Micky Jo (0:00)

September 3, 2024. Dear diary. Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. My name is Micky Jo and I'm obsessed with all things theatre. I'm an independent theatre critic, content creator and pundit here on social media and let me tell you, it is a beautiful freaking day. If you are a fan of the musical Heathers, because the show, which has had huge success right here in the uk, in the West End and on tour and coming back to London and back in the West End and going back out on tour, has now announced that it is going to be heading back to New York for the first time since it debuted there a decade ago. And in today's theatrical news recap video, I'm going to explain to you exactly what that means. Does it mean Broadway? Does it mean Off Broadway? What exactly are we anticipating here? We're going to talk about everything we know so far, everything we can infer, the rumors that I may have heard and a little bit of speculation about what the casting might look like and what I would like for it to look like and what you would like for it to look like, and critically, whether I think this is going to be successful or not. So stay tuned for all of my thoughts about Heather's heading back to New York. In the meantime, I would love to know what you think as well. Comment down below with all of your thoughts about the musical Heathers, about the West End production, the UK production, the Off Broadway production. If you had a chance to see that originally, I'd be very curious for your thoughts and whether you think its New York return is going to be successful. Now, if you want to stay abreast of all major theatrical news and everything that's happening on Broadway and in the West End, make sure you're subscribed to me right here on YouTube. Turn on those notifications somewhere below my face right now so you don't miss any of my upcoming videos. There will be reviews, there will be vlogs, there will be breaking theatrical news. I will also be discussing many of the same and additional topics over on my other social media platforms. You can find me on TikTok, on Instagram, and on the app formerly known as Twitter. But in the meantime, it's time for some big fun. We are talking all about Heathers. Let's get into it. So Heather's the musical, of course, Based on the 1989 cult classic film of the same name, the plot of which may have inspired Mean Girls, follows Veronica Sawyer as she tethers herself to a trio of the most popular girls at school who are all named Heather. She does this for social protection, but when she becomes enamored with a newly transferred student named Jason Dean, the whole thing ends up having dark and dire consequences. It's one of the many musicals set in an American high school. This one deals with a few more serious topics, but the tone isn't consistently the most heavy and hard hitting. It's a little bit tongue in cheek, it's a little bit campy while still having having a few moments of weight and serious gravity. All of which is to say that it tackles some serious themes. Now, the show was developed in the late 2000s and had a series of readings before it eventually made its way off Broadway in 2014. Curiously enough, did you know that Kristen Bell played Veronica in what I think was the very first reading of the stage musical? In a subsequent reading in New York, Annaleigh Ashford played Veronica. Jeremy Jordan was J.D. who knew. In fact, many people knew. But it's still interesting. When the show finally arrived Off Broadway, Barrett Wilbert Weed would be playing Veronica with Ryan McCartan as JD Jimmy Awards winner Ryan McCarten. Now the show ran off Broadway at New World Stages. While it was there, it recorded a cast album, but having opened at the end of March, it closed as early as August of the same year. Surprisingly, and according to original cast member Ryan McCarten, the goal had been to create a film adaptation, which is part of the reason that he signed onto the project in the first place. But this didn't end up materializing. But even though that initial Off Broadway life for the show was short lived thanks in part to its cast recording as well as to bootleg recordings, if I'm being completely honest, the show lived on through musical theatre fans. 2014 was a very active time in the musical theatre fandom. A lot of exciting shows were happening on Broadway, and at the very end of that year I had just started at the Musical Theatre Society in University where someone came up to me and said, have you heard the song Candy Store yet? At this point I had never heard of Heathers. I knew the film, I didn't know the show, and I hadn't listened to Candy Store or seen the iconic choreography. Soon enough I would watch that YouTube bootleg recording of them doing the dance and everyone else at the society would as well. And everyone was desperate to do Heathers as the main show. However, it hadn't yet made its European premiere, which meant that we, as the University of Surrey Musical Theatre Society, even if we applied, would not have been given the rights to produce the show, which it seems fair. Three years later, however, it would be workshopped in London, news that would send the UK's heather's fans into spiral. This workshop starred Charlotte Wakefield, who was in the West End's original Spring Awakening, alongside Jamie Moscato, who would reprise his performance when the show finally opened at the Other Palace. This would be in June 2018 and it would star Carrie Hope Fletcher as Veronica Carrie, who by this point was a musical theatre star in her own right. She had done Les Mis and she had also developed a huge fan following on social media. And so the birth of Heathers in the uk, and much of the reason that it went on to become so successful was, was because