Heathers is one of the most popular and successful musicals in recent years. It is based on the 1989 cult film of the same name, starring Winona Ryder, Christian Slayter, and Shannen Doherty.
With many people unfamiliar with the film, the musical was not an immediate hit; it went on a journey to reach the heights. Workshopped in 2009, it was presented in concert form in New York the following year, before finally premiering as a full piece in LA in 2013 and running off-Broadway the following year.
But it is UK audiences that have fallen in love with the very American musical. It ran both off-West End and West End in 2018 and was revived on the West End and later the off-West End in 2021, a year which also saw a UK and Ireland tour. It ran in São Paulo, Brazil in 2019 and 2021.
This year, the musical has opened in Buenos Aires, Argentina and embarked on a second UK and Ireland tour – and it is returning to Manchester, a city that is as gritty as it is gay and thus the perfect place to host Heathers.
Indeed, whilst many people presume that Heathers is similar to Mean Girls, with its three mean girls called “Heather”, it is much, much darker.
Westerberg High’s Veronica Sawyer is just another nobody dreaming of a better day. But when she joins the beautiful and impossibly cruel Heathers, her dreams of popularity may finally come true. Meanwhile, mysterious teen rebel JD teaches her that it might kill to be a nobody, but it is murder being a somebody.
The roaring rock score includes fan-favourites ‘Candy Store’, ‘Dead Girl Walking’, ‘I Say No’, and, of course, ‘Dead Gay Son’.
Heathers runs at Palace Theatre Manchester from August 8 to 12 and tours the UK until November 4.
Jay Darcy
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