It’s time for BIG FUN at Curve, Leicester as class is in session until 19th August 2023.

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Press tickets for review

It’s everything High School Musical can’t say. It’s Mean Girls. It’s dark humour and it should carry a trigger warning for everything that teens battle with from bulimia to suicide to assaults. It is the darkest and worst parts of high school and it’s on stage.

I had gone into Heathers rather apprehensively. I had gone in expecting to not enjoy it. It seems there is a huge divide in opinion around Heathers, you either love it or you hate it. Well, I’m on the side of love it.

It seems that Curve is just welcoming quality show after quality show at the moment and I was almost thinking perhaps I need to tone down the stars to not be too… generous? But why should one show suffer just because the predecessors have been brilliant too? Maybe, this is a reflection on just how fantastic the theatre offerings are at Curve recently.

Set in 1989 Westerberg High School, Ohio. Veronica Sawyer (Jenna Innes) distresses at the state of her hell on earth high school ranked with social hierarchy with the Heathers being the top of the food chain. Veronica learns that it really kills to be a nobody and a somebody.

This show carries the problematic theme that these kids literally do get away with murder. Suicide is glorified. But, it’s laced with the lesson that it’s not to be. And, anyone who believes this isn’t a dramatised depiction of high school is sadly mistaken because these are real themes and real reactions that real teenagers do.

It is high energy packed with a killer soundtrack but that’s not to be mistaken for it being a children’s show by any stretch of the imagination. It’s dark comedy with dark subject matter from bullying to suicide to bullying to assault and violence. It is a heavy show, but despite this it doesn’t really come with much emotional attachment.

I must say, if you love a show where you connect and feel and invest then this might not be the show for you. Instead, it is just a wicked humour show to detach from. It’s strangely light viewing for such heavy topics and graphic content. It was a different kind of show and it is definitely for a late-teen to now Disney adult audience.

Verity Thompson took on the role of HBIC Heather Chandler and was incredible. She floated around the stage and she demanded attention. She was a fearless leader and both fabulous and ferocious in equal parts. She kept that school and those daft lads in order.

Veronica Sawyer (Jenna Innes) was cool and kind and carried a killer attitude and voice. I loved her performance of “Beautiful” and “Our Love is God” but her standout performance for me was “I Say No” watching her evolution and character growth in the song was iconic, paired with comedy, facial expressions and body language sent goosebumps down my back and was one of the only moments in the show where I really connected and invested in a character rather than taking it at face value.

Jacob Fowler was creepy and had a brilliant standout performance throughout the show. I thoroughly enjoyed “Freeze Your Brain” along with “Our Love is God”. Kurt (Alex Woodward) and Ram (Morgan Jackson) played a hilarious duo despite being awful characters they serve the ultimate sentence and become humorous and laughable in the afterlife.

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Curve Theatre, Leicester.

15-19 Aug