‘Heathers’ starts with a bang, ends with a thud

One person’s favorite cult film might be another’s guilty musical-theater pleasure.

Originally scripted by Daniel Waters, the pitch-black high school satire “Heathers” opened on movie screens in 1989, starring Winona Ryder as Veronica, the unlikely addition to a stuck-up clique of popular girls, the other three of whom all happen to be named Heather.

To the rest of the senior class, the fashionable Heathers are not-so-affectionately known as the “lip-gloss gestapo” for their bullying behavior, but Veronica hopes to provide a counteractive, calming voice of reason — at least until matters take even darker and more disturbing turns with the arrival of an antisocial transfer student (and, soon, Veronica’s new boyfriend), J.D., whose dangerous notions of vigilante justice wreak havoc.

None of which screams “musical theater,” exactly, and certainly not a show as bouncy or exuberant as is the first half of “Heathers, the Musical,” featuring a book, music and lyrics co-written by Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe.

In a joint venture between Actor’s Express and Oglethorpe University Theatre, Express artistic director Freddie Ashley relishes having access to the larger stage of Oglethorpe’s Conant Performing Arts Center, compared to the intimate confines of his usual Express space. An ensemble of some two dozen actors, singers and dancers have ample room to execute several big numbers (choreographed by Precious West) and otherwise move around on various levels of scenic designer Jon Nooner’s set (anchored by an imposing Westerberg High façade).

Credit: Casey Gardner Forf

Credit: Casey Gardner Forf

Also making memorable contributions from Ashley’s creative team, costumer Emmie Tuttle dresses Veronica and the Heathers in nifty color-coordinated plaid skirts, jackets and knee socks — and dig how designer D. Connor McVey works in tandem by skewing his lighting accordingly, depending on whichever of them is the focal point in any given scene.

Under the music direction of Alli Lingenfelter (on keyboards, conducting a six-member band), most of the actual songs are rather unremarkable. Even so, highlights include a few delivered by the sensational Alexandria Joy as Veronica — leading the chorus in the opening “Beautiful,” and later sharing a couple of nice duets with Jordan Patrick (holding his own as J.D.), “Our Love is God” and “Seventeen.”

The titular antagonists are portrayed by Emily Whitley (as the ringleader in red), Wynne Kelly (in green) and Chloe Campbell (in yellow). Token grownups are played by veteran performers Wendy Melkonian (making the most of her “Shine a Light” routine as a flaky teacher), and Brian Kurlander and Daniel Burns (who can’t salvage “My Dead Gay Son,” as hardly grieving fathers in a rambunctious, borderline-offensive funeral ditty).

That song opens the second act with a bad taste of things to come. There’s a rushed, clumsy effort to give other secondary characters their own solos, too, before it’s too late: Caroline Gammage (as an ostracized overweight friend) scores with her heartfelt solo “Kindergarten Boyfriend,” but “Hey, Yo Westerberg” (from Campbell, as the most underwritten of the Heathers) is fairly needless.

For all of its cutting comedic edge, “Heathers, the Musical” remains a period piece in the sense that it still unfolds in 1989, replete with timely references to everything from “The Breakfast Club” to Hands Across America.

But there’s also no escaping the chilling fact that a lot has changed in the ensuing decades: the initial New York workshop and in-concert versions of the show took place barely a year after the 1999 Columbine school shooting; the first full-scale productions in Los Angeles and off-Broadway came in the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre; its debut on London’s West End coincided with the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

That J.D. may scheme to blow up the gym and obliterate the entire student body during a pep rally seemed outlandishly subversive 30-plus years ago. Now, it’s sadly conceivable that such an act could really happen — which dates and spoils the satirical spirit of the piece. There’s something objectionable about a musical rendition of the story that suggests, if you throw in enough peppy songs and dances, then even bloody school violence is suddenly more palatable.

Not. “Heathers,” the movie, was possibly ahead of its time, while “Heathers, the Musical” has possibly fallen behind.

THEATER REVIEW

“Heathers, the Musical”

Through Oct. 17. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays; 2 p.m. Saturday (Oct. 16 only). $35-$45. Conant Performing Arts Center (at Oglethorpe University), 4484 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta. 404-607-7469. www.actors-express.com.

Bottom line: The first act rocks, but the second implodes.