Heathers: The Musical Trailer: The Broadway Sensation Comes To Roku

The list of musical adaptations is getting dangerously long and after a few painful disappointments, even theater kids are starting to question reality. Alas, the past few years have made it very clear that at some point, we'll have to accept that the movie-to-musical pipeline (not to be confused with the movie-to-musical-to-movie pipeline) is here to stay. And even though I still shudder every time I remember that "Shrek The Musical" exists, it's always thrilling to learn that another musical is on the way. This time the title in question is "Heathers: The Musical." An adaptation of the 1988 film, "Heathers," this high-energy black comedy spent months on London's West End where it was filmed and will now stream as a Roku Original. Starting September 16, you can check out "Heathers: The Musical" anywhere that The Roku Channel streams.

Sometimes for better and, other times for worse, "Heathers" has seen quite the resurgence over the past decade. Michael Lehmann's satirical film is an untouchable '80s classic about a teenage girl who befriends the popular clique at her school despite not quite fitting in. For one thing, they're all inexplicably named Heather except for her. But there's also the fact that Veronica (Winona Ryder in the film) is tired of abusing her peers and longs for a kinder life with her less popular friends. Things change when she crosses paths with bad boy J.D. (Christian Slater), who leads her down a dark path that involves quite a bit more murder than Veronica imagined.

Overall, the film covers some extremely dark territory — rape, social pressure, bulimia, murder, gay stereotypes, and suicide — with sharp insight and zero hesitation. The musical adaptation keeps most of that intact, but softens it with humor, extra campiness, and, of course, lots of fun songs!

September 16, 2022, will be a good day for theater kids everywhere. As it turns out, it's really hard to convince people to shill out hundreds of dollars to join you at the theatre, but it's much easier to gather all your friends on the couch and trick them into falling in love with a filmed version of your favorite musical! After all, it worked for "Hamilton." And while it didn't quite boost the popularity of "Diana: The Musical," it certainly got people talking. Plus, instead of going through a messy adaptation process, everything that makes "Heathers: The Musical" so great will be maintained while making the show more accessible to interested viewers everywhere. Obviously, nothing can quite replicate the experience of live theater — but getting close is still a pretty big win.

The musical adaptation is led by Ailsa Davidson as Veronica Sawyer and Simon Gordon as Jason "J.D" Dean. Also featured are Maddison Firth as Heather Chandler, Vivian Panka as Heather Duke, and Teleri Hughes as Heather McNamara. When it first debuted, "Heathers: The Musical" had a very short-lived Off-Broadway run in New York, lasting less than four months. But that did nothing to stop its popularity from exploding, as the terminally online already know. Years lantern the show still has a dedicated following, largely thanks to its cast album becoming available to stream. Whether you realize it or not, you might've caught wind of songs like "Candy Store," "Meant To Be Yours" (which kickstarted a certain TikTok trend), and "My Dead Gay Son" (which deserves awards just for its title). Soon they'll be available, choreography and all.

"Heathers: The Musical" will arrive on The Roku Channel on September 16, 2022.

Welcome to Westerberg High, where Veronica Sawyer is just another one of the nobodies dreaming of a better day. But when she's unexpectedly taken under the wings of the three beautiful and impossibly cruel Heathers, her dreams of popularity finally start to come true. Until JD shows up – the mysterious teen rebel who teaches her that everyone fears being a nobody, but its murder being a somebody...