Kindergarten Boyfriend Lyrics – Heathers

Song Overview

“Kindergarten Boyfriend” sits at the heart of Heathers: The Musical (World Premiere Cast Recording) as Martha’s fragile, clear-eyed solo: a lullaby that starts in daylight and walks straight toward the bridge at night. Released digitally on June 10, 2014, the track became one of the show’s quiet centerpieces - tender melody, stark stakes, no theatrics needed.

Personal Review

This song reads like a diary entry set to piano, and the lyrics pull the focus inward twice over - first to that kindergarten mat, then to the edge of the bridge. The lyrics turn small memories into a map of a life: no rhymes flaunted, no showboating, just a slow, steady ache. One sentence summary - Martha tries to freeze a kinder world in place and decides the only way to keep the dream is to never wake up.

Key takeaways: it’s written to sound unguarded; the imagery is concrete and a bit odd (a scab in a locket); the orchestration holds back until the fantasy opens; and the character work deepens the surrounding scenes by showing the cost of all that hallway cruelty.

Song Meaning and Annotations

The song frames Martha’s history with Ram as a series of tiny artifacts, told in a voice that refuses to dress itself up. The plainness is the point: she speaks like someone who’s done apologizing for needing softness.

This song provides an interesting parallel to “The Me Inside of Me” ... Having Martha sing her own suicide note... is perhaps a reflection of Martha’s genuine character.

That contrast matters inside the show’s moral geometry: fake sainthood vs. real pain. Martha’s truth isn’t curated; it just spills out, and that honesty tilts the act toward tragedy.

The opening sets the fairy-tale lens: kindergarten, nap time, first crush. Simple, bright, then it blurs.

That’s an EXTREMELY long time to have a crush... And in this song, she finally comes back to her dark reality.

Childhood as a place you can visit but not live in - that’s the gravity the melody fights, soft and insistent.

Ram is remembered in the easiest language: kind kid, good at sports, liked by everyone. That’s the point - the memory is un-fancy because the feeling is old.

Ram was nice to Martha. She often thinks about this as for most of her life people have not been nice to her.

Kindness becomes rare currency; one coin from the past can buy a whole dream.

Then the locket. It’s weird, a little gross, and perfectly five years old. That’s why it lands.

A scab usually isn’t considered a very nice gift... but Martha loved it because it was given to her as a loving gesture.

A tiny relic stands in for everything she didn’t get later. It’s funny until it isn’t.

Waking up is the hinge - literal and metaphorical. The chant returns and the world sharpens.

When they were younger, Ram did not abide by society’s rules... But then he “woke up” to society’s standards...

The show loves this kind of turn: the moment a crowd decides what counts as acceptable love.

The winged horse dream isn’t just whimsy; it’s transport, a delivery system for escape.

A Pegasus represents the freedom and creative spirit Martha desperately wants to cherish... winged horses have been the carriers of spirits to the next world.

So the orchestration finally opens up - brass and strings like warm air under feathers - and the fantasy becomes architecture.

By the end, language concedes the loss: certain boys, certain girls, the way things are.

Based on her size, Martha was deemed unattractive... Now, she no longer believes that there are happy endings for a girl like her.

That line cuts because it’s resigned, not angry. The song doesn’t beg for empathy; it reports a weather pattern.

Message

“There was a boy I met in kindergarten.”

The message is simple: early tenderness can anchor a life, and losing it can unmoor someone completely. The piece argues for gentleness as infrastructure.

Emotional tone

“Now we recognize the way things are.”

Tone moves from wistful to fatalistic: lullaby, then decision. It never shouts; it just clarifies.

Historical context

“Certain girls are meant to be alone.”

Premiered Off-Broadway in 2014, the number slides into a decade of louder conversations about teen isolation and mental health. The show’s satire frames it; Martha’s ballad humanizes it.

Production

“So I’ll build a dream that I can live in.”

Writers Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe intentionally used unrhymed lines and held the band back until the bridge, letting the fantasy bloom late. That restraint keeps the focus on character, not vocal fireworks.

Instrumentation

“And we’ll soar above the trees.”

