how the west end heathers destroyed ram sweeney's character

i'm going to preface this by saying that i saw heathers in the west end twice in 2018 and absolutely loved it both times. even though i enjoyed the show live, i prefer to listen to the og cast recording, though i'll listen to the new songs too and jamie muscato's meant to be yours. also i am going off the musical portrayal of the characters and the events that take place, not the original movie! :D

i was listening to the album recently as i was cleaning my flat, and i started to piece things together. with every new piece of information i was 'uncovering', i was getting more and more frustrated, and i was left with the conclusion: 

heathers west end character-assassinated ram sweeney. 

i don't mean assassinated as in they turned him into a villain, because he was always a villain. but they took away everything that reminded us that he was still a child. and one under the same societal pressures as the rest of his classmates. 

ram's first introduction is in the opening song, beautiful, just before he slams veronica's tray. a nerd bumps into him and he snaps, "watch it!" before rounding to veronica. this shows that he is unnecessarily aggressive before he has even been formally introduced. his first words to veronica are, "what did you say to me, skank?" - which another way of pointing out his role as the aggressor in the show, the one who picks fights just because he can. he is the kind of bully who gets off on threatening people - opposed to kurt who enjoys flustering them or creeping them out. 

this initial portrayal is changed in the west end version: instead of harassing an innocent student, he instead turns to a group of friends and says, "watch this." this simple change of one word, of giving ram a group of people who want to be around him, destroys his sole defining characteristic of being reactionary and mean. the only person who actually likes ram is kurt! they keep his response to veronica's quip, but the delivery is different - it's now more like kurt's "you have a zit right there", no longer filled with malice and hostility.

the next part where ram is included is during the hook of the song - why do they hate me? why don't i fight back? why do i act like such a creep? why won't he date me? why did i hit him? why do i cry myself to sleep? 

the way it's presented is very specific. martha asks the question, "why won't he date me?" while looking towards ram, and he 'responds' with, "why did i hit him?" this part is to show that ram himself doesn't understand why he fights with the other students, but he feels like it's something that he's supposed to do. he's conflicted - his short temper and his place on the social ladder mean that he has to keep fighting the other students even though he doesn't want to. it's to show that every single character feels pressured by the high school societal norms and expectations, and it parallels after veronica's quick change with an almost identical tune - out of my way, geek! i don't want trouble! "you're gonna die at three pm!" - to show that the students are trapped in a cycle of doing what they have to do to 'survive' school, while simultaneously worrying and hating who they are. this is also seen in big fun - "why do you gotta act so weird all the time? people wouldn't hate you so much if you acted normal." ram is essentially saying to martha that he would associate with her if she acted the way she is expected to, or more subtly that he cannot associate with her because her weirdness will jeopardise his position. 

they change the hook in the west end version - kurt gets to keep his line "why do i act like such a creep?", but martha's line is given to 'new wave girl' and ram's line is not only given to 'hipster nerd', but is changed to "why did i wear this?" 

ram being introduced as the aggressive, violent bully is such a specific thing because it's what makes veronica pay attention to jd in the first place! because this 'no-name kid' is kicking ram sweeney's ass - it's unheard of! there's a reason all of the students are chanting "holy shit!" at the end of fight for me - because ram sweeney has finally gotten what he deserves. (you'll notice that the "holy shit!"s from the beginning of the song are different to those at the end - the realisation of a fight taking place compared to the tyrannical bully getting the shit beat out of him.)

let's also not forget that the entire reason any of the show happens is because of martha's crush on ram - if she hadn't gone to the party veronica wouldn't have gotten kicked out of the heathers, she wouldn't have gone to jd, she wouldn't have killed heather c, and so on and so on. this is our first indication of martha's crush without it being spoon fed to us through the dialogue. so they not only took away ram's humanisation, they took part of martha's character and gave it to someone else. 

then there's the changing of blue to you're welcome. in 2018 when it was announced, i thought yeah that makes sense, they're stopping it from being seen like a joke. however - in the musical - blue is them just begging her. it's teenage boys going, sleep with me? please? PLEASE? in the (original) musical there is no attempt to assault her or implication of them assaulting her, there's just the lie that they come up with in blue (reprise). 

by changing this song from two boys begging for sex to two boys actively attempting to harm veronica, it takes away the severity of jd's actions in our love is god and makes him more justifiable, which is something he is never supposed to be. 

idk how to end this, i'm not an essay writer. that's all :) 

pictures of my veronica cosplay from 2018: