What's your damage?! When cult classic film Heathers was first brought to the stage, it lit up a firestorm of fan adoration. Based on the 1988 dark comedy written by Daniel Waters, the stage adaptation by Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe filtered teenage cruelty, murder, and existential dread through a ferocious pop-rock score and biting satire. The result was equal parts comedy and cautionary tale, an angsty howl from the locker-lined hallways of Westerberg High.
Over more than a decade of development, Heathers would evolve from a scrappy fringe production into a global theatrical phenomenon. It premiered in a 99-seat house in Hollywood in 2010, transferred to New York for a short Off-Broadway run in 2014, and exploded across the Atlantic into an award-winning London sensation in 2018. In between, it became a favorite of high school drama departments, regional theatres, and online fan communities who memorized every lyric and quoted its dialogue like scripture. The Corn Nuts (its self-appointed fanbase) ensured its status as more than a show—Heathers became a movement.
Now, in 2025, Heathers has returned Off-Broadway to New World Stages (where it began performances June 22). New World Stages is also the site of its first full New York production back in 2014. The revival doesn’t just look back; it builds on a legacy 16 years in the making. With a new cast, a seasoned creative team, and a fiercely loyal audience, Heathers remains what it always was: A gloriously subversive anthem for anyone who’s ever felt like the world was a little too cruel, and high school was a battlefield best survived with style. But to learn how Heathers became a sensation, let's go back to the beginning.
In early 2009, lyricist-playwright Murphy and composer-lyricist O’Keefe quietly began exploring how to bring the incendiary world of Heathers into the language of musical theatre. Their collaboration, following the stage success of Reefer Madness and Legally Blonde, felt both daring and natural: edgy storytelling paired with melodic earworms. Working together with director-producer Andy Fickman, they revised screen scenes, reimagined the dark comedy, and layered the occasionally bleak teenage narrative with theatrical possibility.
Their early work took shape in Los Angeles through three private readings in 2009, each seeding roles that would resonate for years. Veronica Sawyer, the tentatively moral protagonist, was entrusted to a post-Veronica MarsKristen Bell in all three readings. The role of J.D. rotated among Christian Campbell, Scott Porter, and James Snyder—each bringing a different air of sinister charisma. The Heathers’ ceremonial cruelty came alive through rotating casts of Jenna Leigh Green, Corri English, and Christine Lakin.
By the time 2010 had rolled around, Fickman recognized that the show needed a test run in front of a live audience. Joe’s Pub in Manhattan was chosen as the East Coast battleground. The two-night concert readings on September 13 and 14 sold out instantly. Annaleigh Ashford, fresh off Wicked and Legally Blonde, took center stage as Veronica. Opposite her, Jeremy Jordan gave J.D. a smoldering menace, introducing soon-to-be-beloved songs “Meant to Be Yours” and “Dead Girl Walking” with a sharp emotional core.
The supporting cast provided texture and early staging direction. The Heathers trio from L.A. had continued with the production, with James Snyder (now as Kurt), PJ Griffith (Ram), and Julie Garnyé (Martha) filling out the world of Westerberg High.
The next logical step was full staging, but production schedules, casting availability, and creative fine-tuning delayed the premiere by a few years. Finally, in September 2013, Heathers: The Musical debuting in full production at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Los Angeles, a compact 99-seat venue perfect for edgy cult fare. This time, the leads were two then-mostly-untested musical theatre newcomers: Barrett Wilbert Weed as Veronica and Ryan McCartan as J.D., with Sarah Halford as Heather Chandler, Elle McLemore as Heather McNamara, and Kristolyn Lloyd as Heather Duke. Katie Ladner came on-board as the earnestly sincere Martha, and Evan Todd and Jon Eidson brought new comedic insights to the brainless jocks Kurt and Ram. While critics praised the production for its grit, what mattered most were the fans of the original film. And the team was vindicated: Viewers felt Heathers the film was not only revived, but also enhanced by the musical reinvention.
READ: Heathers: Where Are They Now?
That production sold out quickly based on that word of mouth, and when the creative team opted to follow with a New York transfer, they kept much of that cast. The show landed at New World Stages in spring 2014, with previews beginning on March 15 ahead of an opening night on March 31. Weed and McCartan reprised their roles, as did McLemore, Ladner, Todd, and Eidson—while Jessica Keenan Wynn and Alice Lee rotated in as Heather Chandler and Heather Duke.
