Jenny Anderson
Tina Fey burst onto the scene when she joined venerable late night comedy series Saturday Night Live, eventually heading up the ‘Weekend Update’ segment and becoming the show’s head writer. She left the show in 2006 and found herself with another TV comedy hit, 30 Rock, in 2006 but she made her mark on the big screen in 2004 with her feature writing debut Mean Girls, basing the story on the book Queen Bees and Wannabes as well as her own personal experiences at Upper Darby High School. The film was an instant hit and has a devoted cult following, and it even spawned a made-for-TV movie sequel. The story was then adapted for the stage, written again by Fey with music and lyrics by Jeff Richmond and Nell Benjamin, which had its pre-Broadway debut at Washington DC’s National Theatre, where the current national tour has recently arrived. The Broadway show earned 12 Tony Award nominations and was adapted into a movie musical that was released in January 2024. Some things have changed from screen to stage, like Cady Heron’s backstory and some character names, but the basic plot remains the same.
Young Cady has been homeschooled her entire life — but in Kenya — and upon returning to the States, specifically Chicago, Cady finds herself more of an outsider than ever. Seeing her total awkwardness, Cady is ‘adopted’ by Janis Sarkasian and Damian Hubbard (Janis Ian and Damian Leigh in the film), who give her a quick tutorial of the various cliques in the school and who she should never associate herself with. And then the one and only Regina George appears, and while Janis and Damian try to draw Cady’s gaze away, Regina picks up on it and, intrigued, invites her to join her and her friends Gretchen Wieners and Karen Smith for lunch. Unusual for Regina and the girls, whose little clique is referred to as the Plastics, Cady is accepted as one of them with Regina making Cady her new project, laying out the rules of the group (‘On Wednesday we wear pink’) and taking her to the mall for a little shopping, buying Cady a pair of high heels (an act that is later revealed to be not as altruistic as it seems). Janis and Damian begin to see Cady’s part in the Plastics as a benefit to them because she can get all the dirt on those girls and bring it back to them, because Janis has an axe to grind with Regina.
There are some bumps in the road though, mainly one named Aaron, whom Cady finds herself attracted to because he is a math whiz like her, but panics when she learns he’s Regina’s ex. Not wanting her to find out, Cady confides in Gretchen, who promises not to tell … and promptly spills the beans setting Regina’s plan in motion to get Aaron back and show Cady who’s the Queen Bee. Not understanding what a broken heart can lead to, Regina — who Cady dubs an alpha predator, but quickly learns is actually an apex predator — is about to have the tables turned as Cady quickly learns and adapts, and with Janis’ and Damian’s help, puts a plan into action to turn Gretchen and Karen against Regina, and humiliate the body conscious Regina with high fat protein bars to make her gain weight. The plan works and Cady is on top of the world, turning herself into the new Regina and learning that her actions have some terrible consequences. The question is can Cady dig herself out of the mess she’s created? As the opening number states, this is ‘a cautionary tale’.
This second tour of Mean Girls is bright and colorful and full of terrific performances. Stepping into the role of Cady (usually played by Natalie Shaw) for the DC engagement is Carly Ameling, who perfectly makes Cady’s transition from awkward new girl at school to ‘New Regina’ totally believable, but never becoming as totally self-absorbed which keeps the audience invested in her hopeful return to being the Cady she was when she arrived at the school. She has a terrific voice and belts out Cady’s numbers that include ‘It Roars’, ‘Stupid with Love’ and ‘I See Stars’. Cady’s nemesis Regina is played with ferocity by Maya Petropoulos, the true mean girl who looks down on everyone else and only humors herself by controlling others, including Aaron, Gretchen and Karen. She has a powerful voice and her songs have a very cool 1960s vibe, with her big second act number ‘World Burn’ sounding like it could have been a James Bond movie theme song. Petropoulos even manages to make the audience sympathetic after she’s toppled from her throne, and a bit terrified after that big revenge number. Two really wonderful performances.
