Annotations for Katie ladner alice lee jessica keenan wynn barrett wilbert weed and elle mclemore beautiful

Lyric: Before you answer, I also do report cards, permission slips and absence notes
Annotation:
coarsing them to help her saying that she could change they’re grades, etc.

Lyric: We can be kind once more
Annotation:
Veroinca hopes the school can restore that child-like and innocent kindness.

Lyric: [KURT KELLY knocks the tray from MARTHA’S hands]
Annotation:
An example of how Kurt Kelly is a bully towards Martha. Bullies typically are shown to push or knock things out of their victim(s/’s) hands

Lyric: [THE HEATHERS part, revealing a smoking hot VERONICA who has been given a makeover]
Annotation:
Veronica runs into the stage with an outfit identical to the Heathers, but with her significant color; blue. This follows up with her makeover and she appears overly excited that she was accepted into the Heathers.

Lyric: Not without a hall pass, you’re not
 Week’s detention
Annotation:
ms. fleming appears to not care that heather is throwing up, and shows no concern for her health. this proves that later in the show, during ‘shine a light’, that she only does the televised assembly for attention, and doesn’t truly care about the students' wellbeing

Lyric: I think I’m dying
Annotation:
This line being the one directly before “Who’s that with heather?” signals that the Heathers are more important than the other kids dying.

Lyric: I want Heather, Heather and Heather
Annotation:
This could be foreshadowing when Ram tries to rape the Heathers in Blue and in Big Fun.

Lyric: [HEATHER DUKE vomits]
Annotation:
Heather Duke is puking because she has bullima and pukes her food up

Lyric: Heather wasn’t feeling well, we’re helping her
Annotation:
It’s clear that Heather.C does not care for the other two heathers and is just using them. though it isn’t very clear right now.

Lyric: Dear diary
Annotation:
Veronica’s diary is used a lot in the musical to convey her and others thoughts.

Lyric: We were kind before
Annotation:
In later songs, we can see that she thinks J.D can change, as she is saying about the other students right now

Lyric: Oops
Annotation:
The tone implies false innocence, purposly trying to egg you on and get your goat

Lyric: Slut
Annotation:
This is enirely a theory but, I don’t think they’re talking about actual sluts, seeing all the pervy things the popular kids do. My theory is this is a forshadowing to Kurt and Ram, they raped a girl and is now being victim blamed

Lyric: Freak
Annotation:
Usually used to as an synonym for “ugly” probbly directed toward a kid with some sort of facial or skin condition

Lyric: Hunchback
Annotation:
kryphois, a type of physical condition, makes your back look odd

Lyric: Watch it
Annotation:
Being “cool” he wants others to fear him, so he shouts to get a simple message across, simply to spread fear because he can

Lyric: Ow
Annotation:
a kid is being bullied in the background, not just emotionally, being physically hurt.

Lyric: Freak, slut, loser
Annotation:
Some more colourful words, like the last pair, these show how no matter where you go in school, you will get bullied

Lyric: Who are you?
Annotation:
In stark contrast to the movie, the musical adaption of the  Heathers features Veronica as a “nobody” until the moment she’s accepted by Heather Chandler into the group. As shown in the movie, however, Veronica already knows the 3 Heathers for a while and depends on her for favors needed. This is one of the little details that make the musical and movie so different from one another.

Lyric: Hold your breath and count the days, we’re graduating soon
Annotation:
Veronica most likely said this because she wanted to emphasize the point that she thought her high school was terrible and she hated it. Further in the musical, you can tell why.

Lyric: Wake from this coma, take my diploma
Annotation:
The line of wake from this coma is her explaining that this has all been like a dream and the next part says that she know it is the only way to “wake from this coma”

Lyric: [HIPSTER DORK, spoken]
 I’d like to be their boyfriend
Annotation:
The Westerberg student body doesn’t view the Heathers as people; rather, as idols. Untouchable, emotionless idols that just exist, instead of people with emotions and opinions. When he mentions being ‘their’ boyfriend, he doesn’t want the person, he wants the perfect image they set up.

Lyric: Sorry, Heather
Annotation:
Part of what shows how submissive Heather Duke is to Heather Chandler doing everything she asks. It is also mentioned that she wants to lose weight (prescription question and well the bulimia problem) this incites that Heather Duke just wants to be liked and accepted by Heather Chandler which is similar to Gretchen Weiners in Mean Girls.

Lyric: You hope, you dream, you pray
Annotation:
Earlier in the song, we can hear her saying that she prays for a better day multiple times but here she states that she gets her way which means her prayers have been answered.  PROPOSED SUGGESTION: This line (along with the “and you get your way”) Shows how Veronica’s rise on popularity was purely circumstantial and how none of the actions she suggests here have an active role on how the Heathers accepted her. It was by mere chance that the Heathers needed her help with forging a hall pass that exact day at that exact hour when she decided to go to the bathroom.