Critics immediately took note. Elisabeth Vincentelli in the New York Post praised the show as “ingenious, very funny…wonders on a shoestring,” noting that it offered not flashy spectacle but satirical punch. Though the run closed August 4 after 145 performances, it secured Heathers newfound status: a cult musical ripe with youthful angst, razor-sharp wit, and disturbingly catchy songs.
Despite its brief Off-Broadway lifespan, the show quickly became a darling across fandoms. Video snippets went viral; diehard “Corn Nuts” (fans named after Heather Chandler’s cryptic last words in the film) devoured cast recordings. The show resonated because it didn’t sanitize the darkness of teenagers—it amplified it with melodies and theatrical tension. Its biting commentary on teenage desperation and violence felt all the more urgent in the mid‑2010s.
Crossing the Atlantic soon became inevitable. In June 2017, a sold‑out workshop production ran at The Other Palace in London. Carrie Hope Fletcher was cast as Veronica, with Jamie Muscato as J.D. They reprised their performances in a limited two-month run in 2018, which transferred to the West End’s Theatre Royal Haymarket that September. Even before opening night, demand broke box-office records: 19,000 tickets were snapped up in pre‐sales alone.
Adjustments to the show accompanied its Atlantic voyage: new songs like “I Say No” and revisions in dialogue intensified Veronica’s internal arc. The staging became sharper and "Blue", Kurt and Ram's controversial duet about date rape and sexual assault, was rewritten into a song that includes Veronica's perspective on their attempted seduction, called"You're Welcome." The production earned six WhatsOnStage nominations and won Best New Musical, with Fletcher taking home Best Actress.
London’s run proved Heathers could thrive in a new cultural context, with its satire reframed to challenge British high school conventions without losing the ugly, gleaming edge. Revivals through 2021, plus tours in the UK, Brazil, Argentina, and Germany, expanded its global network.
Beyond the stage, Heathers has left faint cultural fingerprints everywhere: it was heavily referenced in a 2019 Riverdale musical episode titled “Big Fun." Its Teen Edition script brought it into high school theatres, a gender-swapped workshop at Stanford flourished, and prolific fan covers and virtual cast recordings litter YouTube and Spotify.
And that brings us to summer 2025. On February 24, a major announcement landed: Heathers would return Off-Broadway at New World Stages from June through September. Audiences waited again, post-London, to see what came next. Casting news in early May confirmed that Lorna Courtney (fresh from her Tony-nominated turn in & Juliet) would embody Veronica Sawyer, Casey Likes (who played Marty McFly in Back to the Future: The Musical) would assume J.D., and McKenzie Kurtz, Elizabeth Teeter, and Olivia Hardy would play the Heathers.
This summer’s run at New World Stages marks a rare full-circle moment. It’s not simply the return of a hit, it’s the renewal of cultural urgency. The path from Bell’s private workshops to Ashford and Jordan’s raw Joe’s Pub nights, through Weed and McCartan’s definitive pairings in Los Angeles and New York, through Fletcher’s award-winning U.K. takeover—Heathers is not just a show, but an experience.
Ultimately, musical theatre fans' ongoing obsession with Heathers reflects what theatre can become: a shapeshifting organism, where creators and audiences co-write, share and dissect their beloved but disturbing world. It dares to ask: What happens when teen angst stops being melodrama and starts speaking to human isolation, toxic communities, and the politics of survival?
That’s the ride Heathers has been on for 16 years: from tentative, experimental script to sold‐out concerts, cult premieres, angry laughter, global transfers, award shows, and now a confident rebirth with fresh voices and sharpened intent. The return to New World Stages this summer might feel like déjà, but it’s built on layers of evolution and revision. It’s not yesterday all over again; it’s tomorrow with memory, edge, and bloody teen soul.
For theatre lovers, it’s an invitation to revisit a story that once terrorized high school hierarchies, and did so with pitch-perfect music, unflinching satire, and an understanding that sometimes, the push you need to find your power is three girls in matching outfits and a boy who dares to say “trust me.”
