When blockbuster movies come to the Broadway stage — well, to say that results vary would be the understatement of the year. When cult favorites get the musical treatment, the risks are even more vertiginous, so the stakes for Tina Fey’s early-aughts comedy classic Mean Girls were especially high. The good news: musical theater nerds and newbies will likely agree that Fey and the creative team have done right by her source material.
1. Tina Fey: Tony Nominee?
Fans of all things fetch will be delighted by Fey’s book, which preserves the blend of acid humor and poignancy in her script from the original 2004 movie. Yet the best-known Fey punchlines never feel sandwiched awkwardly into the show (as can often be the case in movie-to-musical adaptations), or placed for maximum craven audience-squealing effect. So yes, you’ll hear “I’m not a regular mom, I’m a cool mom,” all about Regina’s hair being “full of secrets” and, of course, about the “rules of feminism” regarding ex-boyfriend etiquette — but never at the expense of the book completing its larger duty: drawing entertaining and detailed portraits of Fey’s characters, from endearingly dumb Karen to “almost too gay to function” Damian. Fey’s book is the standout creative element of the production, which could serve her well on Tony night.
2. The Story Has Aged Well
Ushering a film from over a decade ago onto a Broadway stage could have included all sorts of unfortunate attempts to prove its continued relevance. In an ironic stroke of luck, the social strata of high school have become only more cruel since 2004, thanks to the world of social media — basically one giant, ever-expanding burn book the likes of which Regina and Co. could have never dreamt. The show’s integration of social media feels seamless and spot on, from the proliferating hashtags and Instagram likes on the set’s digital backdrop to characters’ perma focus on their smartphones.
3. The Plastics Still Rule…
Rachel McAdams (Regina), Lacey Chabert (Gretchen) and Amanda Seyfried (Karen) set a high bar for any actresses hoping to fill their wobbly stilettos, but Broadway’s own trio of mean girls are more than up to the task. Taylor Louderman — a veteran of another excellent movie-to-musical adaptation, Bring It On — layers on the ice and side-eye as Regina; Kate Rockwell often steals the show as daffy Karen; and Ashley Park emerges as one of the show’s standouts as insecure, essentially sweet Gretchen (her “What’s Wrong With Me?” registers as one of the show’s more memorable, genuinely affecting songs).
4. …And So Do Janis and Damian
Mean Girls belonged as much to arty Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese) as it did to the Plastics, and the same is true onstage. Barrett Wilbert Weed brings the same deadpan charm (and serious belt) to Janis as she did off-Broadway in 2014’s Heathers, while Grey Henson’s Damian handles Nell Benjamin’s tongue-twister lyrics with aplomb in the tap-dancing extravaganza “Stop.”
5. It’s Still a Big ol’ Musical
The source material will certainly bring in crowds that perhaps wouldn’t ordinarily flock to Broadway, but make no mistake: Mean Girls is very much a traditional, go-for-broke, razzle-dazzle musical in the truest sense. People break into song in the most unlikely circumstances (e.g. in the middle of calculus class). Silliness abounds (an Act 1 highlight: an entire number about skanky Halloween costumes). There is tap-dancing (see above). Characters regularly sing in spotlights about their deepest emotional insecurities and needs. In short: Mean Girls isn’t reinventing the wheel, but it’s a love letter to musicals nonetheless, and an admirably executed one.