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Picture: Pamela Raith Heathers – the Musical Coventry Belgrade ***** Heathers - the Musical is winner of the WhatsonStage Musical of the Year 2019 and after many successful runs on the West End stage is on a comprehensive UK tour. It is a high-energy black comedy with a cast of brilliant singers and dancers and based on, I’d say quite loosely, the film Heathers from 1988. The story is quite complex and tricky to tell without giving the whole game away but here goes. At Westerberg High School, Sherwood, Ohio, USA, bookish and clever Veronica Sawyer (Jenna Innes) is on the brink of joining, a bit reluctantly, what she calls the ‘Lipgloss Gestapo’, a group of three girls of 17 all called Heather, principally Heather Chandler (Verity Thompson), who operate a form of schoolgirl mafia. Veronica becomes a favoured pet but at the cost of her rather portly friend Martha (Kingsley Morton). Miss Fleming (Katie Paine) as hippy Head teacher attempts to use proceedings as both propaganda and teaching tool. Veronica meets avenging ‘angel’ JD, Jason Dean (Tom Dickerson ), tall, dark, handsome and a wrong ‘un for whom she falls deeply and hard. He doesn’t let his vengeance grow cold and the bodies start to pile up – re-emerging as very entertaining ghosts throughout the show. The Heathers turn out to be a Hydra, and Heather Chandlers’ untimely demise gives an opportunity for Heather MacNamara (Billie Bowman) to turn up the heat on the casual cruelty of the gang. Some sloppy police work, and Veronica’s fake suicide notes, assumes the death toll is due to suicide and the final Heather (Elise Zavou) attempts to kill herself but is saved by Veronica. Kurt and Ram (Alex Woodward and Morgan Jackson), in Panto terms the ‘Sillies’ manage to look sexy throughout in short white socks and underpants and answer to ‘Arseholes’. There are times when I would have clasped my hands over my children’s eyes; there are some saucy scenes. All in all, and it ends happily enough, I enjoyed the show, particularly Martha’s endearing song about kindergarten love, I always enjoy a live band, and the high-octane dance sequences featuring a really large cast of great singers and dancers. Directed Andy Fickman Heathers will be in class to 23-09-23. Jane Howard 19-09-23 |
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