Where I Watched It: The Roku Channel

English Audio Description Available?: No

I know Roku rarely releases their own content. There was that moment when they dropped a ton of Quibby shows. None of those had any. But, really I find myself never watching the Roku Channel unless something like Heathers is released. The last time was probably Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas when we were all hoping they would save Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. I still haven’t forgiven Hollywood for letting that show die.

So here comes Heathers The Musical, which oddly has something happening, cause it took a while for the musical to start. I don’t know if it was text, or Roku being slow, but it took like a minute. Once it gets going, it’s just a taped staged version of the show. We’ve seen this before with Hamilton, Come From Away, and that ungodly abomination Diana The Musical. So, this is nothing new.

As a lover of music theatre, Everytime I have audio description on a musical, it’s always a weird push and pull anyway. I prefer for there to be no description during a song. I came for the song. I want to listen to the song. I literally sat at home singing along to my favorite selections from this show, so the lack of audio description here only bothered me a few times, when it could have interjected to help set a scene change, or something in between dialogue. So there is potential for light audio description here, and done right, it would have really hammered home a delightful, if not “Beautiful” experience.

For those unaware, this is just a musical version of the Winona Ryder/Christian Slater film, and it’s dark. I actually liked this version of Freeze Your Brain, a song i hear far too much in my own students in real life, and it never comes out how they think it will. It’s a show full of people who can sing, don’t need auto tune, or pitch correction, and that’s also to be celebrated.

All things considered, this grade reflects more my overall opinion of the musical, and how highly I regard it’s book and lyrics. From the same team that gave me Legally Blonde The Musical, which is very much in my top 10 musicals, heathers is close, but not one of my desert island musicals. I would still recommend Apple’s audio described Come From Away or Disney’s audio described Hamilton or Trevor The Musical before the non audio described Heathers. But, with audio description? Well, you might just need to check out this candy store.

Final Grade: A-