Long before they were embodying the infamous Westerburg High trifecta, McKenzie Kurtz, Casey Likes, and Lorna Courtney were navigating their own adolescent battlegrounds. Now starring Off-Broadway in a revamped, fan-fueled revival of Heathers the Musical at New World Stages, each actor brings aspects of their teenage selves to their razor-sharp roles.

Kurtz, who portrays the all-powerful Heather Chandler onstage, was her own kind of high school royalty: accomplished and always dressed to impress. “I was a very confident high schooler,” Kurtz laughs, tossing her hair over her shoulder in a motion strikingly reminiscent of Glinda, who she played in Wicked on Broadway during the show's 20th anniversary celebration. “I loved high school. When I found my group in the theatre program, it gave me so much confidence."

She was certainly the queen bee of her high school theatre troupe, with her effortless charm and vocal flexibility. "Freshman year, I played Janet Van de Graaff in The Drowsy Chaperone. Sophomore year, I played the Lady of the Lake in Spamalot, which was the first time I went to the Jimmy Awards. Then junior year, I played Elle Woods in Legally Blonde. And then senior year, I played Mary Poppins, and was back at the Jimmys.” Not too shabby!

Unlike Chandler, Kurtz’s popularity wasn’t born out of striking fear into the heart of her enemies; it was created out of genuine affection between her and her peers (some people really can have it all). “I was the runner-up homecoming queen. I did pageants to get scholarship money for college. I went to prom three times, and was always serving a look. I got good grades. You really couldn't tell me nothing! And yeah, maybe at times I was giving a little Sharpay Evans [from High School Musical], but hey, only the good parts!”

Likes, one of Broadway’s newest golden boys for his back-to-back earnest portrayals of William Miller in Almost Famous and Marty McFly in Back to the Future, is relishing the opportunity to engage with bad boy JD’s righteous fury and emotional volatility. “I’ve always had this part of me that wants to change the system,” Likes shares, his fingers knocking rhythmically against the table as he cocks his head to the side. “My teachers liked me, but I questioned everything. I couldn’t accept inequality or unfairness. I still can’t.”

Likes' teenage years were defined by being everywhere at once: He was simultaneously the class performer, the life of the party, and the kid who challenged the rules. Plus, his mom worked at the school as a drama teacher. “It took me a while to realize that it’s okay to stand alone sometimes. You can’t be everything for everyone. JD believes in revolution, but he doesn’t know where to stop. That line fascinates me, and it has become my connective tissue to JD. There’s this whole part of myself, deeply inside, that understands his darker energy.” Likes looks up, smirking. “It’s incredible to play a role where I don’t have to smile all the time.”

Courtney channels protagonist Veronica’s complicated journey from outsider to leader with startling resonance—as she fights back against the push and pull of the people around her. It's the typical teenage archetype that anyone watching can latch onto, especially in Courtney's multifaceted portrayal. “Veronica’s influenced by everyone around her,” she explains. “JD’s the devil on her shoulder, and Chandler, shockingly, becomes the angel. She has to navigate that chaos while figuring out who she really is.” 

That tension comes alive every night onstage, especially when ghost-Chandler starts haunting Veronica. “We’re in this secret conversation that no one else gets to be part of,” Courtney says, describing the charge of playing out that tug-of-war. “Veronica’s trying to figure out who she is in the middle of all that noise, and that feels really real to me.”

While she is now known for her roaring confidence as Broadway’s original Juliet in & Juliet, Courtney’s high school years were dominated by uncertainty. A student at New York’s Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, Courtney initially struggled to find her place. “I didn’t even audition for the drama program, because I was too shy. I only did voice, because I was so nervous… At one point, it was so much, I wanted to give up, and I told my mom I wanted to be homeschooled, because I was rehearsing until 10, 11 at night, and then waking up to finish my chemistry homework at 4:30 in the morning. But I eventually found my way into the school musicals my junior and senior year, and I played Nina in In The Heights, and Belle in Beauty and the Beast. They helped me come out of my shell.”

Like Veronica, Courtney is extraordinarily detail oriented, studious, and fiercely determined. Courtney and Kurtz went to college together at the University of Michigan, albeit not technically in the same class. While Kurtz was one year ahead of Courtney at the start, in the end, Courtney’s fierce ambition led to her graduating a year early. Courtney shrugs off the achievement with the humility characteristic of many perfectionists: “I just wanted to prove to myself that I could.”

Kurtz bursts into warm laughter: “Oh my god, she’s such an overachiever.” Kurtz vividly remembers one particular moment with Courtney from the end of their college days, that perfectly exemplifies Courtney’s tendency to take off like a rocket when she puts her mind to it. “We were doing our senior showcase in Ann Arbor, and the finale of the performance started—but Lorna was just gone. We were all looking around like, ‘Where’s Lorna?’ And then we found out she had taken an Uber to the airport. She’d gotten the call mid-show that she’d booked Dear Evan Hansen. Broadway called, she had to go!”

Though their backgrounds are wildly different—Courtney’s hour-and-a-half daily commute to LaGuardia, Kurtz’s Georgia high school stages, Likes’ Arizona teen idol era—they each channel something achingly real through their characters.

“We know how much this show means to people,” says Courtney. “It’s our baby now. We’re protecting it.”

“I feel so lucky,” says Kurtz. “I’ve played Anna [in Frozen], Glinda [in Wicked], and now Heather Chandler. These were dream roles for me. I was a fan first.”

“And I’ve wanted to play JD for a long time,” adds Likes. “It’s so different from anything I’ve done. He forces you to go deep.”

Heathers may be outrageous, but it taps into real teenage truths; none of the trio are surprised the show has become such a touchstone for teens across the world. “It’s our favorite too,” shares Kurtz, smiling. “And it’s so very.”