“Heathers 101” is relevant and appropriate for high school

This year’s musical at Fargo North, “Heathers 101,” is already well underway. Auditions are done, the cast has been practicing for a month, and the performance dates are set for Dec. 7-10. However, there is quite a bit of controversy as to whether “Heathers” should be performed here at FNH. Some people are concerned that the musical may be bringing up topics and content which shouldn’t be in a high school musical. The thing is, these topics are extremely relevant and need to be discussed, and “Heathers 101” is the perfect way to do it.

The plotline of this dark comedy is intense and full of all the typical high school stereotypes, all of whom are being generally nasty to each other. And, while it is a comedy, it covers several heavy topics, such as murder, suicide, homophobia, bullying, and sexual assault.
However, instead of just being a violent comedy, like many people expected, “Heathers” has an important message in it. That message is to make it beautiful.

The musical starts off with a song called “Beautiful,” within which the main character of the show, Veronica, laments on how everyone used to be civil, but as they got older everything changed. Everyone became obsessed with image, and full of insecurities, and more cruel.
The cruelties continue to escalate throughout the show as Veronica joins the three popular girls, who are known as the Heathers because they all have the same first name. While doing so, she abandons her best friend, Martha, who is mercilessly bullied.

Everything gets more and more complicated until Veronica’s love interest, the new kid Jason Dean (JD for short), kills the leader of the popular group, Heather Chandler. He does this when Chandler threatens to embarrass Veronica the next day at school. They disguise the murder as a suicide, but later, when JD crosses the line yet again, things get worse.

As the show continues, the problems between the characters continue to escalate in a darkly comedic manner. There is deception, betrayal, disappointment, and lots of pure emotion right up until the very end, where Veronica has a revelation. In a reprise of the first song, “Beautiful,” she sings “Listen folks, war is over, brand new sheriff’s come to town. We are done with acting evil; we will lay our weapons down.”

The point of the song is that high school may not ever end, but it’s okay. There will always be bullies and insecurities, but if we focus on making it beautiful, it will get better. Life can be beautiful, and it’s up to us to make it that way. That’s the point of the whole musical; life is hard, life sucks sometimes, but we can make it better if we just work together. Stop bullying, stop hurting each other, just make it beautiful.