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Is HEATHERS coming back to London? | News of the musical's US, international, and UK tours
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Everyone, I'm Robert Mays, host of the Athletic Football show and I'm excited to welcome you to the 2025 season and everything new we've got going at Tafs. First and foremost, get ready for a whole new look. We're coming to you from the Athletic Football show studio in Chicago. Get the full experience by checking us out on our YouTube channel. Second, whether you watch on YouTube or listen to us on your podcast platform of choice, you'll hear a new voice. Dave Hellman joins Derek Klassen and myself as the third host on the show, bringing a different perspective to the conversation. Finally, Dane Brugler is back with year round NFL draft coverage with Building the Beast. No matter what type of NFL fan you are, there's something for you on the Athletic Football Show. Join us Monday Through Friday on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere.
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Acast.com September 1, 1989 Wait, no, that was yesterday and also 36 years ago. Let's try that again. September 2, 2025 Dear Heathers fans. Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theater themed YouTube channel. Or hello to you if you are listening to my voice on podcast platforms. My hi, it's Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre. I am a professional theatre critic and a content creator here on social media and today we are going to talk about the news of Heather's the Musical's impending global domination. Yes, the cult classic high school film turned musical theatre fan favorite is back just about everywhere in the world. Currently playing it Off Broadway's New World Stages in a Homecoming production taking place a decade after it first premiered at that venue, with it having been produced prolifically in the UK as well as elsewhere around the world in the years that passed past. The show's producers announced yesterday in an official press release that it would be embarking On a subsequent U.S. and international tour, with a few more details having been shared on social media by one of the show's producers, Paul Taylor Mills. And that is a discrepancy that we are going to talk about today. I'm going to give you a little bit more background on Heather's the Musical if somehow you have missed it this entire time, as well as letting you know exactly where you can catch it in 2026. Spoiler alert. As the heroine of another cult classic film would say, different places. Anyway, I'M sure that many of you are very excited about this news. If you are, let us all know in the comments section down below. Do you live in one of these places? Are you for the first time going to get to see this replica professional production of Heathers? And if you have thoughts about this news, share those with us as well. And if you enjoy listening to mine and you want to stay up to date with all of the latest Broadway and West End and international theatre news, make sure to subscribe right here to my theatre themed YouTube channel or go follow me on podcast platforms. But in the meantime, let's talk about Heathers, Heathers and Heathers. And also Heather Heathers. Okay, so the briefest possible background here I will try and rein myself in Heathers was a 1988 dark teen comedy set in a high school. Winona Ryder starred as Veronica Sawyer, whose high school ecosystem was ruled over by a trio of popular, wealthy girls who all shared the same first name. They were all called Heather, Heather Duke, Heather McNamara, and Heather Chandler, the queen bee who sort of exerted her influence over the other two and by extension the entirety of the school. Veronica, keen to survive until graduation, ends up being taken in by the Heathers and turned into one of them, a transformation that she isn't entirely prepared for. It ends up changing a little bit more about her than she is prepared to admit. And if this is all sounding just a little bit like Mean Girls, then no. No it isn't. Heather's happened first by some margin. Mean Girls sounds like this. The situation for Veronica is complicated somewhat by the arrival of new transfer student and romantic interest, the mysterious Jason De or JD Played on screen by Christian Slater with those piercing, piercing facial features. And though he and Veronica share a perspective and a lot of common ideas about the way that the school and also society at large ought to function, the way that he wants to go about making that happen is just a little bit more extreme than she is comfortable with. And that's where a lot of the darkness comes from. Now cut to the late 2000s, when a handful of producers have acquired the screen rights and are eager to turn it into a musical. Legally Blonde is just in the rear view mirror on Broadway, and that is their first thought when it comes to adapting this material. They recruit Larry o', Keefe, but Heathers is not quite Legally Blonde. I mentioned that there was a considerable darkness. There's a sort of a satirical, sardonic quality to it as well. So they pair Lawrence o' Keefe with Kevin Murphy, who wrote the book, and lyrics for the musical Reefer Madness, which