Pump Up the Volume’s soundtrack introduced me to bands including Pixies, Cowboy Junkies, Sonic Youth, Bad Brains and Soundgarden. (Moyle’s original story was inspired by the suicide of a friend.) Carrie Hope Fletcher, Sophie Isaacs, Jodie Steele and T’Shan Williams in Heathers: The Musical at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, in 2018. But it keeps the compassion, too, of a film that didn’t satirise the students but seemed to really care for them. Jeremy Desmon’s book and lyrics preserve the blend of rancour and ribaldry that distinguished director Allan Moyle’s screenplay. On Monday, a condensed version of Pump Up the Volume was presented in workshop form for a small audience at the Turbine theatre and I’m delighted to report (relieved even, since my childhood bedroom was covered with pictures and slogans from the film) that it channels the same unruly spirit. It has now reached London as part of MTFestUK, which showcases a slate of new musicals including versions of the TV show Come Dine With Me and Gogol’s The Government Inspector. Is this the future for Christian Slater’s subsequent teen movie, Pump Up the Volume? The film, a portrait of alienation and rebellion which stars Slater as shy student Mark who is a pirate radio DJ by night, was adapted as a rock musical in the US just before Covid. It starts a tour of the UK and Ireland this month while continuing a residency at the Other Palace in London, where they host singalong performances, serve “freeze your brain” cocktails and fans wear official Heathers lipgloss and colour-coded scrunchies. But after an off-Broadway run, Laurence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy’s brutally funny, candy-coloured musical became a sensation in the West End. Watching the macabre 1989 high school movie Heathers, you may not have thought it needed show tunes. Late night truth bombs … Christian Slater in the original Pump Up the Volume.
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