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Freeze your brain

  • Esther McGregor
  • Jun 2, 2018
  • 3 min read

Heathers: The Musical

Directed by Angela Witcher, Sabrina Williams, Kara Fisher and Zachary Crisan

Redcliffe Musical Theatre

Season: May 18th - June 3rd

Ever since Heathers: The Musical came onto my musical theatre radar a couple of years ago, I've been curious to see how the 1988 film had been translated to suit the realm of live theatre. Admittedly I've only seen the movie version once and it was many years ago, so I felt like I was going in with fresh eyes to see Redcliffe Musical Theatre's adaptation of this cult classic.

Heathers tells the story of Veronica, a high school misfit who uses her proclivity for forging documents to befriend the most popular girls in school: a trio who are all named Heather. Her new position atop the social hierarchy is rattled when she meets and falls for JD, a beguiling and damaged outsider who is new to their school. What ensues is a story that explores (and sometimes exploits) trust in relationships, friendships and the reflection of greater society that is high school. The script itself is sardonic, laced with an abundance of inappropriate reactions to what we would consider to be traumatic events (for example, Ms Fleming photocopying Heather Chandler's "suicide" letter and distributing it to students). 

I was fortunate enough to be able to view both cast lineups today at Theatre 102 and have to firstly commend every single performer on the stage for their solid, captivating performance in both the matinee and evening shows. Heathers gets quite heavy in some parts and could've easily been bogged down with too much emotion, or been unconvincing and vapid with too little, but the performers navigated each and every plot point with measured and appropriate emotion. The leads in both casts were excellent: Heather McNamara was portrayed as being kindhearted but misguided by both Maddi Hutchins and Paige Fallu; Georgia Murray's Heather Duke was bitchy whereas Gabi Joseph's was bratty; Matthew Bapty's JD was angsty and romantic, where Michael Mills' was troubled and guarded, and Micheal Hornery and Georgia Gleeson played similar Veronicas, with Georgia's line delivery being a touch more sarcastic. Ashley Prosser's portrayal of queen bee Heather Chandler was smouldering and intimidating - even in death. Jocks Kurt and Ram (Zac Crisan and Jai Jackson respectively) added comic relief to otherwise heavy scenes (the song "Blue" made me cry with laughter). 

The costuming (by Kim Phillips) was immaculate, particularly the outfits worn by the Heathers. Even though they blended together well and didn't pull focus, the ensemble all had individual looks, with period-appropriate attire, hair and makeup. The set was relatively static with one piece rotating and changing to reflect the location of each scene. Theatre 102 is a more intimate sized venue and the simplicity of the set design complemented the size of the theatre, and also allowed the cast to move more a bit more freely around the stage. The choreography, created by Kara Fisher and Zac Crisan was tight and captivating and I have to give props to them for choreographing whole-cast dance numbers that fit in the restricted acting space without looking crowded or messy. 

My only criticisms would be that the dialogue was a bit muddy at times and the sound was imbalanced in sections, however I think these issues were mostly due to technical glitches that were beyond anyone's control. Some transitions between scenes also lacked fluidity which made the show seem a bit stop-start in points, something that could've been easily remedied with some transitional blocking. As a whole, Heathers was an enjoyable and thought provoking theatre experience and I would encourage anyone who is thinking about going to see it, to go as tonight (June 3rd) is the last show at Theatre 102.


 
 
 

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