The musical is now playing Off-Broadway, booking until the 25th January 2026. But how have New York critics been reacting to it ?
New York Theatre Guide: “But, boy, when Heathers takes flight, it punches a hole through the roof. “Candy Store” still grooves as a catchy paean to cruelty, and “The Me Inside of Me” is ingeniously ironic.”
Vulture.com: “This production tries to hide its rough edges and half-hearted staging with a callow appeal to nostalgia for something that isn’t even very old yet. (The show has a teen edition available for licensing at high schools, which helps explain why so many young people in the audience know the lyrics.) But the portrait of bloody popularity politics within Heathers is what makes the story cling to you, and it’s less clearly reckoned with in this production.”
New York Theater.me: “Having lost the courage of its own outrageousness, “Heathers the Musical” feels too toothless for the Trump era, even as it maintains a level of tastelessness that I might call amoral, if that didn’t make me sound too much like a “Reefer Madness”-era scold. Let’s just say the show feels too tonally jarring and too calculated for me to sign up for membership in the Corn Nuts.”
Observer.com: “Beyond its sociological themes, Heathers is a ton of stylish, well-crafted fun with top-notch acting and top-to-bottom earworms. After intermission, the score grows darker and introspective, giving individual characters moments to unburden their hearts.”
Theatre Mania: “What emerges (and what most surprised me about my return trip to Heathers) is a stealthy and persuasive conservatism. Sure, Heather was a tyrant, but was her reign worse than the chaotic power vacuum that followed? It’s a question destined to be asked with mounting stridency as we gaze upon the national bonfire into which we seem determined to cast our rulers, norms, and institutions.”
Daily Beast: “The musical—with a book, music and lyrics by Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe, and directed by Andy Fickman—skews deliberately lighter and bouncier, while remaining true to the significant story beats of Waters’ screenplay.”
Time Out: “Rightly, however, the scar-crossed lovers make the biggest impression. The big-belting Courtney may not nail Veronica’s sarcasm, but she sounds great in her numbers, especially the wistful “Seventeen.” And Likes’s J.D. is a revelation. Best known for playing fresh-faced teens in Broadway’s Almost Famous and Back to the Future, he may have seemed an odd choice for this sinister role. But he manages to make J.D. both crush- and cringe-worthy, sympathetic but ultimately scary.”
Exeunt: “McKenzie Kurtz slays as Heather Chandler, bringing a sparkling, irresistible nastiness. Erin Morton, as Martha Dunstock, is the show’s emotional heart. Morton opts to underplay every moment, but in such a big, loud, exaggerated world, that stillness jumps out.”
Theatrely.com: “At the end of the day, Heathers is Big Fun and boy, are folks loving it. Having now gone twice since their return last month, both audiences were so rabid with screams and cheers for both iconic lines and even more iconic riffs, sometimes it was hard to hear the music. It knows what it is, and doesn’t take itself too seriously. So grab a cocktail, grab a srunchie, and let yourself loose at Westerberg High, you won’t regret it.”
NY Stage Review: “What were they making such a big deal over? A nasty dark plot that has more holes in it than the ozone layer. Three overbearingly mean-as-spleen Heathers (McKenzie Kurtz, Elizabeth Teeter, Olivia Hardy) and Veronica Sawyer (Lorna Courtney) a reluctant fourth member of the overbearing clique, make a practice of looking down their upwardly tilted noses at the other graduating Westerberg High School seniors of Sherwood, Ohio.”
Talkin’ Broadway: “It’s a raucous and thoroughly smashing homecoming for the old Westerberg High School gang as the nerds, jocks, clueless staff, and a trio of very mean girls gather for a top-notch revival of Heathers: The Musical “
to find out more visit: https://heathersthemusical.com/new-york/about-ny/