is also sort of deeply twisted and dark and ironic. Alongside director Andy Fickman, the show then undergoes years of development, eventually arriving off Broadway in 2014 with a cast that originally starred Barrett Wilbert weed and Ryan McCarten, as well as a handful of other rising stars. Notably, this production would be recorded not with a video pro shot, but with a cast recording of the score, which helped to really boost the show's online platform and awareness. It is also important that we acknowledge that a video bootleg also surfaced around the same time. In fact, there were multiple bootlegs in some capacity or another of that Off Broadway run that also afforded it a lot of online awareness. But it wasn't that production, or really that time period that utterly boosted Heathers into the stratosphere. Candy Store got very big, but Heather's biggest rise to fame and prominence would come a few years later. And there are a couple of factors here, one of which is sections of the show's score going viral on TikTok. Another is the show and its material being performed in high schools around the us. But prominently there was also a new production of the show, one which looks a lot like the production which has now returned to Off Broadway, but that began in London at the Other Palace Theatre starring Carrie Hope Fletcher and Jamie Moscato, with a really stacked cast who have all gone on to astounding things by the way. That production transferred to the Theatre Royal Haymarket, the West End which began the UK's love affair with Heather's. The show returned to the same venue as theaters were beginning to reopen in the midst of the pandemic. It also toured multiple times around the UK and then returned to the Other Palace Theatre, its original London home. For an extended stint it went to at Soho Place in the West End. It has played at many different London theatres and many British theatres in general. But in all of that time a professional production of Heather's had not been produced in the us. That is, until earlier this year it returned to New World Stages in a production starring Lorna Courtney and Casey Likes where it continues to run and where it has been recently extended by popular demand. Which brings us to the news of today. Let's talk about the Heathers plans for the future. Now, before I read from this press release, I never know what color to make the lighting in here when I'm talking about Heathers because I've gone very like Heather Chandler. It also matches my T shirt. But we could go Heather Duke. We could go Heather McNamara. That's not going to look like much. Do we just go Veronica Blue? Is that giving Heathers in the most. Wait, we're going to go Veronica Blue. That feels neutral. Let's first of all read from the press release and then let me tell you about everything that they haven't announced yet but they have definitely talked about on socials. Here it is, September 1, 2025. Dear diary, it's time for some big fun news. Heather's the musical to launch US tour in spring 2027 and will tour the UK, Australia and New Zealand in 2026. Almost everywhere that has the Union flag in its overall flag design in fact, which is actually a post colon that we're not going to get into now because we're talking about fun musicals. This as the New York production celebrated a big fun day with a special sing along performance. That that sounds loud but let's dig a little bit more into the headline news. So they're keen to point out that the New York production currently running off Broadway began performances on June 22nd, 2025 at New World Stages to the largest advance in the venues history. That's not nothing and was originally slated to run until September 28th but has been extended through January 25th. And I do anticipate that it will continue to be extended as long as it is popular. There are multiple spaces within New World Stages. That's why it's stages plural with an s. And I don't think that there's going to be such a demand that will ever push out Heathers as long as it continues to do good business. And I reckon as long as Heathers can continue to stay exciting to a broad audience but particularly each new incoming generation of theatre kids and teens and aspiring performers and critically can stay accessible to them as well. Looking at you tickets prices of which you know they have they have accessible options. Let's not dunk on Heathers Off Broadway. But as long as they can continue to do that, I think the show could run very successfully in New York for quite a long time. I think we could see it becoming the next staple at New World Stages alongside the play that goes wrong in the is it the gazillion bubble show that's been there for ages? And packaged within that thought is another from me which is that I don't think this production is aiming to transfer to Broadway. I just don't think that that is the aspiration of Heathers. Nor do I think that it's necessity and ultimate. I don't think that it would be able to run as long on Broadway, ticket prices wouldn't be as accessible and as affordable to young audiences. It would be in a bigger house with worse sight lines, where it have to try and appeal to an older and wealthier demographic, which is not really where its fans are. And all for what? So that