I think it is such a fantastic addition to the American musical theatre canon and it has been so shafted of a chance to shine in a professional, commercial context beyond it's run at NWS. Which by qualitative standards, it totally deserves. Like it or not from an artistic standpoint, it is wildly beloved and extremely popular.
But unless something were to happen that would elevate the property to a level of interest/demand that could supercede the obvious questions and dialogue of it's potrayal of gun violence in Amercian schools, I just don't see the general public (or theatre people) embracing a commercial production anytime soon. Or ever.
It's a shame. But probably for the best. It's definitely a tougher watch in the states.
I love Heathers - the movie and the musical, pretty equally - and feel like much of the disdain for the show came from the poor production quality of the original NWS run. I’ve still yet to see any other production, but the bones are there for a biting, funny, poignant evening.
That being said, it’s a tough sell - the original couldn’t even sell out a smallish Off-Broadway house - and I doubt we’ll ever see it on Broadway.
I saw it at the enormous Theatre Royal Haymarket in London and hated it even more. It’s not the production quality it’s the quality of the material that waters down the satire to a point it shouldn’t even be allowed to be called “Heathers”.
I don't mind Heathers, but the way Jordan feels about it is the way I feel about Dear Evan Hansen.
It craps on the daring of "World's Greatest Dad," which takes the indefensible but TRUE position that some people really AREN'T good for anything, and are worth more dead than alive. Dear Evan Hansen seems like it's gonna take that talking point, but then soft pedals it and tries to be "life affirming." Bobcat Goldthwait was obviously trying to be provocative and controversial when he made a movie that is pro teen suicide. Not everything has to be a hand-holding, Glee style "it gets better." Some things can simply be an "up yours."
I have enjoyed Heathers over the years. When it first went to London, I tried so hard to see it, but the tickets were sold out before it even began! When I went to London last year, I met the director Andy Fickman at another show he was working on and got my friend and I tickets to see it. After years of loving the cast album, I was so excited to see the show, and it did not disappoint. That said Flash, this show would not sell very well on Broadway. Maybe Off-Broadway but that's about it.
The idea is to work and to experiment. Some things will be creatively successful, some things will succeed at the box office, and some things will only - which is the biggest only - teach you things that see the future. And they're probably as valuable as any of your successes. -Harold Prince
I saw it at The Other Palace in London last year and I found it riotously funny, though obviously missing the bite of the original film. Some parts haven’t aged well over time - mostly the school gun violence, but also an entire number about “My Dead Gay Son”.
I don’t think a Broadway run would really be good for this property - mostly because, as American society, these issues hit WAY too close to home these days to genuinely be considered good fodder for a musical. While these problems aren’t entirely absent from the UK, they aren’t ubiquitous enough where they can watch the show at a distance.
We should also remember that the television series adaptation in the late 2010s was canned, and then heavily re-edited, because of the controversial content.
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While the TV series was indeed delayed, re-edited, and ultimately buried with the official reason being real-world shootings, it was commonly understood at the time that it was more or less and excuse to dump a series that got extremely negative critical and popular reactions not due to its violence but because of its extremely misguided adaptational choices- remember, it reimagined the Heathers as being members of marginalized groups and effectively became a story about white cis kids taking them down.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
I thought my dead gay son was aged even ten years ago, but maybe it’s a time period joke? I’ve never seen the film, but the musical is gorgeous. The score is a MASTERPIECE. All the big composers like Lin Miranda and Tim Minchin talked about how much they love Seventeen. Larry Okeefe needs to write more musicals, what is he doing these days?? I need more of his music now!! This coming to Broadway is inevitable
I like "Candy Store," "Fight for Me" and "Dead Girl Walking (reprise)." I find the comedy songs "Blue" and "Dead Gay Son" absolutely vile. The latter completely misses the point of the films' original, cruel joke. Most of all I like Barrett Wilbert Weed's voice on the Off-Broadway cast album. No one in the London broadcast at the pizazz that original cast did.
So much of the score sounds like legally blonde. Freeze your brain sounds like chip on my shoulder, the opening sounds like the Harvard variations, and I even think dead girl walking sounds like what you want. The rhythm at least.
Flash, come on now! Heathers is by no means a masterpiece! It’s a fun show, yes but not a masterpiece! Parade is a Masterpiece, Into the Woods is a Masterpiece. Just like Back to the Future, Heathers falls into this category that can make us laugh and have fun.
The idea is to work and to experiment. Some things will be creatively successful, some things will succeed at the box office, and some things will only - which is the biggest only - teach you things that see the future. And they're probably as valuable as any of your successes. -Harold Prince
Is this the longest a phillypinto burner account has been active?
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No it’s a musical MASTERPIECE. Parade is bland, Into the Woods is a pile of mush, but heathers is a wild ride filled with bangers! Just like Teeth! and Here We Are
Broadway Flash said: "No it’s a musical MASTERPIECE. Parade is bland, Into the Woods is a pile of mush, but heathers is a wild ride filled with bangers! Just like Teeth! and Here We Are"
Hang on -- it's a "MASTERPIECE", yet in your very next post you talk about how much it sounds like Legally Blonde. Personally, I don't like my MASTERPIECES to be derivative of another work.
It’s the same composer?? Literally Sunday in the Park with George sounds just like Merrily We Roll Along and people have no problem calling George a masterpiece
Broadway Flash finally makes a thread worth discussing, and almost immediately proves why we just need to stop responding to them entirely - valid conversation points or not.
Heathers: The Musical is a lot of things. “Gorgeous” or a “masterpiece,” it is not. And for all the Sondheim shows you derided so far in this thread, you think Here We Are is full of bangers? Get your head examined.
IMO the off-bway version had way more bite than the revised London version. The only new song I like is "I Say No" and that Heather Duke added number is just a complete disaster and show stopper (in all the wrong ways).
Hearing Barrett sing that score live before her voice deteriorated was also a truly thrilling experience. I remember seeing it in 2014 and thinking, truly, "I've never heard a better voice in my entire life". It was short lived, but exciting when it happened.