![]() ![]() We were hoping for something menacing and industrial, maybe with a feel like Depeche Mode or Alice In Chains or even the fierce stomping triplet-feel pop songs of the Katy Perry / Britney era. We knew we needed a distinctive rhythm and feel, and this is one of the only pieces in the show in 6/8 time. Adhering to our rule of keeping the language and ideas aspirational, we dug deeper and found a song that makes Heather’s cruelty feel fierce and joyful. She fears nobody and nothing, so she readily admits to Veronica that she enjoys hurting people because she can. As undisputed dictator of the school, Chandler would have no reason to lie. That original song showed Heather Chandler using twisty Orwellian logic to smarmily justify her cruelty to Martha (“ WE MAKE HER SMILE, WE DRY HER TEARS…” ) We realized this approach weakened Chandler’s character. This replaced an earlier song called “Human Connection,” which was well-crafted, solid and professional, but which never fully landed. It helps keep audiences off-balance, showing that these characters are often hurried and harried, and that this world is out of joint. That means new verses and important events show up a beat earlier than expected, crashing the party too soon. Meaning, the intro vamp that weaves throughout the song is only 15 beats long, instead of a symmetrical 16 (so every fourth measure is a 3/4 bar instead of a 4/4). In composing the music, a fun rhythmic idea kept asserting itself: a missing beat. “Beautiful” came out of a desire to answer that question and explain the social pressures that drove a kind, bright and sensitive young woman like Veronica to start changing herself to try to belong to the alien world of the popular kids. We love the original film, so it was important to us to honor the plot, but one question Dan Waters chose not to answer in his screenplay was how, when, and where Veronica got invited to join the three Heathers. We loved that it’s a word that can be used sarcastically, as Dan does in his screenplay, but it’s also an aspirational word. Very early in our writing process, we made a list of ideas from the film that might lend themselves to songs. I said, so, you teach people how to spread their wings and fly? She said, yes. You want to fuck with the eagles, you have to learn to fly. ![]() Heather told me she teaches people real life. In the movie, Veronica has a great diary entry: We both saw a girl trying to make her world better and more just. Here, Murphy and O’Keefe take a deep look into the plot points, movie references, and musical scoring in this track-by-track breakdown of the Heathers cast album, starring the original Off-Broadway cast, released June 2014.Īnd if you can’t get enough Heathers, tune into the Roku Channel to stream the film capture of the London production, filmed at The Other Palace and directed by Andy Fickman.Ĭall us crazy, but when we first saw Heathers the movie, we didn't just see a cruel nightmare high school dystopia. Read: WHY IT’S IMPORTANT FOR HIGH SCHOOLS TO PERFORM SPRING AWAKENING, HEATHERS, AND MORE This outlook is more conducive to fun songs than one dwelling on misery and negativity, and it sets a tone that affords the audience permission to laugh even while exploring serious issues like bullying, teen suicide, and violence in schools.” “We tried our best to have our characters express positivity even when they’re doing terrible things. “One of the tricks we learned to use in the show is using positive language to convey ugly ideas and depict cruel behavior,” the writing team tells Playbill. In 2013, the show played Los Angeles’ Hudson Backstage Theatre before a run at New World Stages Off-Broadway.īut what earned the show’s place in the upper echelon of niche hits is its smart writing in libretto and music, and its references to the movie while carving an identity of its own. ![]() The show was first presented as a concert at Joe’s Pub at the Public in downtown Manhattan in 2010, starring Annaleigh Ashford as Veronica and Jeremy Jordan as Jason Dean (a.k.a. Written by Laurence O'Keefe and Kevin Murphy, the musical adapted Daniel Waters’ film about Veronica Sawyer’s quest to fit in with the hottest high school clique, the Heathers (Heather Chandler, Heather McNamara, Heather Duke), while falling for an unhinged vigilante classmate. When Heathers: The Musical debuted Off-Broadway in 2014, the rock musical gained a cult following just like that of its cinematic predecessor. ![]()
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