On Directing 'Heathers: The Musical' "In Full Thenardier Garb"

"It's one of the strongest scores to have come out of New York in years and years," Heathers: The Musical director Trevor Ashley observes. It was after hearing the score that Ashley then "went back to the film and really fell in love with how it was done and how clever the whole thing [is]". "How bizarre it is, actually; it's quite weird," he adds.

Heathers, the film starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater, came out in 1988 and (without giving too much away) some of the plot's "darker" scenes have tragically played out in real life since its release. "It has sort of been echoed for real in America, 'cause that sort of thing has happened," Ashley concurs, "and so it's quite interesting to look back at it as a piece where, you know, that had not happened at the time."

"I'd come back upstairs as Thenardier and direct the [Heathers: The Musical] show and they all found it so funny: me in full costume directing!"

Ashley sat in the director's chair for the very first time on Heathers: The Musical while concurrently playing the role of Thenardier in Les Miserables, which he acknowledges "was tough". "It was a very long day," he continues. "I was very lucky that the Capitol Theatre let me use the rehearsal room." Wednesdays proved particularly "hilarious" with a matinee performance of Les Miserables added to his already crazy schedule. "I'd rehearse from ten 'til 12 then go down the stairs and do the matinee. But then I'd have a sort of 45-minute break in interval for Act 2, so I'd come back upstairs as Thenardier and direct the [Heathers: The Musical] show and they all found it so funny: me in full costume directing!" He laughingly recalls the cast sharing photos of him "sitting there dressed in full Thenardier garb telling them what to do." Ashley says of Heathers: The Musical, "[It's] so energetic and so rude, and just everything that Les Mis isn't."

He's an experienced auditionee ("I mean, god! I've done auditions for friggin' 17 or 18 years now"), so Ashley found it "very interesting" to sit on the other side of the table. "Having been in the industry as long as I have, you meet so many people — and you know so many people — and it's funny. Because I had some sort of preconceived ideas about who I'd really like to play different roles and then they'd come in and audition and they wouldn't be right, or they'd be right for something else… I'm so pleased with the cast. I mean, they are an amazing bunch of performers and there was half of them I didn't know at all, and they really blew me away when they came in and auditioned.

"It was interesting to see Lauren McKenna, who's playing Martha [Dunnstock] and Ms Fleming. We didn't know her at all, and she walked in and she had us in tears singing her big number." On his vision for Heathers: The Musical, Ashley shares, "I wanted it in a particular style and so it was very hard to find the right people."

Lucy Maunder was Ashley's first choice for the lead role of Heather Chandler in Heathers: The Musical, however. "It was my idea to have her play the part, so she never auditioned or anything," the director reveals.