By Jennifer Mustoe
Mean Girls comes to Salt Lake City, an offering from Broadway Across America at The George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Theater, and it is “fetch.” Full disclosure: I and my trusty chick date friend Kendra had not seen the movie. So we came into Mean Girls virtually blind. I’m glad we did. There is so much to see and enjoy.
At first glance, Mean Girls is about just-moved-from-Africa homeschooled and new to North Shore High Cady Heron (Danielle Wade) who is pulled into The Best Club Ever led by despicable Regina George (Nadina Hassan) and her band of lackeys, needy Gretchen Wieners (Megan Maskako Haley) and stupid Karen Smith (Becca Petersen) who rule the school with manipulative control and, yes, meanness. It’s like it’s in their blood. Everyone in the school fears them and still wants to be in their clique. Cady is introduced to this Mean Girl group and all the other school groups by my two favorite characters, Damian Hubbard (Eric Huffman) and Janis Sarkisian (Mary Kate Morrisey) in “A Cautionary Tale”, a great beginning to this fast-moving, fun, and rather intuitive musical. Tina Fey penned Mean Girls and she has the characters and story so biting and clever, it’s hard to not want to move, move, move through the show faster than its rather rapid pace. I kept thinking, what’s next?
We expect perfection from a show that’s been performed on Broadway and now is shown all over the country with its Broadway Across America cast. And yes, Mean Girls is a perfect delight. But it is also a sometimes funny, sometimes sad and poignant, and occasionally raunchy commentary about high school in these modern times. Kendra and I discussed our high school experiences, hers far more recent than mine, and neither of us could recall a group of young women like The Plastics as the Mean Girls are called. But that may have been because we had already found our clique and were therefore insulated from wanting to be part of The Best Club Ever. But I’m sure this kind of nastiness resides in some high schools (and colleges and neighborhoods and organizations?) somewhere.
New girl Cady, fresh from an isolated homeschooled childhood in Africa is drawn into The Plastics, and loves the popularity and power of it. She falls for Aaron Samuels (Adante Carter) but he’s off limits because he was involved with Regina. Meanwhile, Cady slowly not only loses her innocent nature by being in The Plastics, she loses her sweetness and empathy for others. She “loses” her calculus brain so Aaron can tutor her in math, even though Cady is the superior mathematician. She has a few losses and needs to bounce back, and spoiler alert, she does bounce back.
The choreography in Mean Girls is flawless, powerful, and wonderful. Director/Choreographer Casey Nicholaw has created vibrancy, power, and on point characters through dance and acting. Each dance is, I keep saying it, powerful. Scenic design (Scott Pask) is basically school sets and a few home and bedroom sets–all effective. I loved the moving desks, and to me, metaphor nerd that I am, I saw that something erratic gliding across the stage or the regimented movement of desks in straight lines like soldiers indicate what was going on in those kids’ brains. It must have been so fun to create the costumes (Gregg Barnes) for this show. We go from Cady’s completely out of place bloody bride costume at a Halloween party to the flirty outfits in “Sexy.” Of course, The Plastics have the fashion that everyone wants to emulate, and it really is chic, I admit. Make up, too, is essential and Milagros Medina-Cerdeira has everyone looking pretty (or plain). Hair Design by Josh Marquette is so gorgeous. He makes the cast look splendid.
Lighting (Kenneth Posner), Sound (Brian Ronan), and Video Design (Finn Ross & Adam Young) (the mall! the school!) give us delightful moods–and these moods go from somber to explosive with these high-strung teens. The music, voices, orchestrations, performance are perfection with the direction of Music Director Chris Kong and Music Coordinator Howard Joines. The sounds in Mean Girls are spectacular.
There are a lot of teenage shenanigans going on in Mean Girls. But it’s the somber, distressing, even sad commentaries that are staying with me. Gretchen is frantic to keep Regina’s and then Cady’s good favor in “What’s Wrong with Me?” Regina’s mother, Mrs. George (who also plays Mrs. Heron and Ms. Norbury), and proclaims, “I’m a cool mom!” also joins in this song, as she too is overrun by her power-hungry daughter. I hurt for Gretchen as she frantically and bleatingly pounds a door that Regina has closed to her–literally. I feel for stupid blonde Karen, who isn’t really stupid (right?) but plays that game. They all have holes in their soul. But really, doesn’t Regina, too? My favorite characters, Damien (“almost too gay to function”) is darling, darling in his role as Cady’s protector, along with the tough talking but vulnerable underneath Janis. I found myself wishing I could be in their club. They are good to one another and to Cady, and are by far the most real, relatable characters. Even thinking of them now, their vulnerability, their stories, their loyalty to one another and their more startling than your average teenager wisdom are the best part of Mean Girls. I. Love. Them.
I saw many young people, tweens and teens, attending Mean Girls. I think this is a good thing. The life lessons have value. Though Mean Girls may be considered a fluffy and maybe even close to inappropriate musical, it is funny and touching, too. It plays for five more days. So go see the show that is “fetch” and enjoy a rough and hilarious ride through what must be seen to be believed.
Broadway Across America and The Eccles Theater present Mean Girls. Book by Tina Fey, Music by Jeff Richmond, Lyrics by Nell Benjamin.
Delta Hall at the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Theater, 131 Main Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84111
November 30th – December 5th, 2021, times vary. Tickets: $75-$150
Note: Mask wearing is required at all times.
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