I have to say... i loved your cross troupe musical headcanons. So what about Mankai performing Heathers??
anon thank you for the suggestion! i had so much fun deciding this (also, thanks @sadsunflower for introducing me to Heathers: The Musical and for listening to my rambles as i came up with this ily)
Heathers: The Musical
- a Mankai Company production (Spring and Summer troupes mixed play)
now, before we begin i wanna explain that i chose those troupes because 1) Heathers is a comedy, a dark comedy but still a comedy, it’d feel wrong if natsugumi wasn’t here and 2) these are the two most “youthful” troupes, which gives a lot of meaning to them performing Seventeen and the whole musical in general
also, note: i’m only doing the singing roles for this, but you can assume that the characters who share actors in the musical would also share actors here
Veronica Sawyer: Kazunari Miyoshi
from the start, from Beautiful, Veronica gives a lot of Kazu vibes, and i think he’d relate to her a lot Kazu is that one kid who, like her, accommodated to what other people would like him to be to fit in but well, he starts changing, growing out of this and becoming a more genuine question once he joins Mankai and the lines “if we changed back then, we could change again” would make a beautiful nod to his growth adding to that, Kazu has grown a lot, but he still has a lot of things he isn’t completely at peace with, so i think that him, being him, would benefit a ton from taking the role of Veronica, of making a sort of parody of what he did he would add a lot of winks and humour to Veronica joining the Heathers, and would really showcase her struggles at being with them
Jason Dean: Sakuya Sakuma
now, now, hear me out i’m biased because of some Spanish theatre history things, but i believe that doing a villain role shows the skill of an actor in a way no other role can, so it'd be nice to show Saku's growth as an actor by making him play a character that's (almost) nothing like him and i say almost because, if you listen to Freeze Your Brain while thinking about Saku... it sorta fits? “no point planting roots ‘cause you’re gone in a hurry” while JD moved a ton, Saku was constantly jumping from family to family, he deals with a lot of pain from never having a place for him, and JD lost his mum while Saku lost both parents and was left to deal with other asshole relatives “happiness comes when everything numbs” now this is a cool difference that Saku could explore through some character studies, he tries to always be happy and cheery, he tries to not let his struggles show but... what if he did? what if he put the pain he himself has felt in portraying JD? he’d make one of the best villains in Mankai’s history he has charm, he makes people like him, he could use that AND his pain to make a JD that entangles the viewer in his fucked up schemes and games he’d make one of the scariest villains simply because of how charming and natural it comes to him and i think that’d be amazing
Heather Chandler: Yuki Rurikawa
Yuki has the snark and the attitude, i’m sure he’d nail this role naturally plus seeing him bitch around the stage after Heather C dies would feel so natural, not only he’d fit the role but his natural sassy personality would make for the best ad libs ever but looking deeper into the role, Yuki is in an opposite spectrum compared to Heather C, he is the kid who was bullied by everyone, and yet he never backed down from being himself; he is the one who knows the kind of bullshit that the Heathers would do to others, to people like him, for being him so i think, specially during the The Me Inside of Me, he could make fun of the people who made his life hell with ad libs, make it a perfect parody and get some sweet sweet catharsis
Heather Duke: Tenma Sumeragi
ngl at first i chose this because i think it’d be funny to see Yuki bossing him around, maybe he’d even get to use his oresama personality for the shits and giggles but well, Tenma is a big tv star and... well he probably did a lot of hs dramas and stuff (Yuzo did highlight that his pauses were from dramas at the start), he’d be the most familiarised with the thing that Heathers is satirising, and him getting a secondary role would probably be a nice change of pace for him a secondary role in which he can make fun and invert tropes of the things he’s done before, at that so yeah, as someone genre savvy, he would probably make the show shine from the backseat with Heather D’s role, he would add depth to her character, probably, and would make sure that the secondary characters don’t fall behind the leads
Heather McNamara: Muku Sakisaka
yes, Muku this is mostly because i can see him doing wonders interpreting Lifeboat, he can probably understand what it feels like, he could put himself, all of himself, both his anxieties and his growth into that song and into the role plus, in the parts where she gets to scream? well, i think the soft spoken Muku would make the perfect impact for those moments, and he would get some release he never gets to have, so that’d probably be beneficial to him also, imagining baby Muku saying the symmetric face line would make it so disturbing and funny
Martha Dunnstock: Masumi Usui
now, i have to admit, i am not caught up with the latest event story in the jp server, so i’m not completely sure of the route his character growth has gone through still, i think playing Martha, the laughably infatuated girl, the one that’s sorta creepy for saving a scab, the girl with an admittedly childish crush and who has nothing to base this from now... but a really sweet child overall... well i think Masumi could do great in this role once again, i don’t know how his development has gone, but i think that he could start realising that... maybe... just maybe... his crush on Izumi is similar, it’s childish, born from not having gotten much appreciation growing up and then having a person be nice to you... that maybe “Now we recognize the way things are, Certain boys are meant for kindergarten“ that maybe he can outgrow that crush and have some (well-needed) character development and yeah, Martha is a lil misguided and unhealthy on her feelings, like him but maybe him laughing about that is something he needs
Ram Sweeney: Itaru Chigasaki Kurt Kelly: Kumon Hyodo
note: in my interpretation, these characters aren’t meant to be shipped together
Itaru is probably the farthest from a jock one can ever get not only he’s a huge nerd, he was also the bullied kid at school bc of the bs Tonooka pulled, he was the kid who faked being sick to get out of sports class he’s probably the one who’d enjoy the most to satirise a jock like Ram and who better to join him in joking around than Kumon his fellow chuuni? Kumon, the former member of the baseball team, who probably saw a lot of how these jocks could be? idk, i think it’d be nice to have them messing around and having fun being stupid with these roles
Bill Sweeney: Citron Paul Kelly: Tsuzuru Minagi
Citrun, the manzai duo sure, these two only get one song in the entire musical, but man, if anyone can make this scene the highlight of the play, if anyone can make this single scene on pair with Saku’s and Tenma’s, it’s these two just imagine the My Dead Gay Son scene as a manzai show, complete with ad libs through the song and dancing (courtesy of Citron) they’d nail it soooo hard
Pauline Fleming: Chikage Utsuki
Chikage Utsuki, the self proclaimed charlatan, the man who cannot be honest when it comes to feelings to save his life singing Shine a Light, singing about honesty and talking about feelings i think that itself would add yet another layer of irony to the song that’s about it but y’know, it’d be really fun