MUSICAL THEATRE
Book, Music & Lyrics
by Laurence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy, based on the film by Daniel Murphy,
produced by Showwork & Arts Centre
Melbourne
Playhouse,
Arts Centre Melbourne, until May 22, 2016
Reviewer: Kate Herbert on May 15
Stars:***
This review also online and in print in Herald Sun Arts on Mon May 16, 2016. KH
Hannah Frederiksen, Lucy Maunder, Rebecca Hetherington
The teen musical, Heathers, deals with bullying,
murder, suicide, shootings and bombings in a high school so it is vital to strike
the right balance between grotesquery, comedy and morality.
Trevor Ashley’s uneven production does so
in part but, at times, Heathers departs from grotesque parody and descends into
crassness, shallow caricatures and an unfortunate and unintended celebration of
bullies and psychos.
This
musical by Laurence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy was first staged Off-Broadway in
2014 and is based on Daniel Murphy’s 1988 cult movie of the same name.
Westerberg
High is ruled by three popular, pretty and really mean gals who are all called
Heather, each one more vile and vain than the other, with Heather Chandler (Lucy Maunder)
being the leader of this contemptible trio and the most slappable.
Veronica Sawyer (Hilary Cole) realises
that she needs the Heathers’ stamp of approval to avoid being bullied, but things
go awry when her outsider boyfriend, JD (Stephen Madsen), embarks on a violent path
of revenge against the Heathers and their supporters, the thuggish football
jocks, Ram (Vincent Hooper) and Kurt (Jakob Ambrose).
The
musical is less subversive and clever than the movie, but it features a few
strong songs such as Beautiful,
Cole’s soaring opening
number, that introduces the social battlefield that is high school with lyrics
such as, “This is not high school,
it’s the Thunderdome”.
Candy
Store, in which Maunder
leads the pretty but hateful Heathers, is a frightening revelation that the
girls’ cruel lives consist of, “Kicking nerds in the nose, scaring her,
screwing him, maxing out dad’s credit card.”
Cole and Madsen’s love duet, Seventeen,
provides a glimmer of hope for this pair as Veronica tries to convince JD to
stop his vengeful actions and just be a 17-year old kid in love, but their
final duet, I Am Damaged, is a grim ending to their ghastly romance.
Maunder is a diabolical omnipresence as Heather Chandler,
the queen of the “biotches”, even after the character’s untimely demise, while Rebecca Hetherington is
suitably needy as cheerleading Heather who eventually finds her heart, and Hannah Frederiksen makes
bulimic Heather
almost as despicable as her dead pal.
Lauren
McKenna has a fine voice and gives an assured performance in dual roles, but
particularly as Martha, the sweet-natured, overweight girl who is the target of
dreadful abuse, and McKenna sings a poignant version of Martha’s yearning
ballad, Kindergarten Boyfriend.
The
ensemble is talented and the chorus numbers are sassy and vibrant, but it is a
mistake to put young performers in bad wigs and fake potbellies to play adults
because this makes the show look like a bad school production.
This is
an entertaining, albeit patchy, production of Heathers, a show that makes Lord
of the Flies look like a picnic.
Kate
Herbert
Director Trevor Ashley
Choreographer Cameron Mitchell
Musical
Director Bev Kennedy
Designers Emma Vine with Eamon D’arcy
Costume
Design Angela White
Lighting
Design Gavan Swift
CAST:
Hilary Cole - Veronica Sawyer
Lucy Maunder -Heather Chandler
Rebecca Hetherington -Heather McNamara
Hannah
Frederiksen -Heather
Duke
Stephen Madsen-JD
Vincent Hooper =Ram
Jakob Ambrose -Kurt
By Kate Herbert
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