10th anniversary of Heathers

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.

Updated On: 7/16/24 at 01:43 AM

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 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.

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

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.

Is this the longest a phillypinto burner account has been active?

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.

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.

Call_me_jorge said: "Is this the longest a phillypinto burner account has been active?"

I have always thought this was Philliepinto, added a little but not matured.

It feels like 10 years since I've heard that name