Heathers The Musical

Even though I have seen the musical before, it still leaves me with my jaw on the floor at the subject matter it covers.

The ticket website says it all - with a warning of strong language, gun violence, murder, suicide, drug use, fat shaming, sex and more.

Yet remarkably, the writers of the musical have handled the subject matter in a way that allows for these issues to be handled delicately, in a rollicking night of satire.

The musical is true to the original 1989 movie, set in an Ohio school, where three of the female students are named Heather, and the fourth member of their clique falls for a teenager with murderous intent.

It has a lively score – with some good tunes that are from the West End production of the musical.

The producer and musical director Mitchell Old, barely out of his teenage years himself, has put together a terrific production, which is comparable in standard to the original Australian season at the Hayes Theatre in 2015.

Unlike the Hayes, the Darling Quarter Theatre has a bit more room on a wide stage, which in this performance was amply set with school yard paraphernalia, graffiti, and lighting towers.

Director Jake Tyler cast a strong cohort of relatively recent graduates of performing arts courses, so they credibly looked like school students.

In the second scene the three cool brat Heathers (Sabrina Kirkham, Kira Leiva and Laura Dawson) preened down the stairs, smartly dressed in their 1980s shoulder pad uniforms with crisp choreography from Rheanna Hindmarsh.

The ‘romantic’ leads - Veronica (Tiegan Denina) and JD (Jason Dean) - had good on-stage chemistry and were sent on a sizzling hot spinning light show when their relationship peaked.

But stealing the night were Sam Welch and Jake Vollbon, who doubled as the school’s dumbest bullies and their parents in the funniest song of the night which celebrates tolerance.

Just as sharp was the performance of Jayde Luna in the role of school nerd Martha, with her rendition of “Kindergarten Boyfriend”, while Michele Lansdown milked plenty of gags in her roles of school principal and the leading lady’s mum.

At the end of the night, the young Mr Old left the orchestra ‘pit’ to give a triumphant speech rightly celebrating the fact that the production had finally made it to the stage a year after it was scheduled.  This season deserves to be well supported.

David Spicer

Photographer: Nicholas Gomez