it can have slightly more buzz, slightly more awareness, and maybe win a Tony Award, but probably it's not going to because, you know, it's this commercial thing. Would it even be called a new musical at this point? Would it be considered a revival because it's it so many years after the fact? Does the classics rule skew that somewhat? These are the questions that you would have to ask. And much as it feels unusual for a show to become this popular without ever having played on Broadway, that's something that can be rectified, you know, 30, 40 years down the line. When Heathers is remembered as that Off Broadway musical that happened once and it finally gets a Broadway revival, what might that look like by that point? Is everything going to be Jamie Lloydified? Is that going to become the new normal? Are they going to have video cameras and monochromatic outfits? That is a visual I will let you consider. But to confirm, I am not anticipating Heather's transferring to Broadway. I am also, for what it's worth, not anticipating a cast recording happening. And that has a lot to do with the realities of an Off Broadway budget. Cast recordings are very expensive to put together and often their greatest aim is to preserve the score that has been written. And there are no substantial changes to the score since the London production. When the show went from Off Broadway to London, they added multiple new songs. They, I think, changed a couple of lyrics here and there. There are some changes in Big Fun, but certainly the songs I say no and you're welcome instead of Blue were added into the score. And though I know people would really like to hear a new American cast recording, I know a lot of us theatre fans have a lot of feelings about the American accents done by the British cast on the London cast recording. I just don't think it's going to happen. I also don't think it really needs to happen. There was also a pro shot of a later London cast recorded at the other Palace Theatre, which is why we don't need to take video cameras or IPH phones into New World Stages and try and bootleg the show. Also because guess what? It may be coming to a town near you. Let's talk more about this US Tour. If in fact there is anything else that they have to tell us about it. Is it just that news will be announced soon? Is that all we are saying? Hold on. Yeah. It was announced today that Heathers will launch a US tour for the very first time beginning in spring 2027. Full details and dates will be announced in the coming months. So I guess watch this space and stay tuned to find out more about where the Heathers US tour might be. I assume by that point that the Off Broadway production could still be running and the two could be running concurrently. I think there is enough demand. And also places are very spaced out in the us if something is touring in the uk, then even if it's going like halfway up the country, that is still only like three or four hours on public transport from London. So, you know, our theaters and our cities are much closer together. But with a US tour, there is obviously the possibility and the expectation that it will visit parts of the country from which people could only get to New York by flying, including the west coast where Heather's the Musical made its original premiere before heading to New York before heading off Broadway. So that's going to be another exciting homecoming for the show. Maybe that's where the tour will launch. I wouldn't be entirely surprised. I'm also curious about the kinds of venues that it might visit. I mean, I guess it's a well known enough name that it could probably play at the big theatres. Still, that's something that it did here in the uk. Theatre Royal Haymarket is the largest theatrical space that it played in London, but when the show went on tour, it played considerably larger stages and auditoria around the country. The set itself is static, but the emotional impact of those performances can have some breadth to them. So I think it can fill those larger spaces should they want to. But before all of that, here's the other news. Producers of Heathers have also announced that the show will hit the road again when it returns to the UK in summer 2026, and that a production is set to play Australia and New Zealand next year, with stops in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Gold Coast, Canberra, Perth, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Get excited, Australian theatre fans. I know often when shows visit Australia, they only head to one of these cities and it's very difficult because again, that's a deceptively large country and people have to fly across the country if they desperately need to see that show. But Heather's is going to come to a place near you, by the sounds of it, including New Zealand. That's very exciting. I feel like I've been minimally aware of Productions touring to New Zealand. Other than like the recent Lord of the Rings musical, which obviously has some connection to that place. Heather's very different vibe, considerably fewer elves. And so that's what's been officially announced. But over on Instagram, Paul Taylor Mills, in a collaborative post with the Heather's musical account, as well as Andy Fickman, the director and Gary Lloyd, the