If you want want to be a member of the cool crowd, motor on over to the new musical adaptation of ’80s cult film “Heathers.
In the flick, high school girl Veronica (Winona Ryder) is enlisted by her new boyfriend, J.D. (Christian Slater) to bump off their loathesome kingpin classmates.
Those targeted included a Heather Chandler (Kim Walker), Heather Duke (Shannen Doherty) and Heather McNamara (Lisanne Falk) — the Heathers — and their football player pals Ram and Kurt.
But the musical takes the movie’s premise and runs it in a slightly different direction while retaining the original’s subversive spirit.
The Post spoke to writer Kevin Murphy and composer Laurence O’Keefe about turning this landmark dark comedy, which just celebrated its 25th anniversary, into a stage show with heart. The top five things we learned:
Winona Ryder and other “Heathers” actors attended a workshop version in Los Angeles — and loved it.
Murphy: “Winona did have one note. Her favorite line from the movie is, ‘I don’t patronize bunny rabbits!’ And she was disappointed we didn’t have that. I promised her it’d be in the New York version.”
O’Keefe: “Martha Dunnstock [the obese character nicknamed Dumptruck, played by actress Carrie Lynn] came, and Patrick [Labyorteaux], who played Ram. Making the movie was clearly a very special part of all of their lives.”
“Heathers” screenwriter Daniel Waters says they’ve improved one of his plot points.
O’Keefe: “He said, ‘You solved the interesting-character problem!’ To him, they were Ram, Kurt and Heather Chandler, because they were monsters. And they’re gone in the second half. We keep them around — we use Chandler as Veronica’s conscience, like a very sardonic, bitchy Jiminy Cricket.”
You learn how Veronica got into the Heathers.
Murphy: “We tell a story, in the span of our opening number, about how Veronica goes from nerd to top of the herd.”
This Veronica’s more of a go-getter.
Murphy: “In the movie, after the Remington party, Veronica goes home and she writes angrily in her diary and then J.D. knocks on her window. That doesn’t work that well onstage, so her reaction here is, ‘I’m ruined, I’m destroyed, I’m going to go find that really cool rebel kid and I’m going to have him f- -k me until I’m not thinking about it anymore.’ ”
All your favorite lines are still in there, albeit in different places.
Murphy: “It’s like doing a crossword puzzle with the lines — ‘Did you have a brain tumor for breakfast?’ ‘F – – k me gently with a chainsaw’ — where you have to find a place to integrate them. In many cases they show up in different contexts.”