The current revival features all the fan-favorite hits from the first NYC production as well as new songs added to the show during its 2018 U.K. premiere.

Sharpen your knives and sip your Slurpees: Heathers The Musical is back. The Off-Broadway show, based on the cult classic 1988 film about teenage nobody Veronica Sawyer and her deadly ascent to popularity, is once again playing New World Stages, the site of its original NYC production from 2014. Director Andy Fickman is back for more croquet, corn nuts, and big fun.

The musical has gone through multiple changes since its premiere, with creators Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe adding new numbers and sending others, to paraphrase Veronica, straight to hell when the show premiered in the U.K. in 2018. The revised version is the one you'll now see on stage stateside, too, so read on to learn more about the music you love — and the songs you may not know — in the 2025 production of Heathers off Broadway.

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This article contains spoilers for Heathers, which touches on topics including murder, suicide, self-harm, bullying, eating disorders, fatphobia, homophobia, child abuse, sexual assault, and drug and alcohol use.

“Beautiful”

Like many moments in the show, the opening number of Heathers is framed as an entry in Veronica Sawyer’s diary. On her first day of her senior year at Westerberg High School, she laments that she and her classmates were once kind, open-hearted, innocent children who all got along with one another — and then puberty hit.

Veronica hopes “life can be beautiful," and she gets her wish, or at least part of it, when the popular trio of Heathers give her a makeover and absorb her into their all-powerful clique. With Veronica “lookin’ like hell on wheels,” the wheels of the story are set in motion.

“Candy Store”

When Veronica won’t pull a mean prank on her best friend Martha Dunnstock, Heather Chandler explodes. The Heathers explain that life at their level of popularity is like a “candy store,” where they’re untouchable and unbreakable.

The number also visually references the group’s iconic candy-colored costumes, imported from the film: Heather Chandler in red, Heather Duke in green, Heather McNamara in yellow, and Veronica in blue.

“Fight For Me”

There’s a new troublemaker in town, and he means business: When football players Ram and Kurt won’t stop bullying new student Jason “J.D.” Dean, he fights back. To her surprise, Veronica is drawn to J.D.’s ability to throw punches and begins daydreaming about their potential romance: “Hey, could you hold my hand? And could you carry me through no-man’s land?”

“Fight For Me” is the audience’s introduction to J.D. — and his violent tendencies.

“Freeze Your Brain”

En route to her first big high school party, Veronica stops in at a local 7-Eleven, where she finds and flirts with Slurpee aficionado J.D. He and his dad are always moving, and J.D. finds comfort in the familiarity of the nation’s 7-Elevens: “Each store is the same, from Las Vegas to Boston, linoleum aisles that I love to get lost in,” he sings.

The song incorporates J.D. and Veronica’s love of slushies from the Heathers film, but it also hints at J.D.’s experiences with self-harm: “When the voice in your head says you’re better off dead, don’t open a vein... just freeze your brain.”

“Big Fun”

Veronica indulges in her first wild, unsupervised party as a newly minted member of the Heathers, suddenly able to attract the attention of her classmates. However, her “big fun” soon gets spoiled.

The song’s title references a fictional band of the same name that gains popularity among Westerberg students in the Heathers film. The Big Fun band has a tongue-in-cheek song called “Teenage Suicide (Don’t Do It),” which is not in the musical.

“Dead Girl Walking”

In one of the best-known songs from the musical, Veronica believes she’s toast after arguing with Heather Chandler at the party and drunkenly vomiting on her. Aware that “the demon queen of high school” is dead-set on ruining her life, Veronica throws caution to the wind and sneaks into J.D.’s bedroom window to seduce him.

In the movie, J.D. sneaks into Veronica’s room, but the small change gives Veronica the upper hand in their power dynamic.

“The Me Inside of Me”

The next morning, Veronica and J.D. slink off to Heather Chandler’s house so Veronica can grovel for her forgiveness. In one of the most memorable (and consequential) scenes of both the movie and the musical, Veronica mixes a hangover cure while J.D. half-jokingly puts drain cleaner in a mug, suggesting Veronica take her own revenge. Veronica mixes up the mugs and serves Heather the drain cleaner, resulting in her prompt death.

Veronica panics, but J.D. suggests she forge a suicide note in Heather’s handwriting, the very skill that got Heather to notice Veronica in the first place. In the note, Heather laments the “myriad” internal struggles she hid from her classmates. “No one thinks a pretty girl has feelings,” Heather’s ghost sings, at first annoyed at the sappiness but then thrilled to see she's become more popular than ever.

Some of the song’s lyrics have been altered to remove outdated slurs and stereotypes from Heather’s forged will.

“You’re Welcome”

Murphy and O’Keefe wrote “You’re Welcome” for the high school edition of Heathers. In the 2018 London premiere production, “You’re Welcome” replaced “Blue,” a more explicit number that some fans criticized for its goofy tone as a song that deals with sexual assault.

The scene, however, remains the same: Heather Duke and Heather McNamara lure Veronica to Kurt and Ram so they can escape the football players’ advances, and the jocks try to convince Veronica that she owes them sex. “How can you expect us to control ourselves when you look like that?” Ram asks.

“Never Shut Up Again”

After claiming Heather Chandler’s red scrunchie, symbolizing her power, Heather Duke becomes the high school queen bee. Her proclamation that “I will never shut up again” comes from Heather Chandler always screeching “Shut up, Heather!” whenever the green-scrunchied girl had something to say.

The song gives Heather Duke her time in the spotlight, as she was previously the only Heather without her own number. Murphy and O’Keefe added “Never Shut Up Again,” together with a "Big Fun" reprise, to the show in 2018, replacing a reprise of “Blue.”