choreographer of this production, posted a little graphic here titled Heather's 2026 New York Tick, North American tour tick. And the press Release did say 2027, so I don't know to what extent that's just kind of coming under this umbrella colour, but whatever. London tick, UK tour tick, but separately fascinating. Australia tick, New Zealand tick and more to come. Thanks for making it beautiful. And what I am inferring from that is, you know, if the production is traveling to so many parts of Australia and also New Zealand, it's probably heading to other locations around the world as well. Heather's in South Africa, Heather's in South America. When I was in Brazil a few years ago, I'm pretty sure that Heather's was being done in a non replica production down in Argentina. But for most of these countries, most of these continents, even the official, you know, professional, original, I guess production of Heathers that this is, hasn't traveled there before. So that is what I assume and more to come means rather than, you know, US cast recording or Broadway transfer. But a little further up that list, London and UK tour were added separately. Now, nothing about London has been said in the press release and I think that's probably down to timing. I think that's also why they haven't confirmed a full full international global tour and have just talked about Australia and New Zealand, because these things need to be planned in advance. There is a lot logistically that goes into making all of this happen and I dare say that not all of that is necessarily ready. But Heathers can't wait because it's September 1st and that's the Heather's day and that's the day that you want to roll all of this out for maximum impact and drama. We're being a little bit theatrical, of course, with this press release and with this announcement. So it's not exactly a surprise. And that is why I'm assuming Paul Taylor Mills is talking about a Lond return in 2026. But there is no mention of it officially in the press release. Now this could just be a tour stop. This could be the tour beginning at one of its previous London homes, like the other palace, like at Soho Place before embarking on another tour around the uk. The producers of Heathers have a lot of ties to Theatre Royal Windsor, so that is occasionally where those tours launch from. That also would not be a big surprise. It could also just be a particular way of framing the show coming back to London by visiting a touring theat theatre like the new Wimbledon Theatre, which accepts touring productions, or the Richmond Theatre. I think Heathers has played at maybe both of those before. It could also visit the Peacock Theatre for the first time, or it could be doing a little limited sit down in between two other scheduled shows at one of London's smaller theatres. I'm thinking somewhere like the Garrick, like the Trafalgar. If 222 A Ghost Story, which, if you don't know, was a spooky thriller play that did lots of limited runs with lots of celebrity casting at a bunch of different London theatres in between runs of other shows. If that can play like six different houses in the West End, I don't see why Heather's couldn't. It's sort of becoming the new blood brothers in the way that that tour just keeps on going round and round and round. And I know that the prospect of Heather's coming back to the West End once more may evoke a lot of feelings for some people, not all of them positive. But let's talk about that a little bit more and what Heathers actually brings to the theater industry. Now, I say what I'm about to say because I know that there are some people, some of them are my friends who turn their noses up a at the concept of Heather's coming back once more. There was something of an enduring irritation about the amount of time that it played at the other palace, which was originally conceived as this home of new musicals. And because that's a smaller theatrical space, it's a more attainable one for developing early shows the likes of which we just do not have enough of in the London theatre ecosystem. We either have big West End theaters or really, really small fringe spaces. But there are admittedly a whole host of positives associated with Heathers. The biggest of, I think, is the talent that it brings into the industry. There are a great many fantastic performers in the UK now who got their real break and start with Heathers. I mentioned that original West End cast. You had not only Carrie Hype Fletcher, who was already a star, very much on the rise, as was Jamie Moscato, but you also had Jody Steele. You also had Tashawn Williams and Dominic Anderson and Chris Chung and Lauren Drew and Charlotte Jackanelli and Sophie Isaacs. That's so many people. I'm missing half of them from my brain. Olivia Moore, almost everyone from that company went on to do something really exciting and fantastic. And it has just been regurgitating, for want of a better verb, all of these hugely talented individuals in the years since, and also arming them because it's Heather's and because it has its own army of fans, with small legions of fans of their own who will go on to see them in other shows. And so it's a great early career musical theater job for graduate performers, less so when it's at the other palace