Heathers: The Musical: stage vs screen

Heathers: The Musical, by Laurence O'Keefe and Kevin Murphy, adapts the 1988 black comedy written by Daniel Waters and starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater. It opened Off-Broadway at New World Stages in 2014 and has never played Broadway. The musical keeps the film's plot and its pitch-black humor but makes Veronica more sympathetic, adds a ghost, and changes the ending.

Stage

Broadway musical (2014)

Screen

Heathers (1988)

1. Martha becomes Veronica's best friend

In the musical, Martha Dunnstock is Veronica's childhood best friend, and a cruel prank the Heathers play on Martha is what pushes Veronica to quit the group. In the film, Martha is a bullied classmate rather than Veronica's close friend. The stage show also gives Martha a song, Kindergarten Boyfriend, about her long crush on Ram.

2. Veronica never kills Kurt

In the film, J.D. shoots Ram, Veronica's shot misses Kurt, and when Kurt runs back toward her she fires in a panic and kills him. In the musical, J.D. shoots both boys himself, so Veronica never fires a fatal shot. The scene also moves from the woods to a cemetery.

3. Heather Chandler comes back as a ghost

The film's Heather Chandler is gone once she drinks the drain cleaner. The musical brings her back as a ghost who warns Veronica that, with Chandler gone, things will only get worse, and the ghosts of Chandler, Kurt, and Ram later taunt Veronica in her bedroom.

4. My Dead Gay Son becomes a song

At Ram and Kurt's funeral in the film, one grieving father declares that he loves his dead gay son, one of the film's most quoted lines. The musical turns it into a full number, My Dead Gay Son, and adds a twist: the two fathers reveal they have been secretly in love.

5. The jocks target Veronica, not McNamara

In the film, Veronica and Heather McNamara go on a double date with Kurt and Ram; Veronica leaves with J.D., and Ram rapes McNamara. In the musical, McNamara and Duke lure Veronica to a cow pasture and abandon her there with the drunk jocks, who try to assault her before she escapes. In 2014 Off-Broadway that scene was a comic song called Blue; the writers replaced it with You're Welcome for the 2018 London production so the danger would read as real.

6. Martha's and McNamara's breakdowns

In the film, Martha walks into traffic and survives, and McNamara confesses her depression on a radio call-in show. In the musical, Martha tries to jump off a bridge, and McNamara admits her grief and suicidal thoughts at a school assembly in the song Lifeboat. In both versions McNamara then overdoses in the school bathroom and Veronica stops her.

7. J.D.'s last stand

Both versions end with J.D. killed by his own bomb after he is shot in a struggle with Veronica in the boiler room. In the film, he follows her outside with a bomb strapped to his chest and sets it off. In the musical, Veronica carries the detonator to the empty football field, and J.D. persuades her to let him take it before it explodes.

8. A kinder final scene

The film ends with Veronica, covered in soot, condemning Heather Duke and inviting Martha to spend prom night watching movies. The musical widens the circle: after taking the red scrunchie, the symbol of the Heathers' power, away from Duke, Veronica invites both Martha and Heather McNamara to hang out and just be kids, set to a reprise of Seventeen.

Heathers: The Musical movie vs musical: FAQs