Bye Bye Birdie, Hair, Grease, Carrie, 13, Dear Eva Hansen, Mean Girls. What do all these Broadway musicals have in common? They placed the spotlight on teen angst.
OMG! Think back to high school, specifically the cafeteria, at lunch time. Depending on the institution you attended there was probably the table of math geeks. Another of drama kids. The testosterone-laden jocks held out over there and the cheerleaders were right next to them. Then there was the nasty yet revered queen bee and her small swarm of drones. The mean girl and her attack team. They are perfectly coiffed, expensively dressed, spoiled and lacking in empathy. No one was willing to cross them.
With that in mind, depending on your place in the pecking order, you may or may not be ready to immerse yourself into Mean Girls, the stage show with music by Jeff Richmond, lyrics by Nell Benjamin, and a book by the queen of television comedy Tina Fey.
The musical is based on Fey’s popular 2004 film which was inspired by Rosalind Wieseman’s book, Queen Bees and Wannabes.
Fans of the movie should be relieved that nothing important has been purged from the story. Those who went through the horrors of slam/shame books, hazing, verbal abuse and general “hell” at the hands of the mean girls at their high schools will be happy to know that, in the musical, the queen and her swarm get their stingers removed. (Yeah, revenge for the high school “nerds.”)
In the musical, Cady, fresh from a life in Kenya (Africa), is a new girl in town. She is taken on a tour of her now educational institution, an Illinois high school, and exposed to the ways of its pecking order by “good guys” Janis and Damian.
The J and D duo have taken the attitude of not being affected by self-selected school royalty and nasty-girl Queen Bee Regina George and “the Plastics” (Gretchen and Karen), her lackey hangers-on. They caution Cady to be careful in deciding where she belongs in the school’s social fabric.
And, wonder of wonders, for an unexplained reason, Cady is invited to sit with the Plastics on a one-week trial. (Hmm…what do the terrible trio have in mind?)
Everything goes well for Cady until she meets “dreamy” Aaron in honors math class. She falls for him. But, horror of horrors, Aaron has recently broken up with Queen Regina. (You know this is going to make life for Cady a horror show.) In order to “keep” Aaron’s interest, Cady plays dumb, turning to him for unneeded “extra” help.
A bus accident, a Burn Book which slams students by commenting on their weight (“hips like a Hippo”), parents’ infidelities (“the only reason he made the team is that his mother slept with the coach”) and eating habits (“Vegan freak”), Cady taking over Regina’s place as Queen of the Plastics, Cady being elected Spring Fling Queen and her surprising act of sharing the crown all lead to a happy-ever-after, feel-good ending. (Hey, this is a Tina Fey-written high school Broadway musical. What did you expect?)
Though it received 15 Tony nominations, Mean Girls, as evidenced by the fact that it won no statues, it is not a great musical. This is definitely not Dear Evan Hansen quality.
It can, however, be enjoyable and, it has caught on and has developed its cult following. (Be ready for every high school and community theater producing the script as soon as it is released for general consumption.)
The serviceable score, the Tina Fey sharp-tongued satire, and one-liners gave a general positive vibe to the goings-on.
This tour is composed of mainly recent college grads who have little to no Broadway or even off-Broadway experience. Unfortunately, the lack of experience shows. Many characters are not well-developed, the singing is adequate, the dancing is often stilted and has been “dumbed down” from the Big Apple production and even the touring show, which appeared locally several years ago. The laughs are there, but limited. The showstoppers, such as “Where Do You Belong,” don’t explode with the needed energy. It isn’t until “Do This Thing” and “I See Stars,” the last two songs of the show, that the dynamics are turned on.
As the young lady sitting next to me, who professed to be “Mean Girl fanatic, commented, “I am disappointed. I know every line of the movie. I know all the songs. This is less than I expected.” I must agree with her.
Capsule judgment: Mean Girls is filled with music, characters and Tina Fey satire that will appeal to younger audiences. The production is not the quality expected of a professional tour. Too bad, it really has the potential to be a really fun show!
[Written by Roy Berko]