Inside the walls of Westerberg High School, between each comedic musical number, a ticking time bomb is counting down to its final seconds.
In May 2025, Gainesville Community Playhouse announced it would be putting on its own production of “Heathers: The Musical,” an adaptation of the 1989 film following Veronica Sawyer and her murderous boyfriend JD as they navigate high school. The GCP production opened July 17 and runs through Aug. 9.
The musical version of the show has run off-Broadway since 2014 and takes a campy spin on the original, upping the humor and ridiculous elements of the plot through the music.
The show's popularity has made GCP’s production highly anticipated for audiences and actors across Gainesville.
Rachel Kallenbach, the 22-year-old who plays Heather Chandler, one of the main antagonists of the story, said the reaction to opening night was even more than anyone had hoped for.
“Because this show has such a cult following,” Kallenback said, “opening night, even preview, I remember when the doors opened for the ‘Heathers’ entrance, it took everything in me to not start grinning, because everybody cheered, which I wasn't really expecting.”
Over 100 people tried out for the show during its two days of auditions this May, with over 70 coming in for the first day alone.
For many of the actors involved in the show, any part in “Heathers” is a dream role.
“The minute I heard that this show was announced last year, I was like, ‘I'm auditioning for that,’” said 20-year-old Jose De La Cruz. “And so it's just been in the back of my mind ever since.”
De La Cruz landed one of the leading roles, JD, a student who plans and executes the murders of his classmates over the course of the show.
Despite the show's more serious themes, it primarily plays out as a comedy, taking elements like murder and turning them on their head. Ghosts of dead students chest-bump in the background, and characters sing about slurpees while talking about dead parents.
Even the show’s ensemble plays into the comedy, acting out their own mini stories in the background of the main plot, said Sam Rhodes, the 27-year-old director of the show.
“It's been interesting to see all of the people, especially the ensemble, build their characters up from nothing into this full-on plot happening behind everything,” Rhodes said.
“Heathers” is the first production Rhodes has directed and one of her favorite musicals. She originally submitted “Heathers” to GCP in 2023 but was rejected. The show would eventually be accepted in January 2025.
Rhodes hopes “Heathers,” a story about the struggles of being young, will draw a new crowd of high school and college students to GCP.
“I think this show is bringing a different crowd to this theater and really expanding our horizons a little bit,” she said. “We're not just for the Sunday crowd anymore. We're for cool people.”
Morgan Bradley, the show’s 26-year-old assistant stage manager, knew about Rhodes’ original plan to put on “Heathers” in 2023 and has been thinking about it ever since.
The show has many moving parts, including many scene and prop changes throughout its three-hour run time, making it exciting work for the backstage crew.
“I like being able to be a part of it but still kind of lurking in the background, not having the spotlight on me,” Bradley said.
For cast and crew alike, the best part of the show wound up being the connections they made with their fellow castmates during rehearsals.
Layla Edwards, a 20-year-old who plays show lead Veronica Sawyer, said it's the heart the entire group puts into the show that has made being a part of it such a dream.
“Even when my understudy goes on, I see everything, like the big picture, and it's beautiful,” Edwards said.
Contact Brandy Sumner at bsumner@alligator.org.
Brandy Sumner is an anthropology and English junior and this summer's music and performance reporter. This is their first semester working at the Alligator. In their free time they enjoy playing guitar, reading and writing.