you had this cult musical that people had been really excited about for years and people had been listening to those songs and getting excited for this to come over to the uk. And you also had the impact of Carrie Hope Fletcher as well. So it was sort of this double barreled impact when it was released at the Other Palace Theatre, a piece of programming that, if I'm being completely honest, also put the Other palace on the map. Not long before this, the theatre had been called the St. James. And I don't know if it was as much in the knowledge of young musical theatre fans to go there, but we don't need a whole history lesson. What' important to know is that Heathers went from strength to strength thereafter. It then ran at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in the West End. It then embarked on a UK tour, it returned after the Pandemic and smartly took advantage of the opportunity to pop up wherever it could. It reopened to the Theatre Royal Haymarket. When we were emerging from the pandemic in socially distant staging before Only Fools and Horses, the musical was really ready to return. It went back to the Other palace, it then went to at Soho Place for a little run and now it's back on tour. And imagine that the show is certainly, when compared to other West End musicals, relatively inexpensive to run. That being said, there is still an undeniable level of audience interest for Heathers enduringly. And when a teen show catches on like that, it can do well because, you know, every year there's a new set of 14 year olds, 15 year olds, 16 year olds wanting to go and see this show. Young audiences are constantly aging into that demographic, while its original fans continue to enjoy it in a nostalgic way as they age out of it. And while some audiences have been fatigued by Heather's coming back and Heather's going to the other palace for so long and Heather's going to at Soho Place, venues that many would like to see earmarked for original works. The show has been very successful and amongst all of this, the announcement I've been waiting for is Heather's going back to New York because just like the UK fans were desperate to have it here when they fell in love with Candy Store, many American audiences have since discovered Heather's only since it came here and want it back in the US. So let's talk details then. The show announced NYC 2025 and I have not been told anything beyond that. But my expectation is that this is going to be Off Broadway rather than Broadway because otherwise they would say Broadway. And there are shows that haven't signed their contracts yet that say Broadway. Like we all remember B Way, Gatsby and Gatsby B Way, both of them setting their sights on Broadway before they'd even begun their regional runs. Heather's meanwhile, just saying NYC I am taking as an indicator that they are aiming at Off Broadway where the show was last seen. And this I think is smart because I think Off Broadway is a very viable space and a very exciting space right now. Can we talk about how much Off Broadway is thriving? Cats the Jellicle Ball, one of the hottest tickets in town right now continues to extend down at the Perelman Performing Arts Center. One of the hottest tickets on Broadway right now is O Mary that came from a sold out run at the Lucille Lortel Off Broadway. Also job that came from sold out Off Broadway runs. Teeth was a huge hit earlier this year at Playwrights Horizons. That's now going to New World Stages. Drag the Musical is coming in. I feel like it's a really exciting time for Off Broadway theatre. And when we look back at shows that struggled on Broadway or didn't make it to Broadway, like Sadly My Sons Are Queer, but what can you do? Also like how to dance in Ohio. You do wonder if those shows would have been more successful if they had first run Off Broadway, even with the intention to subsequently transfer but first build an audience. If I jump over to the West End for a moment, that's exactly the tactic that Operation Mincemeat deployed in order to eventually find its way to the West End. If it had opened cold at the Fortune Theatre, I do not think it would have been successful. So if I was a betting man, I would place a lot of money on the idea that Heathers is going to try and run off Broadway. Don't get me wrong, it is quite a big cast for an Off Broadway show. It's a little bigger than Teeth as an example, but it wouldn't be the biggest cast we've ever seen Off Broadway. We have seen successful shows on Broadway transfer off before Kinky Boots tried to come back a few years ago at Stage 42 on 42nd Street. Now, that run wasn't particularly successful. However, I'm wondering if the that's exactly the venue where we are going to see Heathers. I think with Teeth opening later this year at New World Stages, I don't think Heathers is going to want to go to the same space. There are multiple auditoria in New World Stages as the name suggests, but I wouldn't anticipate Heather's going to the same place unless they're waiting for the end of Teeth's run. I think much more likely we will see Heathers somewhere like stage 42 where the 20 sided tavern is currently playing, which I loved by the way now as well as Broadway versus Off Broadway. The other question mark I have seen here is what production is this going to be? And the answer is it's going to be the UK production rather than the original Off Broadway. And a lot of people are sad about this and I don't get that. Respectfully, I do not understand why. Because it's the same show, it's the same director, it's tonally the same vision for the show. The differences are in between Off Broadway and the West End. They changed the choreography. They got a new set. The set is fantastic. It's simple, it's inexpensive, but it does