and they only have two dressing rooms backstage. And allegedly everybody is paid the same, whether they are Veronica or a member of the ensemble. But when you think of people like Jacob Fowler and Erin Caldwell and Tobias Turley, so many of them came from Heather's. Keelan McCauley is another one. And so we've really benefited here in the UK from the ability to turn those talented young performers into recognizable star names who can then sell their own solo cabaret shows, who can appear at West End Live, who can do albums, who can do events like Musical Con and do meet and greets, because shows like Heather's made them popular, popular. And it would be great to have something other than TikTok that can do the same for performers in the US and indeed around the world. So we have to acknowledge the opportunity that Heathers provides to those young musical theatre actors, especially when the show is cast in a way that really embraces diversity, which happens sometimes, but not always. It has been generally getting better, including with the current Off Broadway production, which does that very well. And the other thought that I have about this sort of ties into that first one with Heathers bringing exciting theatre film fans into the theater industry. You know, they travel up to London to go and see Heather's, maybe they make a two show day out of it and go and see another show. So literally that is taking them to other theaters. But also just generally, anything that can ignite passion and enthusiasm in young people is a great thing. We celebrate kids being taken to go see pantomime. We talk relentlessly about how important it is for children and teenagers and young adults to experience theatre. And though, you know, you may have some ideal about what that ought to look like for some people, you may think that it should be a school's trip to Shakespeare, the reality is that if it's Heather's that is getting them thrillingly excited about working in the theatre, and starting a lifelong love affair, then that's also a great thing and I can celebrate its success and the benefits that it has for the industry while also acknowledging its shortcomings. I don't think it's the perfect musical adaptation. I think it's among the strongest high school set musicals. And honestly, you can stand in criticism of its potential West End return if you wish to. But the reality is that Heathers has done very well to become the recognizable fan favorite brand that it has. And for years it was presumed that other shows were waiting in the wings for Heathers to close in London. Which is why we perhaps finally and all at once got productions of Mean Girls at the Savoy and Clueless at the Trafalgar. As it stands, neither of those ran for more than a year. And yet Heather's, admittedly not in a theater as large as the Savoy, presumably is coming back to the UK amid amidst international success. It's sort of like commercial producers saw how well Heathers was doing, did their best to emulate that with other adjacent projects, and then neither of those really caught on with young audiences in the same way. And now Heathers is kind of coming back and metaphorically flipping its hair a little bit. And you know what? Good for them. How very, as they say. And I'd go see Heathers again. I may not travel to New Zealand to go and see it, but I don't need to. They have fans all around the world and it is very exciting to consider that over the next couple of years those fans, wherever they may be, may have more of a chance to see Heathers at a theatre near them. If that is you and you are finally going to get to go and see Heather's the Musical live on stage, let us know in the comments section down below. And if you have any other thoughts about this big fun news, let us know those as well. In the meantime, thank you so much for listening to this theatrical news recap. Like I said, if you want to stay up to date with all of the Broadway, West End and international theatre news, make sure that you are subscribed right here on YouTube. For more videos coming very soon or following me on podcast place platforms, I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day for 10 more seconds. I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a Stagey day. Subscribe Acast Powers the World's Best Podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend.
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Hey everyone, I'm Robert Mays, host of the Athletic Football show and I'm excited to welcome you to the 2025 season and everything new we've got going at Tafs. First and foremost, get ready for a whole new look. We're coming to you from the Athletic Football show studio in Chicago. Get the full experience by checking us out on our YouTube channel. Second, whether you watch on YouTube or listen to us on your podcast platform of choice, you'll hear a new voice. Dave Hellman joins Derek Classen and myself as the third host on the show, bringing a different perspective to the conversation. Finally, Dane Brugler is back with year round NFL Draft coverage with Building the Beast. No matter what type of NFL fan you are, there's something for you on the Athletic Football Show. Join us Monday Through Friday on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com.