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Thursday, September 07, 2017
Tina Fey’s ‘Mean Girls’ Musical Will Open on Broadway This Spring
Variety: “Mean Girls,” the Broadway musical co-written by Tina Fey and produced by “Saturday Night Live” impresario Lorne Michaels, has locked in a Broadway run that opens in April at the August Wilson Theater.
11 comments:
Emma Reichard
said...
People love the movie Mean Girls. It’s practically a pop-culture staple for my generation. So I’ve got no doubt the musical version will do super well. Especially with such a great writing team. And that’s all well and good, but what I’m really here to tell is the story of the first time I watched Mean Girls. Once upon a time, in the year of our Lord 2012, I was but a young lass, who for the majority of her angsty teen and pre-teen years had rejected anything successful in popular culture. So I had gotten to my sophomore year Algebra II class without seeing the film. I had never realized the void Mean Girls left in my childhood until we got to the lesson about limits. Mrs. P was droning on and on, explaining the process of deriving the limit of a function. Then came the moment where she turned to the class and asked “So what’s the limit?”. And like it was rehearsed, the class chanted, all at once “THE LIMIT DOESN’T EXIST”. And I said “What?”, and every head in the room turned to me. And Mrs. P proceeded to stop, mid lesson, cancel her teaching plans for the next two days, and spend out class time showing the movie Mean Girls because I had never seen it. Standardized testing be damned.
When I first herd that Mean girls was becoming a play I thought it was a rumor, just like when I herd that Trump was becoming president. This surprise however, is one that I am very happy is true. I can't wait to see the iconic story play out on stage and hear the songs that I hope will become instant hits. Like the article states, Mean Girls already has a large fan-base, and while that is a producers dream, I'm worried that the show won't live up to all of the hype. I'm sure their will have to be slight changes to the story and maybe even characters and I am not sure how the range of fans will acclimate to these changes. Another aspect of the show I'm excited to see is the design of the show. Will they stick to a realistic interpretation or go for a more creative look. Either way, I am excited to see how the show turns out.
I'm glad to hear that the show is doing a pre-Broadway run, as I feel like this show could be walking a dangerous line of being a total flop or a massive success, potentially even more than any other Broadway show. People already have a perception of Mean Girls as a hilarious movie with lots of quotable lines, and it'll be interesting to see if the script sticks to Tina Fey's original inventive spirit in the film or if it ends up recycling jokes and leaving audiences with a bland taste in their mouths if they have already seen the film. It'll also be interesting to see how different age ranges are responding to the stage production, and whether or not the audiences at Mean Girls will be younger that your average Broadway patron, which is what I would expect, or if doesn't manage to reach younger audiences at all.
I remember really wanting this musical when I was really into musicals and this movie. Since then I've stopped loving the movie. I do however hope the musical version is good. I think that often times these adaptations have really awful music composition. I hope that the lyrics are well done, I think that is the main shortcoming of these musicals a lot of the time. The artful lyrical composition and word play is often lost in translation. I also hope that they find ways to incorporate diversity, from the cast they've listed I think I will be disappointed in this vein. I truly hope that they can work towards inclusion. Anyone can be a mean girl and the moral of the story is for everyone.
Wow! A movie is being made into a musical? How interesting and original! In all honesty, I am certain this show will end up being a guilty pleasure show for me, and it will probably be moderately successful, but I'm so tired of movie musicals. I feel like this show has the potential to be as good as Heathers, but I also have a feeling that it could fall into the catchy but just a guilty pleasure category of Legally Blonde. While obviously movie musicals have been happening for a while in recent musical theatre history, it seems like every other new show that hits Broadway lately is made from a popular movie. It's easy to understand why - producers think people will go see shows that they are already somewhat familiar with, and diehard fans of the movie will travel far and wide to come see the stage version. While some of these stage adaptions have been wildly successful (Waitress, any Disney production), there have certainly been a number of flops. I think it is safe to say that with Mean Girls' popularity as a movie, it will bring in a large amount of ticket sales, regardless of the quality of the show itself.
DC is a great town for previews, though I am surprised that it will be at the National and not at the Kennedy Center or Signature Theatre--who has recently worked with Disney on the world premier of Freaky Friday and is of similar genre. Yet the national is no stranger to out of town broadway previews, with If/Then premiering there most recently. I know we are currently at a period of nostalgia overload-front he Heathers remake to the reimagining of the Archie comic books as Riverdale to the remake of Beauty and The Beast and Spiderman. Of course making a movie into a theatrical production is a different process, and some have been successes; Lion King, Aladdin, and some of been failures; Spiderman. I don't imagine this production will be chock full of technical elements, and think much of its success lies in its ability to tap into the nostalgia craze of 2017.
Mean Girls will always hold a special place in this generation’s heart, as it was the pivotal teen movie of the mid-2000s. Even with other hits like John Tucker Must Die and Freaky Friday, Mean Girls holds the title for most re-watchable teen movie to most. Not only does it play off of ridiculous high school stereotypes, which I personally hope are all dead by now, but it has a fair amount of real comedy and just plain ridiculousness that everyone can appreciate, especially now most of us are old enough to drink along with the movie now. I had no idea that so many Broadway shows these days were being based off of pop culture movies and other hits. I honestly didn’t even know that Groundhog Day was on a run, and that being said, I’m not at all surprised it isn’t doing well. Hopefully Mean Girls will prosper without changing the majority opinion of Broadway culture.
