Review: Kokandy's So Very Chicago Premier of HEATHERS

Move over RENT, there's a new Gen X musical making its Chicago debut and the results are, like, totally awesome.

I'll end my feeble attempts at 1980's lingo there, suffice to say Kokandy's Chicago premier is a bonafide success. At least to this fan of the cult 1988 film of the same name. If you don't know your Heathers from your Veronicas or Bettys, this might not be the show for you.

Veronica Sawyer (the radiant Courtney Mack) begins her senior year at Westerberg High longing to just be ignored rather than constantly picked on. The school is ruled by a trio of Heathers: wealthy head cheerleader Heather McNamera (Rochelle Therrien, in yellow to show her meekness), bulimic yearbook editor Heather Duke (Hayley Jane Schafer in green to show her envy), and queen bee Heather Chandler (Jacquelyne Jones in red to show her power). Each wears a hair scrunchy in their signature color as a sort of crown. The Heathers keep everyone in line --including a pair of bullying jocks (Garrett Lutz and Denzel Tsopnang as Kurt and Ram, respectively).

After Veronica forges a hall pass and comes to the rescue of the Heathers after the trio is caught in the bathroom after final bell, Heather Chandler decides to make Veronica over and adopt her into their fold. Veronica is given blue and black clothing (symbolizing she is bruised and damaged, but still redeemable) and coronated with a blue scrunchy.

The climb up the social ladder is not without its price. In the song "Candy Store," Heather Chandler immediately tests Veronica's loyalty (by making her pull a prank on Veronica's former best friend since diapers, an overweight teen named Martha (Teressa Lagamba). Veronica reluctantly agrees and, after she meets the Baudelaire-quoting bad boy Jason "JD" Dean (Chris Ballou, dressed in black), she immediately begins to not only regret the prank, but her new found friendships.

At a party later that night, Veronica stops the prank mid-progress, thus embarrassing Heather Chandler, who promptly decides that come Monday morning, Veronica's punishment will be brutally. It leads the condemned Veronica to seek solace in the initially reluctant arms of JD.

After spending a lust-filled night with him, Veronica literally sobers up and decides to beg Heather Chandler for forgiveness. JD accompanies her to Chandler's home and, when trying to make a hangover cure for Chandler at Chandler's request, accidentally grabs a mug filled with drain cleaner, thus knocking off the high school knockout.

Her future college career now uncertain, JD convinces her to forge a suicide note to cover up their actions. The bargain Veronica made with the Heathers is nothing to the Faustian pact she enters into with JD and it isn't too much longer when she realizes her "teen-angst bulls**t has a body count" and spends the rest of the play trying to both atone and redeem herself.

Recent college graduate Mack is something of a revelation here. As Veronica, she literally must carry the show and does some admirably. Her voice has all the fiery intensity, power and sensuality of a young Pat Benatar and she conveys youthfully longing (the opening number, "Beautiful"), anger and despair ("Dead Girl Longing") and regret ("Seventeen"). It's a masterful performance and if it doesn't earn her a Jeff nomination, I'd be surprised.

As JD, Ballou is equal parts charming, flirtatiously mysterious and menacing. He holds his own vocally with his duets with Mack, but I was hoping to see a bit more of a glimmer that his character might be redeemable than what I saw.

As queen bee Heather Chandler, Jones makes the most of what's written here. She's the original mean girl and takes delight in wielding her power (even from beyond the grave). We probably all knew someone like her in high school and Mack's Veronica regrets at one point the fact that, because of her death, Chandler will never be able to grow to be something other than what she is. Jones' performance perfectly encapsulates how "frozen" her character really is.

Schafer's Heather Duke surpasses the queen bee herself in terms of cruelness as she seizes power (and the red scrunchy). Again, she isn't given much in terms of character development to work with here, but Schafer dives into the role with much gusto.

Therrien's Heather McNamera is really the only Heather given any sort of character growth. Therrien --who was so terrific last season in Bailiwick's CARRIE, again endears herself as a performer to the audience with a boffo performance of "Lifeboat."

As a clueless hippy teacher, Veronica Garza deserves some praise for her comedic performance of "Shine a Light." Garrett Lutz and Denzel Tsopnang are brotastically entertaining in "Blue". Lutz's gravity-defying, slow-motion moves in the choreographed fight scene during "Fight For Me" also deserve praise. Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't didn't mention ensemble member Colin Funk who showed true commitment to his ensemble roll with that "Flock of Seagulls" hair. Wow. Just wow.

Robert Kuhn's costumes pop and, like Funk's hair, certainly set the time period (shoulder pads and bright colors were signature looks of the '80s). The choreographer by Sawyer Smith was reminiscent of the calculated dance moves of Madonna (again, perfect for the era in which the show takes place). Ashley Ann Woods' set design captures that minimalist '80s look with clean, but jagged lines. Finally, James Beaudry's direction strikes a fine balance between camp comedy and tragedy (no easy task when your show's villain where's a Columbine-esque black trench coat).

HEATHERS: THE MUSICAL might be a generational thing, though. More so than the saccharine, suburban fairy tales of John Hughes, both film and musical encapsulate how many of us in Gen X saw our world. The baby boomers have "Grease," a show that ends with its plucky teens vowing that, despite their differences, "[they] go together." For Generation X and the characters that inhabit HEATHERS' Westerberg High, high school --as Veronica puts it in the show's opening number "Beautiful" --was more like Mad Max's thunderdome.

Kokanday's production of HEATHERS: THE MUSICAL runs through April 24 at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Broadway. Tickets $38. Call 773.975.8150 or kokandyproductions.com.

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