While Emma Caporaso’s introduction to musical theatre may have happened relatively late into her teenage years growing up in Adelaide, the 23-year-old is making up for it with her professional debut as lead Veronica Sawyer in Heathers The Musical.

Having spent her formative years singing and dancing, Caporaso’s passion for musicals was unlocked while performing in her Year 10 production of Annie, before choosing to study psychology at Adelaide University.

“I was a year out of high school studying at Adelaide Uni, and was like, ‘You know what? I love this, but I think I need to give music theatre a red-hot crack’, so I put together an audition tape for WAAPA,” Caporaso says, having graduated from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts’ music theatre course in 2024.

“The reason why I wanted to audition was just to kind of see if that dream was a possibility. I just really wanted to give it a good go before I put that dream to bed.

“Music theatre and psychology are more interlinked than you think. It’s just less statistics, and more singing and dancing.”

This connection between the two is especially true when it comes to her current role in the Australian touring production of Heathers The Musical, based on the cult 1988 film starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater.

The movie was adapted into a high-octane, black comedy rock musical, premiering with sold-out shows to Los Angeles audiences in 2013, making its New York debut the following year, with three West End seasons since.

Popularity is a matter of life or death at Westerberg High, where protagonist Veronica Sawyer is just another nobody who hopes for a better day.

“She is the outcast-turned popular girl when the Heathers, the cool girls at school, adopt her and take her under their wing,” Caporaso explains.

“But she quickly discovers the sacrifices she needs to make and the people she has to leave behind in order to succeed in this version of herself, so she teams up with bad-boy boyfriend J.D. to take down the popular kids.

“I like to describe Heathers as ‘the OG Mean Girls’. If you know Mean Girls, you know Heathers, except people die, and there’s a little bit of High School Musical, and then people die.”

The film might be from the 80s, but Caporaso says the characters are still incredibly familiar to a young audience.

“Our fan base is primarily a Gen Z audience, and they come to the theatre and see these really archetypal teenage characters on stage, where they can relate and identify to the people and their experience,” Melbourne-based Caporaso shares.

“Of course, Veronica and J.D.’s solution to their problems is not the most ethical of choices, but there’s still that element where being an outcast at school is hard.

“It’s such a relatable experience to a majority of teenagers that they really resonate with Veronica and J.D. taking back their own power.”

J.D. might be Veronica’s bad-boy boyfriend, but Caporaso considers Veronica’s true friendship with schoolmate Martha to be at the heart of Heathers The Musical.

“That’s her soulmate, that’s her person, and it doesn’t matter what everyone else thinks,” she says.

“There’s this really beautiful message of hope and seeing the good in people and striving to believe that people can work together to create change.”

Bringing this all together is a soundtrack of 1980s rock-pop fusion for a production that is a little less traditional than your conventional musical.

The dark comedy tells a story about wanting to feel a sense of belonging, and the experience of bullying and growing up with a very turbulent high school experience.

“The music facilitates this relatable, but also bizarre, story,” Caporaso says.

“Every night at Heathers, it’s such a unique experience because it almost feels like a rock concert.

“People are literally screaming, and it’s so inspiring to see what that future of Australian audiences can look like, because if Heathers is any indication, it’s that young people are really keen to go to the theatre. I am excited for Perth to feel that energy as well.”

The Australian production began its tour in Melbourne and has travelled the nation before finishing the musical’s run with the Perth season.

Caporaso says it feels like a full-circle moment to close the show in the city where she trained.

“I have been a fan of this show since my first year of WAAPA, so it’s pretty surreal to be a part of it, let alone play Veronica,” she adds.

“I went to WAAPA with the students who are currently in their final year, so it’ll be great to see some friends that I haven’t seen in a couple years and to just be back in the city where I really fell in love with musical theatre.”

Heathers The Musical is at Regal Theatre, Subiaco, September 30 to October 11. Tickets at premier.ticketek.com.au.