High school is already a battlefield before Westerberg High adds its own brand of cruelty. Students are still trying to figure out who they are while their bodies, teachers, labels, and classmates seem determined to define them first. Nerd, jock, prep, goth, outcast—every label comes with a place in the social order. Worst of all are the cliques: everyone knows which group holds the power, and everyone knows how painful it is to be shut out.
Heathers: The Musical, now at New World Stages, throws audiences into Westerberg High School in Sherwood, Ohio, where the student body is ruled by a ruthless trio known as the Heathers. Laurence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy adapted the musical from Daniel Waters’s 1988 film, pairing bright, infectious pop with a story steeped in suicide, death, bullying, and teenage cruelty. The show begins as Veronica Sawyer looks out at Westerberg’s brutal social hierarchy and longs for something better. She sees students like her kindhearted childhood friend Martha Dunnstock become targets for the school’s bullies, while the Heathers control the halls with polished menace. Isabella Esler, making her Off-Broadway debut after appearing on Broadway in Beetlejuice, gives Veronica a believable mix of intelligence, insecurity, ambition, and regret.
Photo Credit: Jeremy Daniel
The Heathers themselves are sharply drawn. Ava DeMary brings a convincing uncertainty to Heather McNamara, the fragile cheerleader who follows the group’s lead. Jackera Davis, making her Off-Broadway debut as Heather Duke, captures the resentment and hunger for power beneath the character’s repressed exterior. As Heather Chandler, the clique’s commanding leader, Zon Berube—whose credits include tours of Back to the Future and Six—delivers a performance that is icy, cruel, and impossible to ignore.
The school’s bullying is also embodied by Kurt Kelly and Ram Sweeney, Westerberg’s crude football stars. Cade Ostermeyer, in his Off-Broadway debut, makes Kurt a perfectly dim-witted quarterback, while Chris Marsh Clark brings blunt aggression and comic stupidity to Ram. Together, they represent the swaggering cruelty that keeps the school’s outsiders on edge.
Martha Dunnstock, Veronica’s sweet and lonely childhood best friend, gives the show one of its most vulnerable centers. Aniya Thompson, making her New York City debut, makes Martha’s pain and resilience feel sincere without reducing her to a punchline. Jeannette Bayardelle plays both Veronica’s mother and Mrs. Fleming, the school’s self-absorbed psychology teacher. A Tony-nominated actress, writer, and creator, Bayardelle is especially funny and effective as Mrs. Fleming. During a school-wide assembly on suicide, she turns the theater into part of the scene, drawing the audience into the uncomfortable performance and even pulling a man from the crowd to play her former lover, Phil.
Photo Credit: Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade
John Cardoza plays Jason “J.D.” Dean, the brooding new student who becomes Veronica’s love interest and dangerous partner. With Broadway credits and a dark, compelling presence, Cardoza makes J.D.’s appeal easy to understand while clearly tracing his shift from wounded outsider to violent extremist. His descent gives the musical its most chilling momentum.
Heathers: The Musical is not interested in softening high school into nostalgia. Instead, it exposes the viciousness behind popularity, the cruelty of casual labels, and the way teenagers can turn pain into performance. The cast’s high energy helps carry a two-hour-and-twenty-minute show that can be merciless, even when it smooths some of the film’s sharper edges. Still, this production finds power in its mix of pop brightness and darkness.
See it before it leaves New World Stages and begins its North American tour in Baltimore in May 2027.
