www.citybeat.com: Like films Heathers and Clueless, Tina Fey's 2004 comedy Mean Girls spoke to the confusing, sometimes alienating experience of being a teenage girl. Filled to the brim with snappy one-liners, it managed to be funny, relatable, empathetic and warm, all rolled into one pink-hued plastic package. And if you grew up in the 2000s, you likely watched it a dozen times at sleepovers.
3 comments:
I loved mean girls the movie. When I heard that there was a musical a long while back I thought it was kinda cool sounding but I wasn’t insanely interested. Like Heathers, I think that the movies that turn into Broadway musicals are cool and it is very interesting to see how they adapt the movie for the stage but I haven’t been crazily excited to ever attend these shows. I guess that it is a little bit of that “I don’t want to know the story or have expectations” mentality that gets in the way. I think it is really cute that the composer of the broadway show is Tina Fey’s husband!!!! Like what a power couple?!? It is also very interesting to think about how Richmond took his wife’s work and used it to create something new. Mean Girls did really well as a movie and I've heard great reviews about the music too which is a major accomplishment for the story itself and the people who have worked on it. It was also very interesting to hear Kevin talk about the bus scene! That is probably the best scene in the movie.
I loved the Mean Girls movie growing up. My sister and I would watch it on repeat and laugh at Tina Fey's brilliance. When the musical was announced, I wasn't upset, but the theatre kid in me definitely huff and puffed because I really want to see something that isn't a movie adaptation. Theres too many of those on Broadway right now, along with jukebox musicals that only tell the story of an artists life, rather than coming up with a story of its own. The mean girls musical, however, is a party from start to finish. I won't say it's the most profound thing ever, because it's definitely not, but it is enjoyable. A lot of the technical elements can feel like a little bit of a cop out, specifically the screen that stays onstage the entire show and functions as every single location. I overall liked Mean Girls and the composing in it a lot :)
I had the immense pleasure of going to shadow the PSM as she called this show. Echoing what is said in the article, it must have been a really fine line of trying to create a fresh, new look on this story everyone knows, and yet keep that connection to the huge fan base of people who worship and still quote the movie version. I personally think they did an amazing job. The songs are catchy, incredibly well-sung, and the show (while it is 2.5 hours long) NEVER feels like it's dragging. Interestingly enough, as Richmond mentioned they didn't want it to feel like the movie, I felt like they connected to the movie really well in that they used media to project on every surface and create transitions between scenes and locations that were so fast that it felt like how a movie would do this via editing. And it worked! It didn't feel forced, and the inclusion of beloved quotes still got their stage time in fun, button-like ways that only drew the audience in more. While this may have been a long and unfamiliar process for them, it is clearly one that paid off in a really fun and fresh way.
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