“Our Love is God”

When Ram and Kurt lie to the whole school Veronica slept with them, J.D. notices her humiliation and is overcome by his own affection for her. In this Act 1 closer, J.D. vows revenge, convincing Veronica to shoot the jocks with "ich lüge" tranquilizing bullets and plant a fake suicide note detailing a gay love affair. “Ich lüge,” as movie fans know, means “I’m lying,” as the bullets are real.

The song takes its title from a line J.D. says to Veronica in the film: “Our love is God. Let’s go get a slushie.” In the musical, the phrase is more explicitly linked to J.D. and Veronica’s plan to remake Westerberg at their will: “We can start and finish wars, we’re what killed the dinosaurs, we’re the asteroid that’s overdue.”

“My Dead Gay Son”

A guilt-ridden Veronica and an all-too-gleeful J.D. try to blend in at Kurt and Ram’s funeral, where Ram’s father proclaims he accepts his late son’s sexuality. In a gospel-inspired number, Bill Sweeney insists Ram and Kurt are now “happy bear cubs in the Lord’s big den.”

With the reveal that Kurt and Ram’s fathers once became lovers during “one hell of a fishin’ trip,” “My Dead Gay Son” is a fun distraction from the impending darkness of Act 2 — even though it is a eulogy for a supposed double suicide.

“Seventeen”

In a heart-wrenching ballad, Veronica and J.D. pledge to return to a normal teenage life of “bad movies” and “chili fries” and abandon their campaign of murder and mayhem. It’s less of a choice than an ultimatum for J.D., who faces losing Veronica if he doesn’t shape up. “We don’t choose who lives or dies,” she says, rejecting their antihero creed from “Our Love Is God.”

“Shine A Light”

Seizing the moment, guidance counselor Ms. Fleming gathers the Westerberg students together to bond over the latest tragedy that’s rocked their lives. Encouraging the kids to “shine a light on your deepest fears,” she confesses to an affair (with some fun audience interaction thrown in) and hams it up for the local news stations covering the school's run of suicides.

“Life Boat”

Heather McNamara confesses she’s been having suicidal thoughts since the deaths of Heather Chandler, Kurt, and Ram. She compares being popular in high school to being crowded onto “the tiniest lifeboat with the people I know” and fears being thrown overboard. Ms. Fleming is proud of Heather for sharing, but Veronica fears the other students will take advantage of Heather’s vulnerability — and she’s right.

“Shine A Light (Reprise)”

Spurred on by Heather Duke, the Westerberg students mock Heather McNamara’s depression and anxiety, leading the cheerleader to attempt suicide in the bathroom. “Heather’s going to whine, whine, whine all night,” they sing, perverting Ms. Fleming’s charge to “Shine A Light.” Heather Duke cements her mean girl status, warning McNamara she’ll “die alone.”

“I Say No”

When J.D. suggests they target Heather Duke next, Veronica realizes nothing will curb his violent fantasies and calls it quits for good. This breakup song was added to the show’s U.K.-premiere production in 2018 and borrows the tune from “Our Love is God.” Veronica likens her toxic relationship with J.D. to an addiction and envisions herself as a “troubled teen” responding to the “Just Say No” anti-drug campaign of the 1980s.

“Hey Yo, Westerberg”

Heather McNamara and the other cheerleaders lead the students in a pre-pep rally cheer before news breaks of yet another suicide attempt within the student body. This song is not included on any Heathers cast recordings.

“Kindergarten Boyfriend”

As Martha considers suicide, she reflects on her relationship with Ram, her former friend and “kindergarten boyfriend” before they were old enough to understand social differences or care about being cool. Now, mourning Ram and confused over her lost friendship with Veronica, Martha dreams of an afterlife like “a new kindergarten, where nap time is centuries long.”

“Yo Girl”

When Veronica learns of Martha’s suicide attempt, the ghosts of Heather Chandler, Kurt, and Ram tell her, “Now you’re truly a Heather.” Veronica's parents then tell her J.D. has (falsely) warned them she’s been having suicidal thoughts of her own, and Veronica fears J.D. is planning to murder her. The ghosts won’t let Veronica escape from her thoughts — or from J.D., who’s just snuck in through her window, a frightening parallel to "Dead Girl Walking."

“Meant to Be Yours”

While Veronica scrambles to hide in her room, J.D. reveals his master plan: Using his knowledge from his dad’s demolition business, he’ll plant a bomb in the school and rig it to explode during the pep rally. “Tonight our school is Vietnam,” he sings.

He convinced Heather Duke to get the Westerberg High students to sign a petition that he will then reveal to be a mass suicide note, while he and Veronica will live happily ever after. Thinking on her feet, Veronica fakes her own suicide to get J.D. to leave her alone.

“Dead Girl Walking (Reprise)”

Determined to stop J.D., Veronica decides to sacrifice herself and steal the bomb, believing, “No one here deserves to die except for me and the monster I’ve created.” She is no longer a metaphorical dead girl walking out to romance J.D., but a literal one hell-bent on ending his reign of terror.

“I Am Damaged”

Wounded after a struggle with Veronica, J.D. opts to sacrifice himself rather than disable the bomb. “God knows why you want to save them, but you beat me fair and square,” he tells Veronica. Still holding onto the belief that “our love is God,” J.D. dies in the explosion.

“Seventeen (Reprise)”

Veronica takes Heather Chandler’s red scrunchie from Heather Duke and proclaims their “war is over.” Rekindling her friendship with Martha, Veronica suggests that they and the other Westerberg students “act like we’re all still kids” before they finish high school. Echoing the opening number, the students sing out, “We’ll make it beautiful.”

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Photo credit: Heathers off Broadway. (Photos by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)