One night in early September, something seemingly strange happened at New World Stages in Midtown Manhattan: the entire audience at Heathers: The Musical, in a direct rebuke of standard theater decorum, was singing along with the actors onstage. In most cases, such flagrant rule-breaking would be a nightmare for the cast, but it turned out the event had been fully sanctioned and carefully planned. As an acknowledgment of the show’s massive and ever-growing fandom, Heathers hosted a one-night-only Big Fun Day, where the crowd was encouraged to sing along to specific sections of the score.
“We honestly didn’t know what to expect, because it’s a wild thing to just sort of carry on doing your show while you have 500 people working with you. But it was really beautiful,” says Elizabeth Teeter, who plays Heather McNamara, the quietest of the musical’s titular trio of mean girls. “It reminded me that we’re a part of something that’s so much bigger than just us in the show — that so many people love this, and so many people know it.”
It’s a sentiment that her fellow Heather, McKenzie Kurtz — who plays queen bee Heather Chandler — echoes...READ MORE