When Heathers The Musical first opened at New World Stages in 2014, you could feel the creators struggling to adapt the caustic 1989 dark comedy that launched the careers of Christian Slater and Shannen Doherty and cemented the reputation of Winona Ryder as an avatar for Gen X hipsterdom. How do you take a story about high school outcasts who confront their bullies by resorting to murder (sometimes unwittingly) and recast it for a musical theater audience expecting a consistent narrative through line with a softer, gentler, let’s-break-into-song attitude? Composer-lyricist-writers Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe, working off of Daniel Waters’ screenplay, only somewhat succeeded in that original barebones production under Andy Fickman’s direction.
The new Off Broadway revival, also directed by Fickman and also at New World Stages, has greatly benefited from the tinkering that Murphy and O’Keefe did in the intervening years, particularly for a 2018 London run. The show now actually improves on the movie by striking a delicate tonal balance between high school high jinks and the felonious nihilism embodied by Westerberg High School’s trenchcoat-clad newcomer, JD (Casey Likes). A song by the two football jocks that seemed to make light of their date-rapey intentions has been excised for a new number that spotlights the guys’ cocky cluelessness, while also giving more agency to their intended target.
Rest assured, fans of the movie will recognize the basic story—and many of the most memorable catchphrases remain intact. Veronica (& Juliet alum Lorna Courtney) is the plucky outsider whose forgery skills draw her into the cliqueish inner circle of the school’s reigning queen bees, all named Heather (McKenzie Kurtz, Olivia Hardy, and Elizabeth Teeter, each wonderfully tart). Veronica soon finds herself with a preppy makeover and a willingness to reject her childhood bestie, the deeply unpopular Martha “Dumptruck” Dunnstock (Erin Morton). She also falls for JD, a Baudelaire-quoting agent of chaos who initially seems to serve as a Jiminy Cricket goading her to stick to her principles. Before long, though, he’s roping her into becoming an accessory to the poisoning death of the top Heather (Kurtz)—which they cover up as a suicide with a Veronica-forged note. Then comes the offing of the school’s football-jock bullies (Xavier McKinnon and Cade Ostermeyer). “Dear Diary,” Veronica notes, “my teenage angst bullshit has a body count.”
But Veronica now has a more convincing narrative arc than she did in the earlier version of the show, or even in the movie. Tellingly, she gets her own version of an 11 o’clock number, “I Say No,” in which she grapples with her conflicting feelings about JD, avenging her tormentors, and reclaiming the inner nice-girl that she’s allowed to languish for too long in the quest for that ephemeral high school grail known as popularity.
A key reason for the show’s success is the infectious pop score, which is chock full of bangers that have gained a huge following among a much younger generation thanks to TikTok as well as high school productions (which presumably tone down some of the language, including the movie’s most quoted line: “Fuck me gently with a chainsaw”).
One advantage for school theater programs is that the show is a true ensemble piece, with stand-out numbers scattered widely among the sizable cast. The Heathers kick things off early with the seductive jam “Candy Store” that celebrates their snobbery with witty lyrics like “I like killer clothes, kicking nerds in the nose!” In a nod to musical theater tradition, each of the Heathers is dressed in a Slurpee-bright color, with preppy outfits (by David Shields and Siena Zoë Allen) that are often matched with correspondingly day-glo lighting (by Ben Cracknell).
But many other members of the cast also get turns in the spotlight — from the perpetual bullying target Martha, to the hippie teacher (Kerry Butler) who tries to insert her own agenda in response to the rash of student deaths, to the fathers of the two slain jocks (Ben Davis and Cameron Loyal) who kick off the second act with a hilarious gospel-tinged hymn to tolerance and LGBTQ allyship.
The hits keep coming. Likes brings his boyish tenor to the melodic mantra “Freeze Your Brain,” while Courtney adds some vocal fry to Veronica’s strident ode to sex-positivity, “Dead Girl Walking.” The two also join forces on the soulful ballad “Seventeen,” as they grapple with how to reclaim their youthful innocence and put their past trauma behind them. There’s a hopefulness here that endures despite the darkness, and despite an ending that adheres to the movie by upping both the teenage angst and the body count.
Fickman’s familiarity with the material really pays off, because the production has a polish that belies its Off Broadway setting. He laces scenes with wonderful moments in the margins too, as when Ostermeyer’s dim-bulb quarterback has to be prompted to make an exit or when Teeter’s cheerleader Heather delivers a series of defiant high kicks upstage as a wall closes and casts her into darkness. (The choreography is by Gary Lloyd.)
The cast also hits the perfect notes to blend believability with exaggerated cartoonishness demanded of any sendup of high school social dynamics. Courtney is convincing as the frumpy goody two-shoes who gets heady with power and popularity but pulls herself back from the edge, and Likes is appealingly edgy without trying to mimic Slater, or Slater’s film-long impersonation of Jack Nicholson. (He’s also a veteran of starring in musicals based on throwback movies, from Almost Famous to Back to the Future, in each case finding a way to nod to his starry big-screen predecessor while making the role his own.)
Heathers the Musical pulls off that rare thing: indulging our craving for nostalgia and camp while also bringing fresh perspectives to familiar tropes. The show now turns on one of the movie’s other classic lines: “What’s your damage, Heather?” In this spirited and spunky musical, though, the line is less of a cutting put-down than an appeal for connection amid the shared trauma endured by all high schoolers. That is, the damage that all of us carry around, like overstuffed bookbags with Trapper Keepers of suppressed anxiety spilling out. ★★★★☆
HEATHERS THE MUSICAL
New World Stages, Off Broadway
Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes (with 1 intermission)
Tickets on sale through January 25, 2026 for $38 to $195
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