in the way I was meant to. And there was also a problem with the sound levels this evening too. Sometimes they were so low, I was convinced the performers' mics were not working, while at others the band overpowered and the sound deafened! Very strange. However, one thing is for sure, this is an upbeat, quirky, and entertaining piece of American Musical Theatre, which was hugely loved and appreciated by the millenials and teenage girls in this evening's audience.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall. on - 12.9.23
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