On the album the piano carries most of the weight, with the pit widening near the end - a small fanfare that lifts the image of flight without turning it into a showstopper.

Creation history

Recorded April 2014 and released by Yellow Sound Label, the world-premiere album credits producers Michael Croiter, Kevin Murphy, and Laurence O’Keefe. The track later appeared in the 2019 West End cast album led by Jenny O’Leary as Martha, and the scene is preserved in the 2022 filmed London capture.

Verse Highlights

Verse 1

That first image - nap time, shared mat - sets the child’s-eye lens. The melody steps gently, as if trying not to wake anyone.

Chorus

There isn’t a pop chorus so much as a refrain of memory: the “ooh-ooh-ooh” figure bridges time, like a soft handover between past and present.

Bridge

The wings arrive; harmony widens. The band finally looks up at the sky with her.

Tag

The final insistence - “never waking up” - lands without ornament. The quiet is the shock.

Key Facts

• Featured: Katie Ladner as Martha Dunnstock.
• Producers: Michael Croiter, Kevin Murphy, Laurence O’Keefe.
• Composer/Lyricists: Laurence O’Keefe, Kevin Murphy.
• Release date: June 10, 2014 - digital; June 17, 2014 - CD.
• Genre: musical theatre ballad; pop-inflected lullaby.
• Instruments: piano-led pit with rhythm section; small brass and strings rising in the bridge.
• Label: Yellow Sound Label.
• Mood: wistful, clear, fatalistic.
• Length: 3:48.
• Track number: 15.
• Language: English.
• Album: Heathers: The Musical (World Premiere Cast Recording).
• Music style: legato, lyric-forward storytelling; late-arriving orchestral lift.
• Poetic meter: mixed, conversational prosody with lullaby phrasing.
• Notable covers: Jenny O’Leary on the 2019 West End cast recording; “Kindergarten Boyfriend (Bluegrass Lullaby)” bonus track by Will Chase on the 2025 Deluxe Edition.
• Screen capture: the 2022 London pro-shot includes the scene.

Questions and Answers

What story does “Kindergarten Boyfriend” tell inside the show?

Martha remembers the only time she felt safe and loved, then decides she’d rather live inside that memory than face the present.

Who performs it on the original album?

Katie Ladner, as Martha Dunnstock on the world-premiere cast recording for Yellow Sound Label.

Where can I hear other official recordings?

The 2019 West End cast album features Jenny O’Leary’s version; the 2025 remastered Deluxe Edition of the premiere album also includes a bluegrass lullaby bonus cut.

Does the filmed stage version include the number?

Yes - the 2022 pro-shot of the London production retains the Act Two sequence with Martha’s solo.

Why are the lines mostly unrhymed?

The writers leaned into unrhymed, diary-like phrasing to signal that Martha has moved past performative polish and into raw honesty.

Awards and Chart Positions

The world-premiere cast album topped the iTunes theatre chart and reached No. 5 on the Billboard Cast Albums chart in 2014. The 2019 West End cast album debuted at No. 24 on the UK Official Albums Chart. In London, the production won Best New Musical at the 2019 WhatsOnStage Awards, with Carrie Hope Fletcher named Best Actress in a Musical. In 2022, the revived London staging was filmed and released on The Roku Channel, keeping this song’s moment intact for streaming audiences. In 2025, Yellow Sound Label issued a remastered Deluxe Edition to mark the album’s 10th anniversary.

How to Sing?

Range and placement: most Marthas sit around G3 up to E5 or F5 in a clean, unmannered mix. Keep vowels narrow in the middle and let the head resonance carry the top notes; aim for clarity over volume.

• Breath: treat phrases like long exhale paragraphs - sip air early, then ride the line. Avoid aspirate H’s on the repeated “ooh” motif.
• Tempo: andante with a gentle push at the bridge; don’t rush the images. Let silences speak.
• Color: start plain and conversational; allow bloom only when the wings arrive. Think piano-forward, not belt-forward.
• Acting beats: the locket detail is tender, not comic; the “never waking up” line should feel decided, not shouted.