Cady’s friends Janis and Damian are played by Alexys Morera and Joshua Hubbard, respectively. Alexys gets to run the gamut with Janis, always playing the character with a bit of smoldering rage directed at Regina for her attempts to humiliate Janis, but also becoming even more angry when Cady becomes Regina and seems to forget the two people who initially took her under their wings. She’s fantastic with Petropoulos in the ‘Apex Predator’ number and really gets to wow with her ‘I’d Rather Be Me’ song. Hubbard gets the biggest laughs as the gay best friend, and has a showstopping tap dance number in Act 2.
Jenny Anderson
Regina’s friends Gretchen and Karen are played by Kristen Amanda Smith and Maryrose Brendel, respectively. Smith has some wonderful comic timing, and brings all of Gretchen’s insecurities to the surface after she thinks Regina has turned on her (‘What’s Wrong With Me?’). Brendel is a total hoot as Karen, who is not ashamed to admit she’s not the sharpest tool in the shed. She has one moment where she gets to take the stage alone that is one of the funniest bits in the show. Karen doesn’t get a solo number but she manages to shine in the groups on songs like ‘Meet the Plastics’, ‘Fearless’ and ‘Who’s House is This?’ Through their performances, and the writing, they allow us to see how much Regina controls them without them wanting to admit it, and when they are set free we get to see that Gretchen and Karen really aren’t the mean girls they’ve pretended to be just to stay in Regina’s good graces.
Regina’s ex Aaron, played by José Raúl, is charming from the moment Cady meets him in math class. He may get drawn back into Regina’s web a bit too easily, but Raúl always lets us know Aaron is still interested in Cady, and conveys his disappointment when she becomes another Regina so well that we don’t know if he’ll ever forgive her. He does have good chemistry with Ameling making us root for those two crazy kids to make it work. Shawn Mathews is very funny as Kevin G, and brings the house down with his rapping in ‘Whose House is This?’ and ‘Do This Thing’. Kristen Seggio is a chameleon as she takes on three roles: Mrs. Heron, Mrs. George and Ms. Norbury, really reminding the audience that Tina Fey played Norbury in both movies. Tym Brown is also very funny as Mr. Duvall, serving up a bit of Tim Meadows (also in both movies) with some great comic timing. And a tip of the hat to the ensemble that adds so much to the show. If you look closely there are times that the boys in the group also have to play girls to fill in the ranks, especially near the end when the infamous Burn Book blows everything up. Great job by everyone all around.
Casey Nicholaw directed and choreographed the original Broadway version of the show, while the tour is directed by Casey Hushion and choreographed by John MacInnis. Hushion keeps the cast and the show moving, and does some really visually interesting things with the set-pieces, putting the cast in charge of rolling things on and off the stage. MacInnis also does some fun choreography with the cast seated at lunch tables and classroom chairs, and really pulls out all the stop with the big group numbers, including Damian’s tap dance. And working with scenic designs by Scott Pask and lighting design by Kenneth Posner, they give us some visual spectacles with the ‘Apex Predator’ and ‘World Burn’ numbers. The costumes by Gregg Barnes properly convey who the characters are, but my one little nitpick is that when Regina begins to gain weight, the foam rubber stuck in the seat of her pants looks like two pieces of badly cut foam rubber. Come on! They make perfectly contoured butt pads now that are popular with drag queens, so find a little money in the budget to buy a pair or two to make the illusion a little more realistic. Another bit of technical critique that can be easily tweaked is the sound. The orchestra at our performance was frequently drowning out the singing, and even when just speaking the actors desperately needed a little boost to the volume.
Those minor quibbles aside, Mean Girls is a fun night of musical theatre and it manages to make you think as well, think about how you treat others, or how you see yourself. With a wonderful cast, funny dialogue, great songs, and a top notch production, no one on stage or behind-the-scenes will end up in Regina’s Burn Book.
Mean Girls runs about 2 hours, 30 minutes with one 15 minute intermission. Recommended for ages 10 and up.
Mean Girls runs through October 20 at Washington DC’s National Theatre. Other cities on the schedule include Norfolk, Cleveland, Wilmington, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco, Sacramento, Orlando, Savannah, Dallas, Montreal and more. Visit the official website for more information. Use our Ticketmaster link to purchase tickets.
Mean Girls at The National Theatre Begins October 15, 2024
Mean Girls On Broadway
Check our Ticketmaster link for ticket availability.
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