Wow I have been waiting for a Mean Girls musical for YEARS now so I'm extremely excited that it is finally getting produced. I know that I will definitely go out of my way to see it, but I'm curious to see how well the show does. Mean Girls' continued popularity has a lot do with a nostalgia factor for people around my age, but typically theatrical audiences tend to lean to the older side. If the musical is at all loyal to the movie then they will most likely have some trouble appealing to an older audience, as well as to children and families. Most other musicals based of movies have a huge fan base of children to draw from (Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Frozen etc) while a show like Mean Girls will have to convince people in their twenties to spend their money on theatre tickets. I really hope that the show does well because I will be really bummed if it closes before I can see it, so if they can get the tickets sold I have high hopes for the final product.
I know that I was very late to the party, because I only saw the movie Mean Girls for the first time my freshmen year. It was funny, and silly, but it wasn't something that I was really interested in watching again. I understand that it has created this culture around quotes and scenes, but I just don't really understand why it has made its way to Broadway. Some of the most amusing parts of the movie were the poor acting, and the unrealistic story line. I want to know if the musical is going to create a bigger joke out of it, or try to take it more seriously. I seems crazy to think that Mean Girls the Musical will be sharing Broadway with a show like Hamilton. I am sure it will sell for a while, but I doubt the show itself will be able to sustain, as most of the ticket buyers are older and won't have an interest.
I am really interested to see how Mean Girls will do as a musical. It is always an interesting discussion when talking about making popular movies into musicals or plays. This upcoming Broadway season has a lot of those projects. There is an argument that there should be more new and original musicals and plays produced and it is a cop out to take a popular movie script and try to make it into a show for Broadway. Frozen was already a movie musical so it does not seem as weird to create that into a stage musical. Spongebob Squarepants the musical is a little more odd to think about. Tina Fey is very funny and smart so I trust her to create a play that is successful and actually makes sense. I really hope that the show is good because we have been hearing about Mean Girls the musical coming to Broadway for a while now.
I really hope Mean Girls does well, just because it's so well-loved as a movie. I could see it going both ways, either feeling like a very typical, musically musical or staying true to the film, very funny and satirical. It is interesting to think about how well it'll do, not as a show, but in the face of its competition, which is formidable. Even if it is great, shows like Frozen and Spongebob attract such a huge audience, all the people who'd go see mean girls, plus children. It's unpredictable. I think it'll all come down to if they decide to go the stereotypical musical route with this or not. I have a feeling they will.
11 comments:
People love the movie Mean Girls. It’s practically a pop-culture staple for my generation. So I’ve got no doubt the musical version will do super well. Especially with such a great writing team. And that’s all well and good, but what I’m really here to tell is the story of the first time I watched Mean Girls. Once upon a time, in the year of our Lord 2012, I was but a young lass, who for the majority of her angsty teen and pre-teen years had rejected anything successful in popular culture. So I had gotten to my sophomore year Algebra II class without seeing the film. I had never realized the void Mean Girls left in my childhood until we got to the lesson about limits. Mrs. P was droning on and on, explaining the process of deriving the limit of a function. Then came the moment where she turned to the class and asked “So what’s the limit?”. And like it was rehearsed, the class chanted, all at once “THE LIMIT DOESN’T EXIST”. And I said “What?”, and every head in the room turned to me. And Mrs. P proceeded to stop, mid lesson, cancel her teaching plans for the next two days, and spend out class time showing the movie Mean Girls because I had never seen it. Standardized testing be damned.
When I first herd that Mean girls was becoming a play I thought it was a rumor, just like when I herd that Trump was becoming president. This surprise however, is one that I am very happy is true. I can't wait to see the iconic story play out on stage and hear the songs that I hope will become instant hits. Like the article states, Mean Girls already has a large fan-base, and while that is a producers dream, I'm worried that the show won't live up to all of the hype. I'm sure their will have to be slight changes to the story and maybe even characters and I am not sure how the range of fans will acclimate to these changes. Another aspect of the show I'm excited to see is the design of the show. Will they stick to a realistic interpretation or go for a more creative look. Either way, I am excited to see how the show turns out.
I'm glad to hear that the show is doing a pre-Broadway run, as I feel like this show could be walking a dangerous line of being a total flop or a massive success, potentially even more than any other Broadway show. People already have a perception of Mean Girls as a hilarious movie with lots of quotable lines, and it'll be interesting to see if the script sticks to Tina Fey's original inventive spirit in the film or if it ends up recycling jokes and leaving audiences with a bland taste in their mouths if they have already seen the film. It'll also be interesting to see how different age ranges are responding to the stage production, and whether or not the audiences at Mean Girls will be younger that your average Broadway patron, which is what I would expect, or if doesn't manage to reach younger audiences at all.