Lyric: Heather, Heather, Heather
 
 [REPUBLICANETTE & NEW WAVE GIRL]
 And someone
 
 [STUDENTS]
 Heather, Heather, Heather
Annotation:
They go from singing the song in a slow way that makes the Heathers seem like Gods, to a quicker fashion which shows their curiosity to know who the other girl with Heather is.

Lyric: I would give anything to be like that
Annotation:
Throughout the show, Veronica proves this statement was freakishly true – she changes her entire being and deserts and betrays her best friend just fore the sole reason to fit in with the Heathers. Veronica would literally go to any lengths to be popular.

Lyric: Agh,
Annotation:
Veronica is scared at first, expecting someone less pleasant than her best friend, which gives us insight as to what kind of environment Westerberg High is.

Lyric: I see you’re all listed
Annotation:
The way she speaks this line is strained, and she sounds irritated. She’s actually disappointed that she didn’t get to punish these students for being out of class. This just provides further support to the idea that she is two-faced. She does not have her students' best interests at heart, but she wants everyone to THINK she does.

Lyric: [The HEATHERS laugh]
Annotation:
If you pay close attention, in the cast recording, it’s noticeable that Heather Chandler starts laughing a beat before Heathers Duke and McNamara quickly join in, helping to build that hierarchy inside the clique, in which Heather Chandler is the “queen bee” and the others mostly follow her in whatever she does, waiting for her cue.

Lyric: Perhaps you didn’t hear the bell over all the vomiting
Annotation:
If you weren’t convinced that Ms. Fleming was an incompetent school counselor, you are now. Her apathy towards Heather Duke’s condition is almost unthinkable. This theme of ‘adults being apathetic’ is strong throughout the entire show. They join in on the name-calling and don’t do anything to help the students. It’s why Veronica and JD manage to get away with so much.

Lyric: I hate Heather, Heather and Heather
Annotation:
This line is the only bad thing said about the Heathers by anyone (except Veronica, and JD) the entire show. It shows the complicated relationship between the student body and the Heathers. The other students are both in awe and jealous of the Heathers' status and how they are treated. The different feelings for Heather could also be a nod towards the Heather they are sung with/about. For example, the student body ends up hating on Heather McNamara when she cries after singing ‘Lifeboat’(I hate Heather), Ram ends up making out with Heather Duke in the woods near the cemetery(I need Heather), and Veronica ends up needing Heather Chandler’s power over Ram in ‘Blue’(I need Heather).

Lyric: White trash
Annotation:
White trash is a derogatory slur typically used for poor white people in the south. It doesn’t apply to a specific race per se, rather implying that a person is unsophisticated or disadvantaged, and require distinction as to separate them from the average peasant. This insult can mean double for Veronica due to the fact that she is viewed in the musical as “lower than low” before becoming a Heather.

Lyric: Um, actually, Ms. Fleming, all four of us are out on a hall pass
 Yearbook committee
Annotation:
Veronica, being the clever girl she is, waits until the Heathers are almost in trouble before swooping in and saving their butts in a classic “I’ll Save You!” moment. This is also a way for Veronica to play into the Heather’s hands by making them unmistakably notice her talent in action and seeing her as a person they could use to avoid trouble for themselves, cause trouble for others, and keep their popular image.

Lyric: Who could survive this?
 I can’t escape this
Annotation:
Describing Westerburg as an inescapable hell foreshadows Heather McNamara’s attempted suicide as a desperate attempt to escape. Although “who could survive this?” is figurative, the metaphorical question of survival quickly becomes literal.

Lyric: Okay
Annotation:
Veronica’s immediate and enthusiastic agreement with Chandler reveals that she still idolises the Heathers and would unquestioningly go along with whatever they do. This is in contrast with the start of Candy Store where she begins to see their flaws and speak up against Chandler’s leadership and the Heathers' treatment of the other students.

Lyric: [VERONICA scribbles on a piece of paper]
Annotation:
Veronica’s special skill is imitating handwriting (both in the musical and the movie). She uses this skill to forge school documents now, but later to falsify a letter to Martha, and to fake suicide notes.

Lyric: Um, let me sit at your table, at lunch
 Just once, no talking necessary
 If people think that you guys tolerate me, then they’ll leave me alone
Annotation:
The Heathers are the most popular people at Westerburg High, so if you appear to be their friend, you too could win a chance at popularity–or at least be left alone “No talking necessary” emphasises how, like everyone else, Veronica is desperate to escape being a labelled a ‘geek’ or a ‘skank’.

