Eating disorders, sexual harrassment, attempted sexual assault, death, suicide, overdoses, bullying, bigotry of most kinds, and like overall warning for violence in general
Ah Beautiful, the 8 minute song that outlasted every other song in that one YouTube video where they played every Heathers+other musicals song at once. This song is an amazing first song, I love it so so much! It introduces (most) of the important characters in a sensible way that also shows their personalities, shows Veronica's pre-every-single-thing-that-happened-in-the-musical state of mind, and the state of Westerburg as a whole.
Even if the school body's bullying is slightly unrealistic and exaggerated, you can still probably look at the song and go "Oh yeah, that's my school alright." I know I sure did no matter what school I went to... If you're wondering why, it's because there is almost always three groups of student body in the school with a hierarchy.
It goes: Populars > Normals > Weird kids
Note: In Heathers, the normals and weird kids (or nobodys for short) are basically the same
And like the song shows, often the weird kids are literally just queer people or disabled people. (*Cough cough* Quiet kids almost always just being kids with Autism *Cough cough*)
Okay okay back on topic before I go on a rant about the repackaged bigotry going on nowadays, basically at first we go through the eyes of Veronica whose wistfully reminiscing about the better days. Even if you're someone like me whose gone through three schools before they even started senior high, you'll understand what Veronica feels like. Everyone longs to go back to the good old days and leave this cutthroat society.
It also shows her good-nature and opitimism. She believes EVERYONE can change (which kind of dooms her but also saves her?) which is something not many people would agree on. But the song also makes it clear she's not just a goody-two-shoes innocent Mary Jane. They show her quippy side at times (via her kind-of-internal monologue) and just to make sure you understand, there's the lines about setting the school ablaze.
But at this point in time, she's still kind of a doormat. And for good reason too! The second she stops being a doormat in this song to defend Martha, she literally gets publicly laughed at in front of the entire school. Which leads us into the next part...
Everyone at the school being massively insecure!!!
Kurt, the nobodys, Martha, Veronica... They all have insecurities.
These show off their personalities and stories even more! I especially love Kurt and Ram's because, honestly this is the only song where you can actually see the difference between these two guys. Like if not for Dead Gay Son and Our Love is God, these two could have absolutely been one character.
Kurt's apparently the smartest guy on the football team. Veronica never explains why or how she knows this and by what metric does she mean by 'smartest', but clearly he's somewhat emotionally intelligent (or at least more than Ram is). He's self aware that what he's doing is creepy. He knows damn well he shouldn't be doing this, he's smart enough! But, he continues to do so.
Side tangent but: You know it's heavily implied that everyone in the main cast know they're supposed to be playing a role. As in, Heather C knew 'myriad' but because she's supposed to be the "dumb, pretty, bad bitch of the school" girl, she intentionally got it wrong in a spelling bee. It seems Kurt is doing so as well considering he knows what he's doing is wrong but continues to play into the "horny, beefcake, stupid jock" role.
Ram's is about him and his violent impulses. Unlike Kurt, he's less in tune with his emotions so he's just confused on why he did it. Obviously the answer to this is hormones and overall just the result of emotional neglect. But how would he know that? It's not like Westerburg would teach about either of those things well. Especially considering Heather Duke's bullimia and how dismissive Mrs. Fleming is of it. And also there it is, neglect! See how I told you all the songs have this part? Yeah
Martha's is kind of in the background of all this but it's sooo good too. She used to date Ram in Kindergarten and when he broke up with her, she still kept the (naive, innocent) hope that he'd somehow come back to her if she was just nice enough. Of course this'll never happen, she's not just a school nobody, she's the school's collective bullying ground. The only person left on her side is Veronica and if you watched the whole musical, you'll know how that turns out.
After this, all the kids at the school beg to be saved and hugged and fixed! Hmm... wonder who can do that... Oh, the adults who literally never do anything in this musical except make everything worse!
Okok, enough of that single part in Beautiful, let's get to the third part of this song!
They sing about wanting a sign from God and immediately after this, the Heathers are introduced.
This part is a return to the first part's format but more... majestic. Note how they're introduced after the school body sings about wanting a sign from God? This isn't the only time something like this happens. This happens in Me Inside of Me as well! The normals and the nobodys worship the populars like gods in this musical, which the adults absolutely contribute to on accident.
Anyway, Veronica talks about how they're never bothered or harrassed. Which honestly is kind of surprising, they're women and not only that Kurt and Ram both exist in the same school. Turns out they actually are harrassed, just not in public to the nobodys.
We're introduced to the Heathers in order from lowest in the hierarchy to the highest. Because of course there's a hierarchy here too!
First, we have "nicest" Heather, McNamara. Head cheerleader, obviously rich because duh. And notably... The most disliked one by the student body??????
