Grab your scrunchies and plaid skirts! Heathers The Musical is back and badder than ever. Written by Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe, the musical based off the 1989 film originally premiered Off-Broadway in 2014. A decade later, fans have been eagerly dressing up in their Heathers finest and heading to the New World Stages to welcome their favorite characters back Off-Broadway.
& Juliet Tony nominee Lorna Courtney and Back to the Future star Casey Likes star as the musical’s lead duo, Veronica Sawyer, and J.D., respectively, who get wrapped up in navigating their high school’s hierarchy. McKenzie Kurtz takes on Heather Chandler, Olivia Hardy plays Heather Duke, and Elizabeth Teeter rounds out the trio as Heather McNamara. The clique invited Broadway Direct to step into their candy store and share the hot goss from Westerburg High.
What was your familiarity with Heathers, the movie and musical, before you joined this production?
McKENZIE KURTZ: I saw the film way back when, but I fell in love with the musical when it was first here at New World Stages. I was listening to the cast recording all the time my freshman year of college and was totally obsessed.
Which song did you have on repeat?
MK: “Beautiful” and “Candy Store.”
What about you, Elizabeth?
ELIZABETH TEETER: I knew the movie first as well. I loved Winona Ryder in it.
And Winona Ryder was Lydia in the Beetlejuice film, and you played Lydia on Broadway.
ET: Yes! I guess I do adaptations of shows with Winona Ryder.
Have you met her yet?
ET: No, I haven’t, but I would love to. I wasn’t as familiar with the musical, but I knew all the popular songs on the cast album. “Dead Girl Walking” was a favorite of mine, and “Candy Store.”
What about you, Olivia?
OLIVIA HARDY: I was very familiar with the musical since its premiere in 2014. I had never seen the movie or gone to see the musical live, but I watched the bootleg on YouTube and fell in love with the music. I’ve used “Fight for Me” in a few auditions.
What were you most excited about and what were you most nervous about when you got the role?
OH: I was most excited to be working with friends! I went to [the University of] Michigan with McKenzie and Lorna, and I’ve known Elizabeth for a few years now, so working with them has been the most exciting part.
MK: I was excited to be just playing the role. This is a dream. This has been a dream role of mine since I was exposed to it. I love playing Heather Chandler, because she’s a terrible person, right? It’s so fun to play that on stage.
ET: I was super excited, because I’ve never really gotten to play a character this comedic before, and Heather McNamara is sort of ditzy and has a lot of funny moments in the show. And to get to be a part of a show with so many fans and great songs, which I think also was the scary thing too. I wasn’t as nervous about doing the show, but more just joining something similarly to Beetlejuice—I don’t know if you felt this way about Wicked, McKenzie. Joining something that people love so much and that has a lot of attention can always be a little nerve-racking. You want to do it right and do it justice.
MK: It’s daunting, because these fans love the show so much, and that’s not lost on us. We want to take care of it and do them proud.
ET: Our first preview, we definitely were doing our little mantras together, because we didn’t know what to expect. Our director was preparing us for how loud they were going to cheer and how much they were going to love it. It was like a rock concert.
OH: The fans know what they like and want what they know. I was only a little nervous about the fan response, but they have also been very lovely so far. We’ve all gotten into a good swing of things to feel that pressure anymore.
What was your process for finding the chemistry as a trio? Did you go on any friend dates?
OH: We had already known each other for years prior, so the chemistry was already pretty established. It’s nice to work with people you already know.
MK: Working with Olivia and Elizabeth has been such a blessing, because I feel like we work really well together. We’re there for each other to lean on each other, as we were playing in rehearsal. Even now, we’ve been open for a while, and we’re still on stage finding new things.
What were things you discovered in the rehearsal room that surprised you?
MK: I love this role so much. She’s alive and terrible, and then she dies. Spoiler alert. I’ve loved discovering who I refer to as “ghost Heather”—even though I don’t think she is appearing as a ghost, I think it is Veronica’s kind of conscience talking to her and taunting her. It’s almost a little bit of the angel and devil on the shoulder. I don’t view them as the same person and the same thing, but being able to play with “ghost Heather” comedically, I’m like, “How far can I take that and how camp can I go?”
ET: I feel like I’m still finding how she is the Heather in the trio that I just got roped into this clique. I don’t see her being the leader of all these bad ideas, necessarily. I’m finding throughout the show moments of asking, “When is she aware of what she’s doing?” You start to see her falter when Duke takes over, and you see a moment of her wanting to help Veronica, and then sort of confess her feelings. I think it is sort of this mask that she’s putting on. That’s been really fun.
Olivia, your character has a new song added. How has that experience been?
OH: The addition of “Never Shut Up” has been very exciting. It’s a showstopper of a number. I get lifted super high in the air at the end. It’s just a fun and powerful number to be in the center of every night.
MK: It’s been kind of cool [to see Olivia’s new number and script changes], because it feels like it’s this living, breathing thing that is changing as the world around us changes too.
What has the audience response been like?
OH: There’s been lots of outfits, scrunchies, and love at the stage door. The cheers every night on the Heathers’ entrance is almost deafening. We’ve gotten such a positive response, and it feels nice.
ET: We talked a lot about why it still resonates with people in rehearsal. As our director always said, “High school never ends.” No matter what time period it is, there is a universal understanding of your time as a teenager. My parents are both teachers. My mom works with high schoolers every day, and after she saw the show, she said, “I understand why so many young people like this show. The highs are high and the lows are low. The feelings are big.”
What song or scene do you look forward to every night?
OH: Definitely “Shine a Light.” It’s always so fun. And the “Steve” improv bit changes every day, so that variety is nice.
MK: It changes all the time, but right now I love doing the “Me Inside of Me.”
ET: I was going to say that too, and I’m barely even in it.
MK: I get to unleash my full freak in that song. It’s so cool. I love that. It’s always a joy. I just want to make people laugh, so I can feel like I get a chance at that. I do really love the bathroom scene in “Beautiful,” heading into “Candy Store,” that whole section, because we’re having fun and finding those moments between the three of us that I enjoy. It’s also fun because it is such an iconic song that you can feel the audience waiting for it.
