A critique on the cultural and theatrical influences of heathers the musical

My artistic plan to utilise this production to inform my ideas when creating an actor’s show case

Heathers the musical is a contemporary musical, written in 2013 by Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe,
based on the 1989 film of the same title. Set in 1989 Sherwood, Ohio, the story follows main character
Veronica Sawyer as she goes from a bullied loser to a member of the most popular group in school; three girls
all called heather, the leader being heather chandler. Life is going well until she meets her love interest, JD,
who convinces her that all the bad people need to disappear from their high school. This Is brought about from
an accidental murder of the leader, heather chandler. When they make it seem like her death was a suicide, a
rampage continues, followed by the murder of the head jocks, Kurt and ram, who had previously attempted to
sexually assault veronica. These deaths ensue as JD lies about his tactics. For example, he told veronica the
bullets that he shot the jocks with were fake. They continue saying how these deaths were suicides and even
convincing the town that Kurt and ram killed themselves as they were gay for one another. Veronica then
realises JD is a sociopath after he states his idea to blow up the school at prom. Veronica cuts him off and even
fakes her own suicide so he thinks she’s dead. She then goes on to stopping him from blowing up the school ,
and as she goes to blow up herself in a distance away, JD steps in, and becomes the only real suicide of the
town. The musical is a dark comedy which battles with themes of suicide, bullying, body dysmorphia as well as
sub themes of how LGBTQ was handled and how schools choose to deal with suicide.
When heathers was initially released in cinemas in the late 80’s, many people weren’t interested and it
actually earned a low amount at the box office, with a 1-million-dollar income despite its budget of 3 million
dollars for making. Suicide was an incredibly taboo topic at the time. With predominantly Christian beliefs still
being used around the world, the initial idea with suicide is that you were selfish, didn’t deserve a proper
funeral and would go to hell just for that. In the 80s, teenage suicide rates increased from 8.8 deaths per
100,000 (1970-1980) which increased to 12.3 per 100,000 (1980-1990). This is possibly due to the
modernisation of anti-depressants as new drugs were found to cause an effect on one’s serotonin. 1989 was
also a big year for LGBTQ rights. With the stonewall group in the UK being founded, long beach, California
ridding its discrimination against members of the LGBTQ in employment and east Germany removing article
151, and thus treating homosexuality and heterosexuality equally. The LGBT were slowly becoming more
accepted and normalised, despite many classical discriminations maintaining against it. In heathers the
musical, they play with the stereotype that jocks can be in homosexual relationships but still identify as
straight. This is presented comedically in the song “My Dead Gay Son”
One similarity between this musical and my piece is the use of storytelling through song. Heathers is a
musical, and musicals are simply playing in which main story points are told through the use of song. My piece
is a song which tells the story of harsh old people and their negative reaction to common things, as well as
talking about dark subjects which are highlighted with an upbeat melody. Another similarity is the use of dark
comedy. In heathers they make many jokes about suicide, for example “look she was reading the bell jar”, a
book by sylvia Plath who committed suicide by sticking her head in the oven. The aim of this is to emphasise
that there’s always a bright side, even in the darkest themes. With my piece, I talk about themes such as
mental health, obesity and homelessness and a response to an older generations’ thoughts toward it; get a
grip. A final similarity is the fact I touch on mental illness, much like heathers did. They talk about suicide and
the effects of that whereas I similarly vaguely discuss having “voices in your head” or “wishing you were dead”.
The difference between my piece and heathers the musical, however, is firstly the fact that I don’t have a big
ensemble behind me. Heathers has a wide variety of characters ranging in age, personality and appeal to an
audience. With my song, it’s just me, on my own, although it may seem that it lessens the power of the song
due to it just consisting of one person, it is still powerful because I believe it will enable the audience to focus
on my words more instead of pretty harmonies. Another difference is the fact I don’t have a big set o0r fancy
costumes. Since heathers was a well-funded show, they had costume changes, lighting, big sets, for reference
the 2018 London production had a big high school set, or professional equipment. Again, my piece is toned
down, in comparison to that, and again allows the audience to focus on me.
The first form of my piece was very quick and panicked. At the time of forming it, I had just been let down
after originally wanting to perform a mashup I had made of a musical called "Hades town". However, many
people didn’t agree with my idea and chose to go their own ways and I was quite downhearted. However, I
was inspired when a guest director instructed me to write a quick tongue in cheek song with the repeating
phrase “get a grip”. Form. Thinking quick on my feet , I made the song which kept my want of perusing a
musical route in the show case, whilst also staying to my given groups ideals of being dark and political. I
formed the song by using my ukulele, the only instrument I am very skilled in as I have played it for almost 5
years. I came up with a simple 4 chord melody that could be moved around and then, came up with times I
have seen hatred in public and just wrote it down. The only technique I can vaguely say I used is song writing
and use of rhythm. All the words re in time and fit with the song. Some future problems that I feel I may
encounter, is the fact that it is long. Its 2 minutes, and our groups can only have a total 10 minutes maximum
for us all to get our pieces done. I’ll see how it fits with everyone’s pieces and will then plan to cut maybe a
verse and a chorus. Another problem I believe I will encounter with my piece is the use of swear words. I’ve
made the song sound very British, and by that I simply mean common, and how I usually tend to speak. There
are a few rude words in there which I feel should stay there as they emphasise how agitating it is to witness
hatred in day-to-day life. However, if I need to cut them or find better replacements, I will.
Personally, I think it is very vital that you at least attempt to find a piece of theatre that inspires you to make
your own piece and get a rough idea of what you want to perform. In my instance, heathers has influenced so
much of my piece. Mainly the dark comedy and musicality. I’m a theatre kid, and thoroughly enjoy musicals.
But since being on an acting course, you don’t tend to do a lot of music focus. Having the freedom to ,
essentially, do what we want in the showcase, my initial though was to do something musical, due to my
passion for singing and song writing. When we were given freewill, I watched heathers again, only available by
a bootleg but I also went through memories I have from seeing the 2018 London production a total of 18
times. Remembering their way of performing with over-the-top facial expressions, use of heavy accents and
dark comedy, I knew I wanted to include that in my piece. Faial expressions when I explain situations in the
song, accent by using a heavy, somewhat cockney, accent and dark comedy with the repetition of get a grip.
Researching your influences towards your acting is extremely important, especially when you have that
responsibility to come up with your own theatrical piece. For me I would say my main influences are "Flo and
Joan". A musical comedic duo of sisters, Nicola and Rosie Dempsey, who write and perform songs about
everyday occurrences, such as having a hangover or hating the year 2020. They have toured England, Australia,
America and Europe. They have made many television appearances on shows such as live at the apollo, royal
variety performance and Johnathan ross’ comedy club. They use music to retell hilarious stories or act out
jokes they have come up with. I take a lot of inspiration off of them because they, somehow, don’t make their
songs too “nice sounding”, which contrasts with heathers and the usual idea of musicals having harmonies and
big voices. I use a mix of singing and talking in my song so m y words are clearer and to not show off my
musical voice too much.
In conclusion, heathers the musical has been a major influence on my piece in the actors show case. I’m
excited to finalise my drafts of the song and start rehearsing it with the rest of my group as soon as possible.
I’m grateful for this musical allowing me to step into its “candy store”.

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