Aylesbury Waterside – until Saturday 3rd June 2023
Reviewed by Julia Spargo
4****
It is 1989 and Veronica Sawyer is a student at Ohio’s Westerberg High. Longing to be accepted, she joins the Heathers, three popular but cruel students, abandoning her best friend Martha in the process. Then Jason “JD” Dean arrives at the school, and bewitched, Veronica finds herself involved in a killing spree, as the popular students are picked off one-by-one by JD, with Veronica acting as an accomplice in staging the murders as suicide.
High-energy from the opening, Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe’s musical, based on the 1988 cult teenage film of the same name, is about teenage suicide, murder and bullying and might not be to everyone’s taste. Act II begins with the song, “My Dead Gay Son”, and might further give clues as to the trajectory of this riotous black comedy. As I relaxed into it, however, I enjoyed it more and more. Jenna Innes, playing Veronica, brings an exceptional spark to the musical, matched only by Verity Thompson as the bitchy Heather Chandler and Kingsley Morton as the abandoned friend Martha Dunnstock. When they are on stage, it is difficult to pay attention to anyone else. Jacob Fowler as JD lacked the swagger and charisma I expected of JD and struggled, along with the rest of the cast, to compete with Aylesbury’s continued sound issues which made hearing most of the lyrics impossible unless the song was a ballad, such as the spellbinding Kindergarten Boyfriend, sung by Martha shortly before she attempts suicide. The sound issues were frustrating but I got the gist, helped by familiarity with the original film. Those unfamiliar might not have been able to follow, which would have been a great shame.
The musical gains momentum in the second half, starting with a well-choreographed funeral scene, and the costumes, choreography and lighting add to the camp fun; school jocks Kurt (Alex Woodward) and Ram (Morgan Jackson) spend most of the second act appearing as their dead characters in nothing but a pair of briefs. High School hippy teacher Ms Fleming (Katie Paine) delivers a belting Shine a Light, singling out an unsuspecting member of the audience, surrounded by the cast, shimmering in sequined rainbow jackets.
The predictably redemptive ending did not lose pace, and left me humming the catchy Seventeen for the journey home. Triggering for some? Perhaps – but great, great fun.