VIDEO: Heathers: The Musical star Jenna Innes talks to Phil Hewitt/SussexWorld

Among the dates on tour are Theatre Royal Brighton from Tuesday to Saturday, March 14-18; Congress Theatre, Eastbourne from April 18-22; and The Hawth, Crawley from August 1-5, with Jenna Innes (Les Miserables) taking on the role of angst-ridden teen Veronica Sawyer and Jacob Fowler (Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella) returning to the role of Jason ‘J D’ Dean.

Jenna is loving the fact that for all the people that already know and love the music and can't wait to see it again, there are plenty more who will have the pleasure of discovering it for the first time.

Westerberg High’s Veronica Sawyer is just another nobody dreaming of a better day. But when she joins the beautiful and impossibly cruel Heathers and her dreams of popularity may finally come true, mysterious teen rebel J D teaches her that it might kill to be a nobody, but it is murder being a somebody.

“It is a dark comedy and the emphasis on the dark but there are definitely some really fun moments and it's just a great show. It's set in high school and the story is about navigating all sorts of things as you are growing up, love and friendship and toxic friendship and even suicide.

"But it is a comedy and the central character is Veronica. She is flawed, just like everyone is flawed but she is smart and funny and I would say that she is emotionally intelligent. She navigates this world that she finds herself in as best she can. She doesn't do it perfectly. That's the point. It is realistic. It is not all happy all the time but she is someone who does the best she can. She doesn't always make all the right decisions but she is doing it from a good place.”

Among the obstacles is her love interest: “J D is someone who is charming. He is the outsider. He's the anomaly. He’s the new kid and she finds herself totally in love with him and going down a very, very dark path that he is creating. He is not a good person but I suppose there are some things in his favour. He is a smart person and he is charming but he is not good for her.”

A big part of the show, of course, are the songs, with music, lyrics and book by Laurence O'Keefe and Kevin Murphy, based on the 1989 film of the same name written by Daniel Waters.

“They are so good at writing songs that are brilliant in telling the story. The music is just fantastic and I think that's big part of why it's so popular. If you just look at the streamings on Spotify, you just see that there are millions and millions of them.

“This is the second tour. It was out in 2021 just after the pandemic and it's great that it is going out on tour again because it's got such a big fan base in London but it's great to take it out to people that have not necessarily been able to come and see it in London where it is just so expensive to see theatre.

"And it’s lovely to be able to take it to people that haven't seen it before as well as to all the people who know that they love it and just have been looking forward to seeing it so much.”

Tickets from the venues.