★★★★☆ Trevor Ashley’s directorial debut delivers a brassy, brazen and brilliantly ballsy brand of entertaining fun.

Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse
May 12, 2016

To coin a phrase from Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe’s musical based on the cult 1989 movie about vicious high school alpha-biatches and homicidal teenage romance: “What’s your damage, Heathers?” Unfortunately for the opening night crowd at the Arts Centre Melbourne’s Playhouse, some persistent sound desk screw-ups caused a frustrating amount of the afore mentioned damage to the vocals in the first half of the performance. A shame, given that in almost every other respect, this is a brassy, brazen and brilliantly ballsy staging, albeit with a few minor shortcomings.

Heathers takes a rather predictable trope – the familiar adolescent class-war between the oppressive cruelty of the popular elite and the awkward desperation of the hopeless nerds – and passes it through the neon prism of the 80s, adding a surprising murderous twist on the way.

We meet Veronica (Hilary Cole) while she’s still one of the lesser-teens at the bottom of the social food chain at Westerburg High. She may not have an ounce of cool, but along with her equally sad bestie, Martha “Dumptruck” Dunnstock (Lauren...