everything that you need it to to do and it will fit very well in a little intimate Off Broadway space. They've made it fit various different stages in the UK to very good effect, and it's miles ahead of the lack of set that they had in the original Off Broadway run. The costuming is more or less the same, the characterizations tonally more or less the same. There are a couple of differences in the material. They added songs for the UK production. They added a song for Heather Duke Never Shut Up Again. They added a song for Veronica I say no, which has become one of the most popular songs in the show with its young fans. And they changed a song and I've seen a lot of disappointment around this. People aren't happy about the fact they changed the song Blue for a song called you'd're welcome. This comes at an uncomfortable moment in the show when Veronica is being preyed upon sexually by two of the jocks at her school. And both songs kind of make light of that. But you're welcome at least gives her some kind of vocal agency because she continues to sing her thought process throughout this as she defends herself. I think I've seen a lot of young people on TikTok disliking the fact that you're welcome is more open with its suggestive lyrics, but I think, if anything, it takes that situation a little more seriously than Blue. That is creepy in a more tongue in cheek way. Like, which do we prefer? A song where they're openly like, we want to bang you because you're hot now and you used to be a nerd, or a song where they sing the entire thing from the perspective of their testicles. I'm not kidding. You can look up that song. That's what it is. And the lyrics are very witty. And it's very much part of the tongue in cheek nature of this show, how this is not to be entirely taken seriously at face value. There is a dark comedy to almost the entire thing. Look at Ms. Fleming planning all of these suicide celebrations by the end of the show. It's poking fun at the system in a lot of ways. There is definitely an element of satire to this production that has to be brought to the conversation. So I think not only are there minimal differences between Off Broadway Heathers and UK Heathers, but you're gonna like it. I'm telling you, if you like the Off Broadway one, this is more or less the same. I don't know what it is about that version that you miss. I've seen other people saying, well, the cast of the Off Broadway one was just so great and so perfect and I don't think they'd capture that again. Why not? Who's to say? Those were rising stars at the time. And if anything, New York is lousy with rising talent. There will always be fantastically talented people. We've seen so many brilliant Heathers casts in the uk and the first Heathers cast in the uk, are you kidding me with what they have gone on to do? In fact, let's talk casting. You had not only Carrie Hope Fletcher really beginning her leading lady era here. You had Jamie Moscato again commencing a huge phase of his career that would lead to Moulin Rouge, him leading concert productions of Carousel, huge opportunities for him thereafter. You had Jodie Steele and Tashaan and Sophie Isaacs and Chris and Dominic Anderson. You had Jenny O'Leary, you had Rebecca Locke. And the strength of the cast can also be measured by the ensemble and what They've gone on to do Meryl in the ensemble, Charlotte Giacanelli and Olivia Moore. Lauren Drew, My goodness, Lauren Drew. All huge stars in breakout roles. So who would we like to see in the show Off Broadway? Well, if you're asking, three different things to be mindful of here. One of them is the marketability factor. The other one is a level of diversity that we want to try and sustain, especially in New York, that the show has never quite reached. In the uk. There have been moments and there have been some casts, I'm thinking, particularly when the show came back to the Haymarket, where it's been a little more diverse. But for the most part, it's been disappointingly rigid in specifically the racial aspect of its casting and also in terms of body diversity. Since the dawn of the show, Heather Duke has become the POC Heather. And we very often see all white ensembles except for one POC performer who obviously understudies that role. Miracle Chance is, to date, I believe, the only POC Veronica. We have seen no POCs in the role of Heather Chandler. They've all increasingly been blonde. They don't have to be. Heather Duke has one line in her song where she sings something to the effect of Girls like me don't climb high, can't crack that ceiling. And so I'm not against that role being played by a POC performer, but there's nothing in anyone else's material that suggests that they can't be. Additionally, when it comes to Martha, this is a character who is mocked for her weight. Veronica is also told at the beginning of the show she needs to lose a few pounds. And we have seen Martha understudied by and Veronica played by, you know, very petite performers. So more body diversity, more racial diversity. Both things that I would like to see in the New York production of Heathers going back to marketability. We need to be able to sell the show, and there's going to be an audience when Heathers opens in New York. People are going to be interested in it. A lot of people are apprehensive about it coming back. A little bit fatigued from the last one. Think it's a silly musical for younger audiences, won't necessarily take it that seriously. And New York isn't generally as fond of musicals based on films. Mean Girls did not run as long on Broadway as it's going to run in the West End, I promise you. Same with Pretty Woman. Same with Doubtfire. The Notebook has just announced its closing at the end of this year, so as well as the name of the show itself. I