How Very! HEATHERS Will Feature New Song in West End Run

Heathers the Musical is bigger and better than ever before! A brand new song has been written into the show ahead of it's West End debut at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, along with multiple re-workings to the script.

Following extensive work across the run of it's European premiere at The Other Palace, the creators of Heathers - The Musical, Laurence O'Keefe and Kevin Murphy, alongside director Andy Fickman, have written an original new song for leading lady Carrie Hope Fletcher. The new song, 'I Say No' and updated script were added into the final week of performances at The Other Palace, offering audiences a sneak peek ahead of the show's transfer to the West End in September.

Paul Taylor Mills said: "Two years ago Andrew Lloyd Webber and I set on a mission to create a space in the UK where musicals could be tried and tested with audience feedback at the heart of that development. I am so pleased to say that a year and a half later we have been able to see Heathers go from The Other Palace studio, to the main house, to the West End. This isn't a new idea with many major American musicals affording themselves an out-of-town try out in order to refine the material before the version the team want to present is 'cooked'!

Over the last few weeks the creative team and I have been working hard to make changes to the production, including a new number for Veronica at the end of the show, and some script changes to Act II. We're delighted with the work that has been done and that the show was able to finish its the run at The Other Palace as the definitive version of Heathers.

We feel fortunate to have had this incredibly useful space to develop the show and would like to thank our audiences for affording us this opportunity. It's crucial that we develop a practice in the UK for this to happen in order to ensure the genre of musicals in this country continues to prosper."

The 2018 Class of Westerberg High will be graduating to the Theatre Royal Haymarket for a strictly limited 12-week run, from 3 September 2018, with Carrie Hope Fletcher reprising her celebrated role as Veronica Sawyer.

Also returning to the cast as the school's reigning 'It Girls' - The Heathers are Jodie Steele (Chandler), T'Shan Williams (Duke) and Sophie Isaacs (McNamara), alongside Jamie Muscato as rebellious transfer student Jason Dean (JD), Chris Chung (Kurt Kelly), Dominic Anderson (Ram Sweeney), Jenny O'Leary (Martha Dunnstock), Rebecca Lock (Ms. Flemming), Jon Boydon (Kurt's Dad), Alex James Hatton (Officer Milner), Charlotte Jaconelli (Stoner Chick), Lauren Drew (New Wave Girl), Olivia Moore (Young Rerepublicanette), and Sergio Pasquariello (Officer McCord).

They will be welcoming Hugh Maynard (Ram's Dad), John Lumsen (Hipster Dork) and Merryl Ansah (Drama Cub Drama Queen) to the cast for the West End premiere.

Greetings and salutations. Welcome to Westerberg High, where popularity is so very a matter of life and death, and Veronica Sawyer is just another 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 finally start to come true.

Until JD turns up, the mysterious teen rebel who teaches her that it might kill to be a nobody, but it's murder being a somebody...

Based on one of the greatest teen films of all time, the 1988 cult classic starred Winona Ryder and Christian Slater. The award-winning writing team, Laurence O'Keefe (Legally Blonde, Bat Boy) and Kevin Murphy's (Reefer Madness, Desperate Housewives) hit musical adaptation has enjoyed successful runs in Los Angeles and New York, and finally arrived in the UK for its European premiere on 9 June 2018, following a rapturous response to its 2017 workshop at The Other Palace.

Heathers - The Musical is directed by acclaimed screen and stage director Andy Fickman, with choreography by Gary Lloyd, design by David Shields, lighting by Ben Cracknell, sound by Dan Samson and casting by Will Burton. The production is produced by Bill Kenwright and Paul Taylor Mills.

Heathers - The Musical, which recently finished it's European premiere at The Other Palace, is the highest grossing show at Andrew Lloyd Webber's theatre, having sold over 20,000 tickets across the run and having sold out prior to its opening gala performance. It is the first show in the theatre's history to move from a studio workshop to a main house production and it now becomes The Other Palace's first West End transfer, having reached a brand new audience; 70% of which are under the age of 30. The production will continue to develop and celebrate its younger and more diverse audience by offering over 15,000 seats at £25 across the West End run.

Photo Credit: Pamela Raith