MEAN GIRLS (2024)

On Wednesdays we step ball change.

I expected to be writing a hit piece. From the word on the street I fully expected this to be a hate watch of a foolish and fumbly attempt at a film to stage back to film messy mess. But y’all…I loved it! Not a remake, it’s more a reexamination of a beloved comedy and characters in the context of a social media obsessed culture. It’s also a more than competent movie musical, I vibed with most of the casting and I thought the songs were creatively conceived and executed with one or two glaring exceptions.

Movie musicals, all musicals really, live and die by the way the songs are contextualized into the world of the play. If we can accept the production’s conceits we can suspend our disbelief and get lost in the musicalized madness. Because most of the world has cell phones, framing the songs in Mean Girls as TikToks and other app related videos makes perfect sense and the songs that employ this device like ‘Cautionary Tale’ and ‘Sexy’ ring most true and believable. The dream sequence is another tried and true trope that works because it’s all imagination, the character’s and the audience’s. It’s easy to make the leap. Songs like ‘Stupid With Love’, ‘Apex Predator’, ‘I’d Rather Be Me’ and my personal fave ‘Someone Gets Hurt’ flow nicely between the real situation at hand and the character’s inner fantasy world.

Where so many movie musicals get it wrong is when they stop the action and all of a sudden we’re watching a music video, conceptually disconnected from the reality of the moment or from the rules set by the rest of the film. Mean Girls falls into this trap with its awkward staging for songs like ‘What’s Wrong With Me’ and my biggest disappointment ‘World Burn’. They don’t necessarily tank the movie but they’re easily its weakest moments.

The biggest beefs I’ve heard overall are with lead Angourie Rice and I understand where the haters are coming from. She can’t sing. Zero. Not at all. All that auto tuning to get to…that? It’s unfortunate and for true theatre queens like myself it’s honestly unforgivable.

Singing voice aside, I see what the director was thinking though. She’s giving plainy brainy gal next door realness the house down boots. The Cady we know, the great La Lohan, was a plastic from the start just waiting to be unleashed and take her rightful place as equal and worthy adversary to the formidable Miss George. This Cady never fits the plastic mold. Even at her height of mean she comes off as a little girl playing dress up; a puny David to Regina’s glamazonian Goliath. This Cady is more true to life because even the kewlest of skewls can’t possibly house four drop dead movie star beautiful gals like the OGs.

Another complaint I’ve heard is that this version tips the balance and makes Regina the more central character. First, I think the book and score of the musical consciously made this shift by adding deeper insight to Regina’s character with bangers like ‘Someone Gets Hurt’ and ‘World Burn’. Most of the songs are about her or sung by her so by musical theatre standards she is the star.

Second, by casting Renee Rapp they had no choice but to make Regina the star. Rapp is one of those talents that can’t help but soak up every bit of the spotlight, leaving the rest of the world in her shadow. And she makes it look so easy. Her Regina maintains her power through authenticity rather than pretension but she also wields her devious manipulation skills with the deftness to match Rachel McAdams’s original incarnation. She’s ferocious and, as the cut but not missed song says, fearless with a natural magnetism that sets her apart not just from the rest of this stellar cast but from any other actor of her generation. And the voice. That. Voice. Other worldly. She is the only one for this role. Just spectacular.

Casting also found a perfect pair in Auli’i Cravalho and Jaquel Spivey as Janis and Damian. Of course the Tony winner and, well, Moana, have incredible singing voices but they were also lovable and hilarious as the acerbic, artsy outsiders. Both had me literally loling at lines I knew were coming and I totally bought their bestie vibes.

I thought Avantika was a vapid, vacant and hilarious dingbat as Karen and I appreciated how authentically high school Bebe Wood’s Gretchen comes across. Christopher Briney’s Aaron Samuels was the one principal character I found completely underwhelming. He and Cady make a good pair simply because both are utterly forgettable. He was just boring. Boring personality. Boring looks. Zero rizz. Busy Phillips was a fantastic Mrs. George, her pathetic pathos more understated than Amy Pohler’s more broadly comedic take. And Jenna Fischer was just adorkable as Cady’s clueless mom.

The original Broadway and film cast cameos were fun but Tim Meadows and Tina Fey reprising their roles felt a little out of place. I mean I know it’s Tina Fey’s baby and let the queen do her thing but hearing her repeat almost the same exact speech at the thematic climax was one of few moments that felt like I was watching a bad remake rather than the thoughtful reimagining most of the rest of the movie achieves. Just weird to blatantly connect the two movies while also trying so hard to distinguish this new Mean Girls from the original.

Musicals – you either get it or you don’t. And I think the creators of Mean Girls the Musical the Movie, get it. The performances are great and the updates and changes, songs included, are purposeful and intentional. And if nothing else it has introduced the world to Renee Rapp. You’re welcome world.