Lyric: Ask me how it feels
 Lookin’ like hell on wheels
Annotation:
Veronica is saying that she looks like a baddie. Her makeover was so profound that she looks and feels like a bad bitch (a Heather). “ Hell on wheels” refers to something aggressive and tough, which is how Veronica feels right now.

Lyric: Frickin’
Annotation:
The work “fricking'‘ is said here to show Vernoica’s to avoid the use of an expletive. The f-word is not used until later in the play in ” Our Love is God“, when Veronica becomes aware of JD’s homicidal tendencies: What the fuck have you done?! That is the first time the word is used in the play, and the sudden expletive shows just how grave the situation is. It also shows how Veronica has changed from a meek outcast to a bold, brutally-honest Heather.

Lyric: Kurt Kelly, quarterback
 He is the smartest guy on the football team
 Which is kind of like being the tallest dwarf
Annotation:
The defining aspect of dwarves is that they are short. Veronica compares the relationship between dwarves and tallness to the relationship between the football team and intelligence for good reason: there is none. Her point is immediately proven as he didn’t comprehend her criticism in the slightest, yet was set off by her simply speaking to him.

Lyric: I’d like them to be nicer
Annotation:
Martha, unlike the other kids talking about the Heathers, is the only one who does not ask for something that would give her personal gain. Instead, she merely wishes for the Heathers' kindness, demonstrating her naivety and selflessness. This, unfortunately, makes her a target within the student body.

Lyric: Send me a sign, God
 Give me some hope here
 Something to live for
Annotation:
Preludes the three Heathers' introduction, implying how the school idolises them as superiors, almost worshipping them.

Lyric: Freak, slut, burnout, bug-eyes, poser, lard-ass
Annotation:
This colorful collection of words introduces the setting of the high school to the audience. It establishes the enviroment of the school and prepares the audience for a ton of excess bullying, as seen below.

Lyric: I need Heather, Heather—
Annotation:
This could be referencing how everyone at the school needs Heather Chandler. Once she dies, the school goes into chaos. Ram and Kurt aren’t in their place, Heather Duke is the new leader. It’s as if the school needs Heather Chandler to properly function.

Lyric: Cripple
Annotation:
A cripple is an offensive term for a person who is unable to walk or move properly because of disability or injury to their back or legs. It’s a dated term, but it seems appropriate for a town like Sherwood, Ohio.

Lyric: Like the Huns invading Rome
Annotation:
The Huns became one of the primary contributors to the fall of the Roman Empire, as their  invasions of the regions around the empire, which were particularly brutal, encouraged what is known as the  Great Migration.  As the kids hit puberty, they turned into barbaric, cruel monsters. The idea of invasion also calls up imagery of jocks and popular kids torturing the losers of the school, as high school is a  microcosm of society. High school is war is an ongoing motif employed throughout the play. Additionally, it shows how smart and knowledgeable Veronica is, especially compared to the Heathers. In the movie, she tells J.D.: I almost moved into high school out of sixth grade because I was some genius. We all decided to chuck the idea because I’d have trouble making friends, blah-blah-blah. Now blah-blah-blah is all I do. I use my grand I.Q. to figure out what gloss to wear and how to hit three keggers before curfew. Some genius.

Lyric: [KURT, spoken]
 Martha Dumptruck
 Wide load, honk
Annotation:
Martha is mainly referred to as the overweight character throughout the musical, as well as the one that’s gets bullied the most. Martha Dumptruck is a common nickname for her, due to her bigger size and a play on her surname ‘Dunnstock’.

Lyric: If I sat at their table, guys would notice me
Annotation:
This girl wants exactly what Veronica later gets in the song. She just wants to sit at their table. However, unlike Veronica, she’s doing it so that guys notice her.

Lyric: They’re solid Teflon, never bothered, never harassed
Annotation:
Teflon is a synthetic fluoropolymer of tetrafluoroethylene that has numerous applications. Wow, that sounds science-y. Let’s break it down. Teflon is used on cookware, typically to make sure that food doesn’t stick and make clean up a pain. It’s also used as a coating for bullets, to cause less damage to the gun barrel. Veronica alludes to the fact that the Heathers seem untouchable by the other usual students–nothing can break through their tough exterior.

Lyric: And, uh, I look around at these kids that I’ve known all my life and I ask myself, what happened?
Annotation:
She has been friends with all of these people for her whole life, but they have changed since then. The cute, innocent children she remembers are now concerned with how popular they are and how hot they look, not if they are good people at heart. This idea is revisited in Seventeen (reprise), when the cast talks about how it might be their last chance as kids. At this point, Veronica believes they’ve all changed for the worst, but by the end of the musical she realises they’re still young and have a chance to live a good life and redeem themselves.

