The Other Palace, Victoria – until 19th February 2023
Reviewed by Bobbi Fenton
5*****
‘Heathers’, set in 1989 and based on the film of the same name, is an incredible musical about a typical high school in Ohio, with friend group fallings out, romance, homecoming parties, and just a little bit of casual murder. The story follows Veronica Sawyer (Erin Caldwell) as her incredibly average life turns upside down. She first befriends the Heather’s (Maddison Firth, Vivian Panka, and Jasmine Beel), after they find out how good she is a forging notes. This ends with the murder of Heather Chandler (Maddison Firth) by Veronica’s new boyfriend, Jason Dean (Nathaniel Landskroner). J.D is your typical mysterious, rebellious teen boy with a little bit of psychopathy for good measure. When J.D murders the two high school jocks Ram (Brandon Gale) and Kurt (Tobias Turley) and frames it as a double suicide, Veronica starts to question whether her and J.D have the right to decide who lives or dies. J.D gradually becomes more and more desperate to kill the people at his school to make the school a better place, but when he begs Veronica to join him in blowing up the school with everyone inside, she fakes her own suicide, goes to the school, takes the bomb out to the football field, and watches J.D blow himself up. This is the end of the internal society of the school, as everybody decides to get along and stop following the social hierarchy since they’ve just narrowly escaped death.
This musical is full of absolutely brilliant songs, that will have anyone dancing along in their seat. These are sung by amazing performers, which makes it incredibly hard to choose favourites since they are all as brilliant as each other. In this performance, however, I especially liked the song ‘Seventeen’, a duet between Veronica and J.D, deciding to just be teenagers and stop murdering people. Erin and Nathaniel are a great pairing for this song, as their voices really merge together perfectly. ‘Kindergarten Boyfriend’ is another brilliant song from the show, delivered by Lydia Eliza Roberts’ beautiful vocals as Martha Dunnstock. Not to mention Jasmine Beel’s incredibly powerful vocals during the song ‘Lifeboat’ which is my favourite from this evening’s performance.
This musical is such a fun night out, and shouldn’t be missed. Veronica and J.Ds love may be good, but your love will be this show.