Being chosen can feel so much like being loved that we stop asking what it costs us.
Heathers understands popularity and romantic love as parallel forms of seduction. The Heathers make Veronica feel socially chosen; J.D. makes her feel personally understood. Both gradually shift the boundaries of what she is willing to excuse until complicity begins to feel like loyalty.
Emma Caporaso anchors the Sydney production with a powerful and emotionally legible Veronica, while Mel O’Brien gives Martha enormous tenderness. Nic Van Lits and David Cuny are terrific as Kurt and Ram, finding exactly the right comic energy to let the production breathe without trivialising its darker material.
The entire cast is strong, David Shields’ set serves the storytelling perfectly, and Ben Cracknell’s dynamic lighting gives Westerberg’s heightened world its pulse.
Where the production holds back is in its villainy. Heather Chandler registers more as a recognisable mean girl than a genuinely intimidating force, while J.D. remains almost too nice. That softens the moral cost of Veronica’s choices: we understand the pull of popularity and love, but do not always feel the danger beneath them.
The result is a heady mix of camp, dark humour and heavy themes — even if its darkness does not always bite as hard as it should. Slick, funny and enormously enjoyable, this production gives Heathers’ devoted following plenty of Big Fun.