When you think of high school, what do you think of? One may think of “stereotypical” high schools from movies and musicals with jocks, nerds, and mean blonde girls. This is a very common theme in musicals about high school, and I think it’s time we changed these stereotypes because they’re not inclusive of today’s societal norms.
First, I’ll start with the musical Heathers (2014). Heathers is a dark comedy about a girl named Veronica Sawyer who joins the popular clique of three girls named Heather C., Heather D., and Heather M. The story follows Veronica’s journey up the social ladder, trying to become known and stand out among her high school peers. She leaves her nerdy friend, becomes popular, and has a situationship with a boy named JD. “Becoming Cool” is a common theme in stories like these, but leaving your friends to become popular isn’t a very good thing to set on a stage with the musical and on screen with the movie. This is because high school isn’t about becoming the most popular kid in school. It’s also too stereotypical to have a gang of mean white girls as the main antagonists. There’s even a movie/musical called Mean Girls. Although anyone can be mean to others. This stereotype is dangerous. After all, if it’s shown in multiple musicals/movies, it gives people the idea that all white girls are mean. It’s shown so many times, which is not true because anyone can be nice and anyone can be mean.
One thing Heathers does a good job at representing is teen angst. I like how they added real events people can go through, like thoughts of suicide, suicide, peer pressure, eating disorders, lgbtq+ topics, and abusive relationships. It is important to add to musicals about teens/high school because people overlook what teens can go through so early on in life. The movie Heathers (1988) portrays the characters with homophobia that isn’t stated in the movie. In new adaptations, like the musical, add more inclusivity, making it more modern and a bit more relatable in various ways. In the end, I like how Heathers included deeper topics into a stereotypical musical about high school, but the stereotypes are still overwhelmingly present.
Another teen Broadway show rife with stereotypes is Be More Chill (2019), a sci-fi musical about a boy named Jeremy Heere who is a freshman again, trying to become popular. His bully, Rich, gives him a supercomputer pill called a Squip to help him become popular and get the girl of his dreams, Christine. Jeremy is then controlled by the Squip and leaves his friend Michael, who is also an awkward teen. The Squip not only helps Jeremy, but it also tries to help the other kids in the school to become “perfect” and not social outcasts. At the end of the musical, Michael helps Jeremy get away from the Squip, and Jeremy learns that you don’t need to be cool for people to like you, and you should just be yourself.
Be More Chill was only performed for a little less than a year due to people saying it was “unoriginal” due to the common high school stereotype. Again, this theme of the outcast gaining popularity is very common, so one can see why people found it repetitive. It does seem as if every high school musical retells the same story about becoming popular, one can be themself, but each does it in its own way. Be More Chill does well by making their high school aspect a bit more modern than others because this musical takes place in 2015-2019, but it does so while maintaining an old-school style. It also does a good job of adding a hidden meaning behind the Squip pill. Not only does it reference peer pressure, but it also references the peer pressure to do drugs to make you popular. Jeremy falls to that peer pressure and doesn’t realize that it’s doing the opposite of making him popular because it makes him less like himself and more of what his peers want him to be.
Lastly, I know there are multiple musicals that I definitely missed about high school, like Dear Evan Hansen (2016), Mean Girls (2018), and the most iconic one of them all, High School Musical (2006), etc. All these musicals have the same stereotypical characters/story line. The unpopular main character wants to become popular, so they join/take influence from their bullies and or popular peers, and they leave their nerdy friend to join the popular clique. Once they join the popular clique, they soon realize that this isn’t them, and something horrible happens in their life. By the end, they leave their popular peers, go back to their nerdy friend(s), and realize they can be themselves, and people will still like them.
With all these stereotypes, it brings predictability when it comes to watching the actual musical. When you know the stereotypes at the start, you know what will happen at the end. Like in the Prom (2018), Emma is not allowed to go to her school prom because she is lesbian, and her school prom gets canceled because of that. You already know that Emma is going to have a downfall, then she’s going to have a character development moment that helps her reach her goal at the end. In the end, Emma does get to the school prom, and people accept who she is, along with other characters. You can pretty much guess that a musical about high school will have its lows and then have a very high, high that the very end of the musical because that’s just how predictable they are with the stereotypes helping with the plot.
Although this storyline is very predictable and commonly used, all of these musicals add their own spin to the story, still keeping the theme but changing the players. Veronica from Heathers, for example, realizes that being popular has its downsides, and you never know what other people are actually going through. In Be More Chill, Jeremy finds himself peer pressured into taking the Squip and trying to fit in. These musicals add real-life topics to a made-up story, which makes them more relatable and more connected to the real world. Instead of having a fake story with scenarios that would only happen in musicals, these musicals have a fake story that’s made to feel real in different aspects.
In the end, it’s time to break this high school stereotype because, yes, someone can find these themes relatable, but what about those who can’t? Not every high school experience fits into the predictable story of popularity, cliques, and social ladders. Real high schools today are made up of students with different backgrounds, identities, and experiences that deserve to be represented in new and inclusive ways. If musicals want to continue connecting with modern audiences, they should move beyond the same stereotypes and tell stories that reflect the diversity and complexity of real-life high school.
