At a time when it appears that producers may be a little more apprehensive about bringing out-there musicals to the Australian market, last week did much to ease my qualms. After the opening night of The Book of Mormon‘s Brisbane season – a full house enjoying the kind of comedy only South Park‘s creators could get away with – my home city of the Gold Coast embraced some black comedy of its own, thanks to the ongoing national tour of Heathers the Musical, adapted from the 1989 film. I loved this show a decade ago when it premiered in Queensland at the QPAC Playhouse, so my expectations were high. This was especially true given the recent ‘West End’ revisions, which brought some changes and a complete set revamp. With it playing at my local venue, HOTA (Home of the Arts), I won’t deny the allure of much comfier seats. So how does the tour fare as it travels around the country? Read on.
At its core, Heathers the Musical follows the same basic premise as the film, telling the story from the perspective of Veronica Sawyer, a high school student who, on the schoolyard alignment chart, sits closer to the bookworms than the popular kids – and at a school as cliquey as Westerberg High in Sherwood, Ohio, that can make life miserable. A gift for forgery and a desperate need for a way up the ladder earn her an “in” with the popular girls known as the Heathers (Heather Chandler, Heather McNamara and Heather Duke). But her shift in social standing and the way it grates against her morals set off a chain of events that turns dark fast.
As a black comedy, Heathers the Musical deals with material you won’t find in your average musical: teen suicide, murder, sexual assault, homophobia and more. Your mileage will vary, and if any of that is a hard no for you, nothing here will likely change your mind. From where I sat, though, the darker elements were balanced by comedy that actually lands, much of it carried by Veronica and, later, by Ms Fleming, whose fourth-wall-breaking banter had the whole audience laughing. The story holds up as well as it did before – better in places – kudos to the revisions that give it a clearer sense of purpose. Key among them are the song swaps: “Blue” and “Blue (Reprise)” now give way to “You’re Welcome” and “Never Shut Up Again”, respectively. The replacements don’t obscure the themes the show is dealing with so much as shift the lens, trading a punchline at the expense of serious subject matter for something closer to empowerment and character development.
For anyone who has never listened to Heathers the Musical’s cast recording, I’d argue the score is the show’s single greatest strength. The pop-rock writing is catchy almost throughout while still leaving room for a few real emotional moments: the opening number, “Beautiful“, sets the chaotic schoolyard scene perfectly; “Candy Store” tells you everything you need to know about the Heathers in a couple of minutes; and the unforgettable “My Dead Gay Son” is a celebration of queer acceptance, even if the circumstances around it are… disturbing. The quieter numbers pull their weight too in a show that moves this fast: “Lifeboat” and “Kindergarten Boyfriend” could easily have read as speed bumps, but both are given the room to land, and the show is stronger for the breather. Most importantly, in a two-and-a-half-hour musical, none of the songs are there ‘just cause’; every one of them does real work moving the story forward.
Complementing those strong foundations is Heathers the Musical’s casting, and I think this company has been assembled beautifully: a few familiar faces alongside performers right at the start of their careers, all of them catching the essence of their characters. Emma Caporaso’s Veronica Sawyer was a particular highlight in a role I’d have said was near impossible to top after Jaz Flowers’s turn in 2016. Caporaso brought so much life and personality to every moment she was on stage, and found a level of quirkiness and inner conflict that can easily go missing in this part. Conor Beaumont was equally assured as Jason “J.D.” Dean, also making his mainstage debut, pairing strong vocals with the sense that his character wasn’t so much failing to fit in as refusing to try.
Calista Nelmes, Amélia Rojas and Abigail Sharp each captured what sets their Heather apart – Chandler, Duke and McNamara respectively – while Mel O’Brien shone as Martha Dunnstock, though I came away wishing the revisions had given Martha more to work with, since she fades into the background more than the character deserves. Then there’s Ms Fleming, a part that, as the current off-Broadway casting of Lisa Ann Walter suggests, is best served by performers with real stage presence and a knack for comic delivery. Zoe Gertz owned it, full stop.
I remember the pared-back design of the Queensland production of Heathers the Musical a decade ago, and set and lighting are, for me, the two biggest advances separating that staging from this one. The touring set is a match for the West End’s, and credit to David Shields for that. It proved versatile enough for everything the show asks of it, especially with the two levels. The lighting held up from start to finish too, not a stray or badly aimed lamp all night.
My one real gripe came not from the stage but from the foyer. Granted, I was there at the tail end of an 11-day run at HOTA – but that the merchandise desk had no programs left at all was still baffling. I collect a program from every production I see, and I know I’m not alone in treating them as the quintessential theatre keepsake, so finding out they’d sold out entirely did sour the start of the performance.
So, to answer the question I opened with: the Australian tour of Heathers the Musical fares extremely well, and I feel that the 11-stint run on the Gold Coast was perfectly timed, as even though it was the closing weekend, it was hyped and full of fans. The score remains the show’s greatest asset, the revisions have sharpened the story rather than sanded it down, and this company sells all of it, from Caporaso’s Veronica to Gertz’s Ms Fleming, on a set and lighting rig that leave the 2016 staging a decade behind in more ways than one. I’d still like more for Martha, and I’d still like a program. Otherwise, this is the first time I’ve found myself handing out back-to-back five stars, and I’m not sure I’d have picked two black comedies as the pair to do it. But the 2026 class of Westerberg High has earned it, and there are plenty of cities left on the schedule for you to find that out for yourselves.
Final Score for Heathers the Musical’s 2026 Australian Tour
Heathers the Musical is currently in the middle of its tour, with performances to start at the Canberra Theatre Centre this Friday (14 August – 23 August), before touring to Sydney (Coliseum Theatre from 26-29 August and then the Roslyn Packer Theatre from 1-19 September) and then the Regal Theatre in Perth (30 September – 11 October). Booking information for all remaining legs of the tour can be found on the musical’s official website.
