Riverdale, Meet Westerberg: CW's "Riverdale" Takes On "Heathers: The Musical"

From left to right: "Riverdale" stars Ashleigh Murray, KJ Apa, Camila Mendes, Madelaine Petsch, Lili Reinhart, and Cole Sprouse sing along to songs from "Heathers: The Musical."

Is this Riverdale High, or Westerberg High? CW’s hit show, Riverdale, released a musical episode on March 20, featuring songs from the cult-favorite musical, Heathers: The Musical.

The episode, entitled “Big Fun” after one of the musical’s most popular songs, wove music from the musical into the plotline of the teen drama. The musical, which was selected as Riverdale High School’s spring production in the show, cast characters from the drama in the musical’s iconic roles, allowing the show’s plot to mirror the events of Heathers.

“It's been very interesting, with how the writers found a way to bridge what's going on with the musical along with our story,” said Riverdale actor Charles Melton to a W Magazine representative. “The musical plays into everything that's going on with being a teenager and dealing with teen angst and relationships and different things that are going on.”

Although the hit show boasts high ratings and a large fanbase, audience reactions to the episode were decidedly mixed. Some fans praised Riverdale for the episode, calling it “amazing,” while others were less impressed. Many fans attacked the show for deviating from the original Heathers plot and lyrics, while others noted how the Riverdale actors that were cast as the musical’s leads, Veronica and J.D., received “like no screen time” in comparison to the other characters.

While I generally like Riverdale, my take on the “Big Fun” episode is that it was anything but. Heathers is one of my all-time favorite musicals, and I was hoping that the drama would do it justice. Admittedly, I had low expectations after Riverdale butchered Carrie: The Musical last season, but the Heathers episode, in my opinion, was a new level of abominable.

In addition to the fan complaints, I have a few grievances of my own, specifically regarding the autotune. I mentioned in a previous post that actors who take on traditional Broadway roles should only do so if they have the vocal chops for the parts, and I can say with complete certainty that none of the Riverdale cast members have enough singing talent to tackle Heathers.

Also, due to the CW’s censors, the musical’s lyrics were changed so drastically that the original meaning was lost (“Dead Girl Walking” is not about “holding” someone, for the record). In my opinion, if you cannot perform the show as it was originally written, you should not be performing it at all. Overall, Riverdale’s musical episode has, literally, fallen on deaf ears for the second year in a row.

As one fan said to popculture.com, “Every year [Riverdale] has a musical episode, and every year it's the worst episode of the season... please stop!!!”

Riverdale, take your fan’s advice. Please, please, stop.

(LU)