slate.com: If you believe that children are the future—and in 2018, no one will blame you for desperately clinging to this optimistic vision—then the Broadway incarnation of Mean Girls, which marked its official opening on Sunday, just might be the show for you. The basic premise of the 2004 film on which it’s based, in which teenager Cady Heron returns to the states with her parents after being homeschooled in Africa most of her life, remains. The students are still mean—especially the Plastics, a trio of popular girls led by “Queen Bee” Regina George—and still divided into clearly defined cliques. (Though this time their categories have been slightly updated for modern sensibilities to include “woke seniors” concerned with “intersectional veganism.”)
3 comments:
I really appreciate that this review really dug deep in the actual meanings and nuances of the performance rather than just judging it at face value. From what I hear, the show is a spectacular achievement in media and lighting elements, but what makes the show more important is how it views things like body image and self-esteem in our current climate. Times have changed immensely since Mean Girls the movie came out with the impeccable Lindsay Lohan, and the way we handle many of the jokes that were just tossed around is immensely careful. With a playwright like Tina Fey heading the production, I expect nothing less than a refreshing take on a rather offensive and demeaning plot line. This show has a similar challenge as Heathers the musicals, where they have to take camp and properly depict it on stage, and the way to do that is t lean in to cheesy, but also to make it mean something more then just a good laugh.
I respectfully disagree with Shazhad. I think most of the lessons to take away from Mean Girls (the movie) worked so well because of its refusal to apologies. Its brash, blunt jokes I took (and I think, knowing Tina Fey, we were supposed to take) as a satirical view on coping with the ever changing social structures in the typical American high school. I do think that there is a way to introduce the movie's original themes in the way that the movie did (through satire) without offending. Taking away those elements for the stage adaption I feel takes away some of the original feel of the plot. It's no longer "Mean Girls", but "Slightly Mean Girls." While on this topic, like Shahzad, I do feel that it is appropriate to mention Heathers. Heathers the movie I love for its shock value, for its obviously satirical take on high school in the 80s. The musical, however lightened all of that up through the dialogue and the catchy songs. The adaptation left Heathers in a weird semi-satirical state that was a little too real to be a satire and a little too offensive to be acceptable. I don't want what happened to Heathers to happen to Mean Girls, as well.
I like that the author points out the inherent generational and age differences that might affect how people see the story. But it also feels like the musical is trying to create a sequel by building off the characters and the storyline, but not quite hitting the original tone. I loved the film because of the one liners and humor, so I would be interested to see the differences . But I also think the movie worked as a biting indictment of how crappy high school can be, how no matter what role you play you will lose. I love the cynicism present in the original, but I could understand and see a more optimistic view of the story. It does help that Tina Fey help head the production, but I also agree with Sydney that Mean Girls is ultimately satirical and if whitewashed too much would lose it’s original charm.
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