THE HANGOVER REPORT – MEAN GIRLS opens on Broadway, and it’s smartly crafted and winningly performed

Ashley Park, Taylor Louderman , Kate Rockwell, and Erika Henningsen in Tina Fey's "Mean Girls" at the August Wilson Theatre.

Ashley Park, Taylor Louderman , Kate Rockwell, and Erika Henningsen in Tina Fey’s “Mean Girls” at the August Wilson Theatre.

Last night, the musical adaptation of Tina Fey’s seminal 2004 film Mean Girls opened on Broadway at the August Wilson Theatre. Even if it doesn’t reach the the giddy heights of the Tony-winning pair of The Book of Mormon or Hairspray – the standards by which I hold all new musical comedies against, at least in their original incarnations – this new musical is smartly crafted and winningly performed. It’s certainly a masterpiece compared to the other highly anticipated movie adaptation of the season, the lumbering behemoth Frozen eight blocks south.

The stage version of Mean Girls retains the film’s plot points – nice new girl from Africa gets involved with a cruel high school lot, becomes mean and vacuous, and corrects herself when she sees the error of her ways – smartly updates the movie to incorporate current references, as well as weaves in social media as an integral ingredient in the social fabric of student life at North Shore High (the savvy book is by Ms. Fey). So in a sense, Mean Girls rides the wave started by Dear Evan Hansen and expands it to include a less angsty, bubble gum pop perspective. The score, by Jeff Richmond (music) and Nell Benjamin (lyrics) is pleasant and catchy, if not immediately memorable.

Director and choreographer Casey Nicholas, who struck musical theater gold with The Book of Mormon, gives Mean Girls a lean and mean aesthetic. The production is fast-paced (relying heavily on a frenetic video and projection design), almost deliriously so, and is simultaneously tight but freewheeling. The cast is excellent. The principals – Erika Henningsen as Cady Heron, Taylor Louderman as Regina George, Ashley Park as Gretchen Wieners, Kate Rockwell as Karen Smith – skillfully retain the spirit of of their character’s iconic cinematic ticks (without feeling like a second rate imitation), while successfully bringing them into musical theater-land.

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MEAN GIRLS
Broadway, Musical
August Wilson Theatre
2 hours, 30 minutes (with one intermission)
Open run

Categories: Broadway, Theater

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