It’s my not-so-secret desire that life would be a musical. We’d break into song and dance at a moment’s notice whenever the spirit (or situation) moved us. Further, and I say this with the utmost respect, I think living a musical would be excellent for teens. Think about it – they have so much energy to burn, SO MANY feelings, and their lithe bodies can totally pull off all the moves. That’s why Mean Girls, the movie musical makes so much sense to me! 

Tina Fey, producer and author of the book and screenplay, continues to ride the Mean Girls train, first with the original movie starring Lindsay Lohan, then with the Broadway musical version, and now with the musical version as a movie. Dang, girl, you sure knew that cliques, insecurities, sex, and overall teen angst would never go out of style!

For those who have seen the original version of Mean Girls, the musical version is very familiar, just with a new generation of young people (there’s a cameo by a certain grown-up alumni of the film). The storyline we know, love, and cringe over, is there but adding the clever tunes and big dance numbers makes all of the emotions and scenarios more vibrant – not only do they talk about their feelings, they sing them and dance them to show just how much they are feeling all the feels.

In some musical adaptations, the tunes seem slotted in like, “Um, this seems like a good place for a song, let’s come up with one.” But with Mean Girls, there’s more intention to the musical scenes and they do serve as an extension of the situation, reaching out to say, “This is really how I’m feeling right now.” As a nice bonus, the songs are great – catchy, with good hooks. The soundtrack’s going to be a big hit, for sure.

There are a lot of strong performances in this version of Mean Girls (and a lot of really unique names). Angourie Rice plays the lead character, Cady Heron. She straddled wide-eyed naiveté with new-found manipulative-bitch-face. Jenna Fischer is her mother who, frankly, is a little too soft on Cady. Busy Phillips is my favorite, Regina’s hapless mother. Perfectly-cast, Phillips is the cloying, shallow mom living vicariously through her daughter, played by Renee Rapp, who looks like she really could be Phillips’ daughter. Almost likeable by the end, Rapp does more acting with her perfectly-lined eyes than her whole body.

The highlight of casting for me is Auli’I Cravalho who plays Janis. A fantastic singer, she manages to balance her cool-as-a-cucumber-funky-chic vibe with a wide range of emotions. The scene in which she puts a Halloween mask over her face while her pal, Damian, played by Jaquel Spivey, recounts the sixth-grade downfall of her friendship with Regina, is palpable. Haven’t we all had times when we wish we could just hide in plain sight rather than deal with something painful happening?

It was nice to see Ashley Park (we needed more of her) and the return of Tim Meadows. Tina Fey is great but lacked oomph. Could she be getting tired to the role and the storyline? Naw.

My only complaint about Mean Girls the movie musical is that everything is clustered and cluttered. Whether it’s in the classroom, out on the schoolyard, at parties, etc., everyone is so close together! Some of that is just natural but, when it comes to the fervent dance numbers, with so many arms and legs going every which way, close together, all at once, it gets to be a bit much, number after number. The famous scene in which the students are acting like animals in the wilds of Africa, which was brilliant in the original movie, is just a mess of too many bodies and the impact isn’t nearly as good.

I tried to justify it, thinking how schools and parties ARE crowded but, if this was intentional, I wonder if it’s also about the intensity of life for teens. Everyone IS up in your business all the time.

My husband drew the immediate comparison to the movie Grease, which also took place in a high school (in the 50’s), where, no surprise, there was a lot of angst, cliquishness, sex and the like, all set to music and dance. But in Grease, the choreography had many of the dancers doing the same move, chorus-like, which made it just as fun but less “busy.” Different times, different styles?

While the adult part of me wanted to yell “Grow the F up!” a million times during the movie over the frustration of all the dumb things these kids do, the rest of me sat back took in the fun AND all the movie-goers enjoying the world of musicals. Much like “Fetch,” I think movie-goers loving Mean Girls as a movie musical will totally happen. Oh, and more people wearing pink because of a movie? I’m down with that.

Mean Girls opens January 12, 2024. Visit the official website for more details.

-By Courtney Drake-McDonough, Publisher and Managing Editor, In Good Taste Denver

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