I forgot to mention this but the student body has been chanting "I ___ Heather, Heather, and Heather" the entire time. When they're about to be introduced it's love, but then when McNamra gets introduced it's hate. This + Shine a Light (Reprise) gives the feeling of the Heathers (and specifically McNamara) being disliked, loved, and worshipped all the same. Also note the nicest in nicest Heather. Not nice! I hate it when people act like she's innocent, she literally let Veronica get harrassed by Kurt and Ram in Blue and she participated in Candy Store.
Second, we have "second-in-charge" Heather, Duke. Runs the yearbook and at this point of time is really plain.
Notice Veronica's comment here after noting down the fact Duke has no known personality, "but her mom did pay for implants!". This comment + Duke's bullimia paints an ugly image of Duke's self esteem and self image. Her mum paid for implants. This leads me to believe her mum did a bit more than that too. Though I wouldn't be surprised if Chandler and the stress of being a Heather added to her body issues as well. Also notice how she's the most body conscious Heather and the chant for this one is "I want Heather, Heather and Heather." It's shown as well in Me Inside of Me as a gag, but it seems no matter what, the Heathers can't escape being objectified and being seen as commodities almost.
Third and lastly, we have the Heather in charge... Chandler. The mythic bitch, the almighty.
Take a look at what Veronica says here. "Mythic", "Almighty". Again this is proof that the Heathers are literally worshipped by the school and seen as gods. They're seen as mythical creatures to gawk at and pray to all the same. Chandler's just a teenage girl with what is probably a god complex at this point but she's treated as an inhuman being. It's not shown well in the musical (if it's even shown at all) but her mental health is probably not doing so hot. The chant for her is "need" now. Which honestly fits her extremely well. The school's a mess without her. It gets so bad that Kurt and Ram literally attempt to assault McNamara (see Blue).
After this, the school body starts singing about what they want from the Heathers. I won't go too deep into this because it's 11 PM and my neck's stiff as I write this, but basically it's just more proof that the Heathers are just objects to most of the student body. Well almost all of them, Martha's the only one with a decent, genuine request that benefits everyone. Why? Because Martha's one of the few good people in this entire mess of a musical.
Now for the second-to-last part of this song, it's mostly a dialogue bit.
Duke's puking in the toilet, Chandler tells her to grow up (How kind of her /s), and McNamara's being the nicest Heather as usual. Mrs. Fleming busts in and makes an insensitive comment about Duke's obvious eating disorder to tell them they're late for class.
Veronica forges a pass from the yearbook committee (which I believe is a subtle nod to Duke being the one who runs the committee) so they're all free. This seemingly mostly-benign ability of hers to forge things seems harmless right now, but you'll see later on that this can be much much more deadly! Anyway, this is basically her ticket to Heather Kingdom.
She asks to sit at their lunch table, no talking needed and Chandler basically goes "No, you've got potential" and gives Veronica a makeover. She even asks for permission to give her a makeover, which in my opinion is a show that Veronica's in Chandler's favour. I'm not a Chansaw shipper myself, I don't really care for the ship. But I believe that Chandler favoured Veronica over the others. Like, if either McNamara or Duke puked on Chandler, I don't think Duke would even have a weekend to save herself she'd be dead on the spot.
Tangent aside, this leads us into the (omg finally) last part of Beautiful. Veronica exits out of the bathroom, no longer a greasy little nobody as Chandler put it. She walks alongside the Heathers and the school body goes wild.
But that's not the thing I wanna point out here. The thing is... even the adults go wild too?
"And a babe!" is spoken by the adults, not the school body. This shows that even the adults probably objectify the Heathers, which give really creepy connotations to this entire musical but let's not go into that right now.
With that awkward bit at the end said, my analysis of Beautiful is complete. To summarise, this is just an amazing first song. It introduces most of the main cast, their personalities, and hints towards to future songs so well that when you relisten you go "Oh shit it was foreshadowed!".
If you've never heard of this song, I'd like to know what rock you've been living under for the past decade.
I'll lay down the entire song in a single sentence right now: Chandler tells Veronica to either conform or gtfo of here, because then she's clearly not meant to be a Heather.
Now onto the actual analysis, the song starts off really strong. I don't mean strong as in good (though Candy Store is that too), I mean strong as in it's powerful. Chandler's sole voice and the beats in the background combine to truly make you feel small and weak.
She oh-so kindly (/s) calls Veronica a bitch. But she is actually being semi-nice by letting Veronica off the hook just this once.
Chandler also asserts her status as head Heather here. The other Heathers at the start of the song just say "I like" while Chandler flexes on Veronica. She basically tells Veronica that as much as she can make her the next Heather, she can make her the next Martha too. And not only in Westerburg too! She flexes her status in society too rather than just her status in Westerburg
She also flexes her doing "grown up" activities such as drinking and sleeping around. Of course these activities don't actually make you mature, but it's not like these kids have anyone to tell them that. Not to mention how it's likely Chandler grew up with that kind of thing happening around her.
Chandler then proceeds to infantilise Veronica for not wanting to participate in bullying Martha.