Heathers the Musical is back in Dublin's Bord Gáis Energy Theatre for a two-week run. John Byrne talks to the show’s director Andy Fickman about the cult movie that’s become a stage sensation.
I remember going to see Heathers when the film first came out. I loved its wicked sense of humour and day-dreamily cast myself and my other half as Christian Slater and Winona Ryder’s teenage killers.
We’ve all moved on from then, and I remember more recently being pleasantly surprised when I heard that a musical based on the film had been created. Not just that, it’s gone on to become a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic, and is on its way to Dublin once again.
If you’re somehow unaware, the show is set in Westerberg High where Veronica Sawyer - originally played by Winona Ryder - is just another nobody dreaming of a better day.
But when she joins the beautiful and impossibly cruel clique of girls called Heathers, her dreams of popularity may finally come true. Well, until mysterious teen rebel JD teaches her that it might kill to be a nobody, but it is murder being a somebody.
Director Andy Fickman - whose broad CV includes TV (Kevin Can Wait) and film (Anaconda) as well as theatre (Reefer Madness) - has been on board with Heathers The Musical for nearly 20 years. It’s fair to say that the show is in his DNA at this stage.
John Byrne: Hi Andy! So movies, TV, stage - any particular favourite or is it like me asking you to choose between your children?
Andy Fickman: Definitely children! But I always say, whatever I’m working on at the moment is my favourite. But my heart is in theatre. I grew up in a very small town in west Texas called Midland, and my dad was a geologist and a paleontoligist, was an amateur actor, and did all the local community theatres.
So when I was very little, my earliest memories are of being backstage, watching these musicals. So the minute I got a chance to start directing in theatre, that’s where I learned my craft. That’s why doing something like Heathers just brings me back home.
As a director, I just love telling stories.
And then of course there's the buzz of live theatre - that's got to be a major attraction?
When I sit in the back of the theatre, and I see a mistake, I’m immediately like, 'We gotta fix that for tomorrow!’ As it is live, it's a one night only event between that cast, that crew and band, and that audience. And whatever happens - good or bad - will forever be immortalised on that one night.
I saw Heathers when it first came out in cinemas back in the late 1980s and loved it. How come it took so long for a musical version to come along?
The film came out in 1989, we actually started the musical in 2005. I think people came to Dan Waters, who was the original creator, and Michael Lehmann, the director, and Denise Dinovi, the producer.
Over the years there was discussion, but they didn’t really have footing. Then myself and one of our writers, Kevin Murphy, did another movie to musical called Reefer Madness. That was something Dan Waters liked, so that began the process.
For me, I feel we’ve been working on Heathers for 18 years. So I feel that the gap between 2005 and 1989, by development standards, isn’t that far.
It takes time to marinate. You cut new songs . . . and also learning from the audience. Everything we learned in Los Angeles helped us when we got to New York. And then when we got to London, we learned a lot. We’ve added new songs, we’ve re-written the book, added in three new characters.
So the audience teaches us, and that’s the best part about theatre. You can keep refining as you go. In film, once I lock it I lock it, and try not to look at it again because I’ll only see my mistakes. But in theatre I want to keep giving it life.
Will fans of the film recognise it when they go and see the show at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre?
I saw Heathers back then as well! For Kevin and I it was one of our favourite movies growing up. We were products of all the John Hughes movies, and then all of a sudden this movie came out. It’s so nihilistic and mind-blowing!
I felt that if I love this so much, I can’t screw it up. Plus, we’re friends with [Heathers stars] Christian Slater and Winona Ryder and Shannon Doherty, Liane Falk - who was the original Heather, and lives outside of London.
So what we did was, when we first dove in, we were trying to figure out how to put it on stage - and we wanted to set it in the late Eighties - and when we finally showed it to the original team, they were sort of gobsmacked because . . . in a musical, just because you’re dead, doesn’t mean you’re offstage.
Theatre gives us that great tradition of a Greek Chorus.
Everyone who loves Heathers the movie, generally comes away feeling satisfied, because we’re still Heathers the movie.
And of course, there are even more people out there who haven’t seen the movie . . .
And when we got to London I was convinced: ‘How does anybody ink the UK, how does anyone in Ireland know about Heathers?’ It wasn’t even a big hit in America! And will they care about 1980s’ Sherwood, Ohio?
Right before we left New York for London, we recorded our first album. And the kids who loved theatre and musicals all knew this songs. So the music pre-dated us and when we opened, we were sold out, and everybody wants to come and see the show.
And then we realised: ‘Oh, they don’t know the movie! They know our music! And now they are going back and discovering the movie.
Heathers the Musical plays Dublin’s Bord Gáis Energy Theatre from April 25 to May 6. Tickets priced from €21.50 are on sale now through Ticketmaster.
