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Before Tina Fey's movie Mean Girls (2004) there was Daniel Waters's Heathers (1988): a pitch-black comedy about how high-school popularity can be murder. And before the Broadway musical Mean Girls (2018), there was Off Broadway's Heathers: The Musical (2014). And this June, more than a decade after its original run, that Heathers musical—which has acquired, like the film, an enthusiastic cult following—will return to New York City in a revised version that is likely to appeal to newcomers as well as to the show's loyal fans (known as Corn Nuts, after one character's dying words). Lick it up, baby. Lick. It. Up.
Heathers has been adapted for the stage by Kevin Murphy, who also made a 2005 musical out of Reefer Madness, and Laurence O'Keefe, who co-wrote the score for 2007's Legally Blonde with his wife, Mean Girls lyricist. The show had plenty of admirers in its initial five-month run at New World Stages—including Time Out critic David Cote, who graded it "a solid A" and praised it for "a depth of feeling and a lyrical polish that elevate the material above a retro goof." But it has really caught fire in the United Kingdom since then; a 2018 version of Heathers, tweaked by Murphy and O'Keefe, has enjoyed several hit runs on the West End and a trio of tours of the UK and Ireland.
We've known since last year that the British production, directed by Andy Fickman, was planning to move to New York. Now it's official: Heathers the Musical will return to New York Stages for a limited run from June 22 through September 28, 2025. The show will include new songs and script lines that were not in the 2014 incarnation.
Heathers tells the story of a nice girl named Veronica who falls into bad company: first by three cruel student dictators—all named Heather—and then by a sociopathic newcomer who wants to rid the school of them and their ilk. The original film starred Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Kim Walker, Shannen Doherty and Lisanne Falk. Casting for the upcoming musical revival has not yet been announced.
Tickets to Heathers the Musical will be available to the general public starting March 31, 2025. You can find out more at the musical's website.
