Cruel Intentions: The ’90s Musical coming to Adelaide as Australian cast announced

Cruel Intentions – the film made famous by Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon – is coming to Adelaide as a stage musical. See who will step into their roles.

Hit songs by everyone from Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera to Placebo and The Verve will provide the score when Cruel Intentions: The ’90s Musical comes to Adelaide in September.

Kirby Burgess, who starred in Dirty Dancing, and Drew Weston from TV comedy The Housemate will step into the roles of Kathryn and Sebastian, made famous by Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe in the 1999 film version.

Cruel Intentions: The ’90s Musical stars Drew Weston as Sebastian, Kirby Burgess as Kathryn and Kelsey Halge as Annette. Picture: Nicole Cleary

“Cruel Intentions is the perfect send-up of the ’90s, and shows us just how far we’ve come since,” Burgess said. “Kathryn is basically the villain, and while she does some very bad things, she’s demonised for being sexually liberated. I love that she takes a stand about this.”

Victorian actor Kelsey Halge landed her breakout role as the innocent virgin Annette, played by Reese Witherspoon in the movie.

“It’s ironic that in my first professional role, I am playing the daughter of the new principal of the school, when both my mum and dad are principals of high schools,” Halge said.

Cruel Intentions is a modern, teenage retelling of the 1782 French novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses, which has been adapted many times for the stage and screen, including the hit 1988 film Dangerous Liaisons.

Cruel Intentions: The ’90s Musical lead actors Drew Weston as Sebastian and Kirby Burgess as Kathryn. Picture: Nicole Cleary

The 1999 version spawned two spin-offs and a streaming series reboot of the story is now in development.

Cruel Intentions: The ’90s Musical is at Her Majesty’s Theatre, September 8 to 18.

cruelintentions.com.au