Review: Heathers the Musical

 by Lorcan Bonser-Wilton

Greetings and salutations! In August, I saw Heathers the Musical at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London. Let me just say, having listened to the cast recordings for the best part of two years, I was blown away when I finally saw this brilliant show with such an incredible cast! To briefly (and appropriately) explain the plot of Heathers, it tells the story of Veronica Sawyer, who joins her school’s popular ‘mean girl’ clique, the Heathers, aptly named as it is made up of three girls, all named Heather! However, after an incident at a party, she and her Baudelaire-quoting love interest go on a series of rather unfortunate conquests, which I would not want to spoil, and I am sure they are also a little risque to publish on a school blog!

I was very impressed with the strength of the cast. Leading was Christina Bennington playing Veronica Sawyer. The actress had impeccable comic timing of which I had not heard or seen on previous recordings or videos, was a great singer and was, at least to me, rather endearing! Veronica’s tall, brooding love interest was played by Jordan Luke Gage, who had a very impressive emotive range in both his singing and acting, and was excellent at showing both sides of a rather complex and damaged character. 

Now to get on to “Heather, Heather and Heather” so to speak! Apologies, the soundtrack is still an earworm 2 years on! I was very excited to see the only remaining member of the 2018 West End cast, Jodie Steele, reprising her role as Heather Chandler. She had an incredible vocal range, particularly an impressive riff in one of the highlights, “Candy Store”. On the day of my performance, there was a cover on for the character of Heather McNamara, Teleri Hughes. While a great actor, the highlight of the show for her was her character’s raw outpouring of emotions, “Lifeboat”, in which the character chronicles her struggles with maintaining popularity and struggles with mental health and suicidal feelings. It is important and pulled off with dignity and sensitivity. Finally, the actress playing Heather Duke, Bobbie Little, was an excellent actress and her song “Never Shut Up Again” displayed her strong vocal skills too. 

Other strong cast members included: Ross Harmon and Joaquin Pedro-Valdes (who played Kurt and Ram respectively), who played great off each other and lended many laughs to the audience; Lauren Ward, whom I spent much of my earlier years listening to on the Matilda cast recording, playing Miss Fleming and Veronica’s mother, and Madison Swan playing Martha Dunnstock, whose heartfelt song Kindergarten Boyfriend gained one of the largest audience reactions of the performance.

I know I have mostly focussed on the incredible cast so far, but to now hone in on a highlight of the show, which most of the audience were anticipating excitedly, I will talk about Candy Store. In this number, the Heathers give Veronica a glimpse of both their glossy lifestyle, and the world outside. What I particularly loved was both the choreography in this number, as well as the famous lighting, in which each Heather is put under a spotlight of their signature colour, for example Heather Chandler under a menacing red glow that follows her for much of the show.

I loved seeing Heathers, and urge you to see the ongoing UK tour, as it is an incredible show with an even more incredible fan community surrounding it.