I remember really wanting this musical when I was really into musicals and this movie. Since then I've stopped loving the movie. I do however hope the musical version is good. I think that often times these adaptations have really awful music composition. I hope that the lyrics are well done, I think that is the main shortcoming of these musicals a lot of the time. The artful lyrical composition and word play is often lost in translation. I also hope that they find ways to incorporate diversity, from the cast they've listed I think I will be disappointed in this vein. I truly hope that they can work towards inclusion. Anyone can be a mean girl and the moral of the story is for everyone.
Wow! A movie is being made into a musical? How interesting and original! In all honesty, I am certain this show will end up being a guilty pleasure show for me, and it will probably be moderately successful, but I'm so tired of movie musicals. I feel like this show has the potential to be as good as Heathers, but I also have a feeling that it could fall into the catchy but just a guilty pleasure category of Legally Blonde. While obviously movie musicals have been happening for a while in recent musical theatre history, it seems like every other new show that hits Broadway lately is made from a popular movie. It's easy to understand why - producers think people will go see shows that they are already somewhat familiar with, and diehard fans of the movie will travel far and wide to come see the stage version. While some of these stage adaptions have been wildly successful (Waitress, any Disney production), there have certainly been a number of flops. I think it is safe to say that with Mean Girls' popularity as a movie, it will bring in a large amount of ticket sales, regardless of the quality of the show itself.
DC is a great town for previews, though I am surprised that it will be at the National and not at the Kennedy Center or Signature Theatre--who has recently worked with Disney on the world premier of Freaky Friday and is of similar genre. Yet the national is no stranger to out of town broadway previews, with If/Then premiering there most recently. I know we are currently at a period of nostalgia overload-front he Heathers remake to the reimagining of the Archie comic books as Riverdale to the remake of Beauty and The Beast and Spiderman. Of course making a movie into a theatrical production is a different process, and some have been successes; Lion King, Aladdin, and some of been failures; Spiderman. I don't imagine this production will be chock full of technical elements, and think much of its success lies in its ability to tap into the nostalgia craze of 2017.
Mean Girls will always hold a special place in this generation’s heart, as it was the pivotal teen movie of the mid-2000s. Even with other hits like John Tucker Must Die and Freaky Friday, Mean Girls holds the title for most re-watchable teen movie to most. Not only does it play off of ridiculous high school stereotypes, which I personally hope are all dead by now, but it has a fair amount of real comedy and just plain ridiculousness that everyone can appreciate, especially now most of us are old enough to drink along with the movie now. I had no idea that so many Broadway shows these days were being based off of pop culture movies and other hits. I honestly didn’t even know that Groundhog Day was on a run, and that being said, I’m not at all surprised it isn’t doing well. Hopefully Mean Girls will prosper without changing the majority opinion of Broadway culture.
Wow I have been waiting for a Mean Girls musical for YEARS now so I'm extremely excited that it is finally getting produced. I know that I will definitely go out of my way to see it, but I'm curious to see how well the show does. Mean Girls' continued popularity has a lot do with a nostalgia factor for people around my age, but typically theatrical audiences tend to lean to the older side. If the musical is at all loyal to the movie then they will most likely have some trouble appealing to an older audience, as well as to children and families. Most other musicals based of movies have a huge fan base of children to draw from (Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Frozen etc) while a show like Mean Girls will have to convince people in their twenties to spend their money on theatre tickets. I really hope that the show does well because I will be really bummed if it closes before I can see it, so if they can get the tickets sold I have high hopes for the final product.
I know that I was very late to the party, because I only saw the movie Mean Girls for the first time my freshmen year. It was funny, and silly, but it wasn't something that I was really interested in watching again. I understand that it has created this culture around quotes and scenes, but I just don't really understand why it has made its way to Broadway. Some of the most amusing parts of the movie were the poor acting, and the unrealistic story line. I want to know if the musical is going to create a bigger joke out of it, or try to take it more seriously. I seems crazy to think that Mean Girls the Musical will be sharing Broadway with a show like Hamilton. I am sure it will sell for a while, but I doubt the show itself will be able to sustain, as most of the ticket buyers are older and won't have an interest.
I am really interested to see how Mean Girls will do as a musical. It is always an interesting discussion when talking about making popular movies into musicals or plays. This upcoming Broadway season has a lot of those projects. There is an argument that there should be more new and original musicals and plays produced and it is a cop out to take a popular movie script and try to make it into a show for Broadway. Frozen was already a movie musical so it does not seem as weird to create that into a stage musical. Spongebob Squarepants the musical is a little more odd to think about. Tina Fey is very funny and smart so I trust her to create a play that is successful and actually makes sense. I really hope that the show is good because we have been hearing about Mean Girls the musical coming to Broadway for a while now.
I really hope Mean Girls does well, just because it's so well-loved as a movie. I could see it going both ways, either feeling like a very typical, musically musical or staying true to the film, very funny and satirical. It is interesting to think about how well it'll do, not as a show, but in the face of its competition, which is formidable. Even if it is great, shows like Frozen and Spongebob attract such a huge audience, all the people who'd go see mean girls, plus children. It's unpredictable. I think it'll all come down to if they decide to go the stereotypical musical route with this or not. I have a feeling they will.
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