Time for you to prove you're not a loser anymore...
The third in a (very) occasional series of musical reviews...
In my previous posts in this series, I mentioned that I was generally more of a fan of classic musicals, with a few notable modern exceptions. What I'm certainly not a fan of is them new-fangled musicals, based on a band's music (no, I did not like Mamma Mia), TV (although I have heard that Spongebob Squarepants is surprisingly enjoyable) or film. So, obviously yesterday I found myself watching Heathers: The Musical...
Funnily enough, it wasn't my choice - our eldest has been obsessing about the show for some time now and so it was offered up as a birthday treat (slightly early, since yesterday was originally supposed to be its last day in London, but it's since been extended to 1st May). I wasn't overly fussed on seeing it, but sometimes parental responsibility means having to do what you're told (and I'd been bribed with the promise of some food out afterwards). So, yesterday afternoon at 3pm, I found myself sat in The Other Palace theatre in the midst of an interestingly costumed audience somewhat nervously anticipating what was about to happen...
...but the two and a half hours pretty much flew by with an engaging story and songs performed by a fine cast (and a VERY appreciative audience - but more on them later). For those of you that remember the film (and a quick Google confirms that, despite thinking I did, I cannot count myself amongst in that group), the plot pretty much follows the same path. For those of you that can't or have never seen it, it's a very dark comedy about fitting in at high school concentrating on Veronica's efforts to get in with "The Heathers" (the three cool kids who run the school) and the fallout when she realises that it's not quite everything she wants. And it possibly takes things to extremes (and beyond) at times - I was actually glad I couldn't remember the plot of the film because I enjoyed it more not knowing where it was going (you'd be doing well to guess how it ends without knowing beforehand). And that's probably enough plot for you, I think.
The cast all do a good job and are obviously having a great time in the process, but we have to start with Ailsa Davidson as Veronica - if she doesn't deliver then the performance is going to be in trouble. And you can probably guess from what I've said so far that she most definitely does deliver - it's a role which lives or dies by the singing performance but there's plenty of acting required in there as well and she impresses on both counts throughout, delivering three particularly strong numbers in "Dead Girl Walking", "Seventeen" and "I Say No" (and she looked very emotional after the standing ovation at the end of the latter).
The second stand-out performance for me was Emma Kingston as Heather Chandler ("the queen biyatch") who undergoes more of a character arc than most get a chance to do in a musical (no spoilers!) and carries us along with her well whilst providing a suitably sardonic narration. And, along with the other Heathers (Inez Budd and Teleri Hughes) delivers "Candy Store" which is, for me, the stand-out song of the show.
Other major parts are Jordan Cunningham as JD (played with suitable menace), Lizzie Bea as Martha (played with suitable innocence and awkwardness) and George Maddison/Tom Scanlon as Kurt/Ram, who deserve a special mention for performing half the show in their underpants. And two other songs in particular give more minor characters the opportunity to shine which they seize - Keiran Brown and Sam Ferriday are far more amusing singing "My Dead Gay Son" than you might expect and Vicki Lee Taylor has a lot of fun with "Shine A Light", featuring some most entertaining forced audience participation (and full credit to the guy who "won" the lottery ticket to experience it yesterday!). The fact that so many cast members get their moment in the spotlight shows how well the musical is constructed - I'd also comment on its good use of musical refrains throughout the show, either calling back to or building upon previous moments.
The show's set is reasonably simple - it's certainly not in the same league as either Anything Goes or Hamilton, but it's not trying to be and you certainly wouldn't expect it to given the size of the theatre. I'd not been to The Other Palace before, but it's a nice medium size theatre with a very good seating gradient - there's no danger of any visual obstruction.
Any gripes? If I had to complain about something, I'd say the second half starts very strongly ("My Dead Gay Son", "Seventeen", "Shine A Light") and struggles to maintain that run (with the exception of "I Say No" - I'll give them that one). But it's a minor quibble and the show ends well (particularly if you don't know/can't remember what's going to happen). One further comment would be that the language and themes are, shall we say, somewhat adult - londontheatredirect.com tells me it's not recommended for children under the age of 14 (I won't tell them we took our 12 year old if you won't).
However, no matter how good a musical is, if the audience aren't in to it then it's going to suffer badly. But that most definitely wasn't the case here - I suspect because it was supposed to be the last day some hardcore fans were taking their last opportunity to see it but boy, were they hardcore fans. Firstly, there was an amusing amount of dressing up going on with there being an awful lot of tartan on show - special credit has to go to the woman who'd made her own quick change outfit and made the change at the same time as the character on stage! But the dressing up paled into insignificance compared with the whoopin' and the hollerin' that went on - this was an audience determined to have a good time and determined to show their appreciation. And they most definitely did.
Another factor of this originally being the last day of the performance meant that four cast members left the production yesterday and it was nice to see the love they were all shown by the other members of the cast - one of the guys was in floods of tears at the prospect of leaving but was perfectly happy to stand their bawling his eyes out with a huge grin on his face.
All in all, it was a very entertaining show which was performed well and is obviously absolutely loved by its fans - I enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting to. But who cares about me - what about the birthday girl? Well she was left with a massive grin on her face and her and her sister regaled us with songs and quotes for rest of the evening - there are certainly worse evenings out that you could have between now and May 1st!
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