Playbill.com: Golden Globe Award winner Tina Fey and husband Jeff Richmond are developing a stage adaptation of Fey's 2004 hit comedy film "Mean Girls," which starred actress Lindsay Lohan as a high school transfer student trying to navigate teenage social cliques.
13 comments:
Well it was bound to happen, but I can't say that I'm happy about that. I really think that some things are meant for film and others for stage. Mean girls is a film kind of thing. Also, Mean girls has become a sort of chick flick classic. If you quote mean girls in the costume shop, multiple people will quote the next line to you. It's almost a creepy obsession with some people. But just because a great number of people like it doesn't mean it should be a musical. It had it's moment of fame and it still popular so why can't people just let it be? Stop trying to make it happen! It's not going to happen!
I hope that this doesn't go through for the sake of artistic integrity and creativity. A clearly desperate attempt from someone who's long running TV show is ending (30 Rock) to turn a movie that was a success in 2004 into a musical. If the original movie had some sort of.... music related theme in it, I might see a bit more of the side to turn it into a Broadway production. The movie Mean Girls doesn't have a music related element in it. As I learned it, people in musicals sing when the emotions they have are too big to just say them, but they need to sing them. Mean Girls just goes through petty little emotions, I can't remember an emotional buildup in the movie that would create a song/dance number. A silly, and pathetic idea. Even something so commercial as Broadway can do better.
I agree with what Jenni said since there are some things are just for film or for stage. Nowadays, the production tends to lose its originality and creativity by just adapting famous films. Although some turned out to be very successful, other turned out to be bad or to be criticized. For example, Spider-Men musical faced a lot of criticisms and hardships. Like the movie Spider man, Mean Girl is another movie that has been so popular, but it should stay just as it is rather than making into a production. It just seems to me that plot is not interesting enough to make it into stage. It was only interesting in the movies. So, I hope that this attempt does not happen or if they really desire, I want to suggest to take the idea of the story line and use that to create new, original work.
Why can't Mean Girls be a musical? Just because it was a film first means that it doesn't qualify to be a musical? That's ridiculous!!! On the contrary, Mean Girls consists of all of the dramatic elements that could make it the perfect new, young, piece on Broadway. Look at the success of Bring It On. Yes Bring It On originally had singing and dancing included, however the musical is nothing like the film. It has its own life and story. If adapted correctly, adding music and choreography that complement the story could make Mean Girls quite magical.
What some people fail to realise is that in order for theatre and yes, Broadway to survive, people have to keep bringing pieces that will make audiences want to attend. It doesn't matter whether it was a film, a television series or whatever else. What matter is whether it is of good quality and will have great marketability.
So, yeah, probably not for the stage. But you can't deny that it would be a huge moneymaker. It would be one of those things that people go see just to go see, which, however you may feel about them, do have their place in commercial theatre. Curiosity factor can be what makes a show work. I don't predict that it would have a long run, because, let's face it, nobody wants to whatever disaster it would probably be more than once. there will probably never be a national tour, and the cast album might become something you play in your car when you need to be reminded that your life could be worse. But, hey, Tina must have some free time now, so why not?
So Mean Girls is my favorite movie. It's hands down one of the most quotable things I have ever seen and I think that millions of people agree with me. However, I agree that this probably wouldn't work on stage. If they can pull it off, at best it'll probably be like Legally Blond. It'll be a crowd pleaser... for 13 year olds. If it doesn't work, then it'll just be an embarrassing flop because there will be so much hype around the show. Honestly, I think that a musical would cheapen the story. Yes, I understand that Mean Girls isn't exactly the deepest of shows and it's not exactly an "epic tale" but I still think there are very relatable scenes, substantial characters, and some pretty smart humor. I don't think all of those things will get translated into a musical and it will really be a show produced to make money and not a show produced to be good theater. At most Mean Girls the Musical would be nothing more than "fun." With all that said, I'd still probably go see it.
yes yes yes!! so much yes!! do it tina, do it! mean girls was such a great movie and is still quoted to this day by many young fans. also, the fact that tina fey would be writing it makes it even better because of the fact that she wrote the original script meaning it will be very similar and just as funny. Also, it would bring in a lot of people to watch it jsut to see the adaption or to see if it is a flop or not or to just relive old memories of the movie. I'm hoping this happens and i will not stand for it to go undeveloped. get on it tina.
Wow a lot of these comments are pretty negative. I'd first note that unlike a couple people above have implied, Tina Fey is doing fine. If she does this it not because she is desperate for attention. At this point in her career she could easily get another tv show if she wanted. Many would watch it just because it was her. I'm pretty easy to entertain but still I think this has the potential to be good. It was highly enjoyable movie and Tina Fey is good writer, if anyones gonna do it, Im glad its her. I think this could turn out very well, and I hope it happens.
I just saw mean girls for the first time a couple of months ago, and I have no idea how that would translate to a musical. But, legally blonde is a musical, and I think they are close to the same vein. And if anyone can pull it off, it's Tina fey.
I have personally never seen Mean Girls but I think it will be widely popular as a musical. From my understanding Mean Girls 2 was not very popular but I think the musical has so much potential. I think this could be classified along the lines of Legally Blonde and how that was successful as a musical. Both could be termed "chick flicks" and thus if one could do it what's to say Mean Girls doesn't have the potential?
I agree with Jenni that some things are meant for film and others for the stage. There have been a few stage adaptations of these modern, comical films, such as Legally Blonde and Elf, and in my opinion, both of them did poorly. The lyrics were just ehhh, the designs just couldn't match the scale and grandeur of the film sets, and for some reason, the stories feel different on stage. I feel that in these films, the stories are fun and timeless. But when you add random musical numbers in the middle of certain moments, the comical aspect of the play goes from funny to plain stupid. Especially since the film Mean Girls was such a success, audiences are going to expect that same experience of humor, and I bet they will be highly disappointed seeing their favorite comedy compacted onto a stage. And then there's that other side of me that just really wants to see if they can pull off a Mean Girls musical. After all, it is one of my favorite comedies.
So this'll either turn out like "Bring it On: The Musical" or be a hit for a while and then sink as the show starts to lose relevance with its audience. The movie was a huge success, and part of the reason for that was because of the demographic it reached. Her timing is pretty good though, since most of the kids who saw the movie and bought the $10 movie ticket can now afford to pay for the $60 show ticket to see the stage version. I think it's an exciting idea, I wish her the best of luck.
I am one of the people in what seems like a very small group of people who has not seen the movie mean girls. I have however managed to catch a few clips of it and even from that few clips I could tell this was destined to be a musical. It already reminds me of the musicals commonly performed in high school. I cant say I'm excited to see this musical nor do I really care much about it but at least its written by Tina Fey.
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