do think we need some casting to really ignite excitement around those younger fans. I think, you know, price being whatever it may be, hopefully the younger fans can be enough to sustain the show with some interest from older theater goers if they really capitalize on that. And I think in terms of how to make it marketable to those young fans. Bring in some exciting TikTok personalities. Bring in some people who are currently killing the game working at Gayle's Broadway Rose. Bring in some Jimmy Awards winners. Meet the young musical theatre fans where they already are cast a handful of their faves. That's what worked so well when it started in the UK when they brought in Carrie Hope Fletcher. Do the same thing in the us. I don't know who the equivalent is. Someone like an Amber Ardelino as Heather Chandler would slay. Oh my gosh, I'm so Gen Z. I just. I said slay and honestly I'm not even that down with the kids when it comes to TikTok performers in New York. Feel free to comment down below with who you would like to see in the show. My friend Cara Rose DiPietro would be amazing as Heather McNamara putting that right out there into the universe. And I'm sure there's a lot of young performers who would be really eager to be seen for this show. Like I said, if I was casting the show, I would go and sit at Gale's Broadway Rose at the Edison Hotel at Friedman's and I would listen to all of those incredibly talented vocalists and I would invite them to come audition for Heather's. I would look on TikTok at everyone singing their covers of my days and I would invite them to come audition for Heathers and I would look at those Jimmy Awards performances from the last five years and I would invite them to come and audition for Heathers. And this is the third factor. And really the most important thing is we need that talent level. They need to be great. But thankfully like I said, there is an abundance of exciting talent in New York. Again, comment down below with your suggestions. I think in terms of a Veronica, you need someone with a great voice who is endearing, who is a charming, charismatic leading lady. Doesn't have to be an incredibly petite performer, doesn't have to be a white performer performer. There are so many good angry young man musical theater high tenors in New York who would make great JDs. Are you kidding me? When it comes to Heather Chandler, this is a comedy character first as far as I am concerned. She spends the majority of the show being comedic and not just doing the bitchy, poised thing. I think someone like Mackenzie Kurtz would be hilarious and wonderful. I think Emma Pittman would also be a really fun Heather Chandler. Emma Pittman might be a great Veronica, actually. I don't know if the likes of Casey Likes or Andrew Barth Feldman are a little too big for an Off Broadway run of Heather's at this point, but I'd definitely be reaching out to them if I was casting this show. See also all of the young performers from how to Dance in Ohio, all of the young performers from the youngest generation of the Notebook, all of the kids from Kimberly Akimbo. There's a lot of exciting young talent on Broadway and Off Broadway recently, which is why I think Heathers is going to be a great time. If you're asking me if I think this show will be successful, I think it can be. I think it could be. I think young audiences have been really pivotal in the show's success here in the uk. They have been the ones who have kept it going. They have been the ones going to see it weekly at the other palace, seeing it on tour. That is what the audience makeup has looked like every time I have been in the audience for this show and I've seen it like four or five times. I think it's important that the price point for tickets on Broadway isn't alienating, that young audiences. I think it's important that in the marketing, in the social media campaign, the young audiences are engaged, that the casting is, you know, representative of that audience, that it feels diverse, that it feels young and exciting. But I also think that this show and this score and this production from Andy Fickman is smarter than a lot of musical theater fans are perhaps snobbishly giving it credit for. And off Broadway success is that little bit lower stakes than Broadway success. You can be a little more niche off Broadway. You don't have to reach every single person. You don't have to grab the attention of all of the tourists. You don't have that same pressure of needing to find so many different people every night. So if they can manage to replicate much of what they've around during the show's earliest years in the uk, I think it could be successful in New York. And I encourage New York theatre goers to go and give this show a chance. But that is just about everything that I have to say about Heather's going to New York. I am very intrigued to see exactly when and where this is happening. You know, I am going to and from New York all the time. I will do my best to go and cover it there and let you know what I think but I'm very excited and I'm also very excited to see what you think in the comments section down below. Are you based in New York? Would you go see Heather's? Are you excited for this show? Do you have any good casting ideas? Are you somewhere else in the world and you would like to see Heather's? Let us know in the comments section down below. And to make sure that you are keeping up to date with all the musical theatre and theatre news, make sure to subscribe to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Turn on those notifications so you don't miss my upcoming videos and I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds I'm Mickey Jo Theater. Oh my God. Hey thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.