Home Review | Heathers The Musical at The Kings Theatre, Southsea: A 'sinister and risque' crowd-pleaser By Ella Sadler Published 7th Aug 2024, 09:23 BST Comment Heathers The Musical is at The Kings Theatre, Southsea from August 6-10, 2024. Picture by Pamela Raith Photography You know a performance truly resonates with its audience when post-show the stage door is swarming with excited fans waiting to meet their favourite stars, share a moment of happiness, sign a programme and grab a selfie. The hundreds of fans backstage tonight were not left disappointed when eight key members of the cast met everyone who had patiently waited after a truly explosive show.
Beforehand, the queue for merchandise exited the building and wound down Albert Road, and by the time it was showtime, the Kings was bursting with an excitable audience, many of whom had dressed up as their favourite characters ready to sing along to their favourite songs. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues.
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. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Notice and Terms of Service apply. The level of fandom for this dark comedy is akin to going to a Rocky Horror Show event, just a little less of the black fishnets and campness.
Tonight fans even hand out handmade Heathers bracelets to fellow devotees – it’s a heartwarming gesture of togetherness. The storyline of Heathers – transformed from a cult movie released in 1988 featuring Christian Slater and Winona Ryder into a singalong stage extravaganza – is sinister and risque, capturing the complications of teenage life (and beyond) – battling with identity, fitting in, bullying, crushed hopes and dreams, high school cliques, suicide, guns, bombs and revenge. And yet, despite the subject matter, it’s a show packed with high energy crowd-pleasing bangers from start to finish.
Candy Store is the early infectious hit, Freeze Your Brain sung by the psychopathic JD (played by Keelan McAuley), and Veronica Sawyer’s raunchy Dead Girl Walking (played by Jenna Innes) captured the show’s excellent production values and dramatic lighting perfectly. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad My Dead Gay Son – the first song of the second half – was a crowd pleaser with participation sing-a-long levels ramped up to 10. Martha Dunnstock’s beautifully tragic, yet funny, Kindergarten Boyfriend (performed by Amy Miles) was delivered with aplomb and props also to Daisy Twells’ delivery of Heather McNamara’s song Lifeboat .
Ending with standing ovations, the encore/reprise of Seventeen was almost drowned out by applause as the cast threw out hair scrunchies into the crowd, drawing a colourful Tuesday night to its close and leaving a theatre full of smiles. Until Saturday, August 10. Continue Reading Related topics: Southsea Comment Comment Guidelines National World encourages reader discussion on our stories.
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