Review:'Heathers: The Musical' works onstage

Long before Mean Girls, the 1988 film Heathers depicted high school women at their worst. Though it flunked at the box office, it became a cult classic that composers and lyricists Laurence O'Keefe and Kevin Murphy first staged as a musical in 2014.

The Eagle Theatre's over-the-top production reveals why this movie succeeds as a riotously funny, yet heartfelt, musical.

At Ohio's Westerburg High School, three fashionistas named Heather dominate a social scene where jocks and pretty girls torment and belittle everyone different from them (you know, kind of like high schools everywhere).

Into their realm steps Veronica (Cailene Kilcoyne), an outlier with pretty-girl potential who forges a hall pass to save the Heathers from detention. They invite her into their group, but she quickly tires of their cruel treatment of others, especially once she falls for JD (Adam Hoyak), a bad boy who fights back against jock rule (depicted in hysterical, yet slick, slow-motion choreography).

When JD suggests they kill off the football bullies and Heathers, well . . . how's a pretty, introverted girl to survive?

O'Keefe and Murphy's book turns the dark humor and satire of the film into a campy comedy.

Lyrics both clever and corny invoke the Thunderdome, blue balls, and an entire song that equates JD's nihilism to the brain freeze of a Slurpee. Several solo numbers flesh out the film's cipher-like characters, including a fierce number delivered hauntingly by Jordan O'Brien's suicidal cheerleader Heather Chandler.

Sean Quinn's costumes of shoulder-padded blazers, plaid skirts and leggings add to the cheeky quality (while accurately depicting the era's fashion).

Ed Corsi's direction loads heavy on the camp: dads sporting fake moustaches and hippie teachers that care, but really don't (Kimberly Suskind expertly delivering a powerhouse number). Corsi and JT Murtagh's set design confines the action; a more versatile staging would have enlivened the physical humor and given Justina Ercole's catwalk choreography more room to shine. The live band led by Jason Neri takes advantage, treating the small stage like a concert venue for the synthesizer and drum-heavy score.

Kilcoyne's earnest, and well-sung performance turns Veronica into an optimist seeking to rise above a world of bulimic bitches and homophobic linebackers. Hoyak's soulful falsetto likewise transforms JD into a troubled romantic, rather than the homicidal antihero of the movie. It's a perfect pair of touches, performed honestly in spite of the camp that will endear this musical to any fans of the film.