If you missed catching OB Playhouse's "Heathers: The Musical" during the Halloween season, the good news is you have three more weekends to enjoy girls being deliciously mean.
"Heathers: The Musical" is one of a group of stage musicals inspired by cult horror films. The group also includes "Carrie: The Musical," "Evil Dead: The Musical" and the blood-splattered cream of the crop "Re-Animator: The Musical."
"Heathers" was a 1988 black comedy featuring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater. The film and now the musical focus on Veronica Sawyer, a smart teenage misfit who misguidedly pursues membership in the most powerful and ruthless clique at Westerberg High: the Heathers. Based on my personal experiences as a teenage girl, I can say that there is nothing meaner than bratty, popular girls at any level of schooling. But Veronica's climb to the top of the high school social food chain is somewhat disrupted by the dangerously sexy rebel J.D. who has just arrived at the school.
The musical comes from the award-winning creative team of Kevin Murphy ("Reefer Madness," “Desperate Housewives”) and Laurence O’Keefe ("Bat Boy," "Legally Blonde").
Manny Bejarano directs the OB Playhouse production and said, “The creators of 'Heathers: The Musical' devised a campy and entertaining piece of theatre that employs humor to help audiences digest a truthful and rather bitter pill of high school bullying and its consequences. Plus who doesn’t like a campy musical with bitchy mean girls, vile vengeance, wildly shifting rhythms, intricate harmonies, cascading obscenities, a murderous bad boy and corn nuts.”
Bejarano warns that this production is rated M for adult content including profanity, violence, a scene of sexuality and some gore. With choreographer Michael Mizerany involved, I would expect no less.
"Heathers: The Musical" runs through Nov. 24 at the OB Playhouse.
