2024’s “Mean Girls” is a Hollywood musical adaptation of the Broadway musical adaptation of the 2004 movie and is a pretty solid rendition to watch.
“Mean Girls” follows Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) as she is introduced to the social ladder of her new high school. Cady tries to join a group called The Plastics, but when she makes a major mistake by falling for their leader Regina George’s (Reneé Rapp) ex boyfriend she must destroy them before they can destroy her. With the help of her friends Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey) she hatches a plan to take down Regina and the other plastics.
As this is a hollywood musical adaptation of a stage musical some things were lost. Particularly some of the grit that some of the songs had like in “Revenge Party”. With that the music is overall still great to listen to and fun to watch. It keeps the satirical nature of the original, but is a little more whimsical because it is a musical.
The performances are good for the most part. Reneé Rapp, Jaquel Spivey, and Avantika Vandanapu absolutely steal the show. Reneé Rapp fits perfectly as Regina George and is the only actress from the Broadway Musical to reprise a role. Jaquel Spivey is incredibly funny and absolutely outshines every other person that he shares a scene with. Avantika Vandanapu as Karen Shetty is done incredibly well and she is very convincing playing an unrealistically dumb character because of her cadence when speaking, her body language, and mannerisms.
Angourie Rice on the other hand left some things to be wanted from her performance. She was by no means bad, but she definitely had the weakest performance out of the cast. She also felt like the weakest singer in the cast, but as said before she wasn’t anywhere near bad. Sometimes she didn’t capture the full emotion of a song like the other actors and actresses were able to do. “Stupid in Love” was particularly rough, but was still fun to listen to and watch.
The production value for each song was definitely there. “Revenge Party” was very bright and colorful and really looked like a crazy party. “Sexy” used TikTok for the first part of the song, which hasn’t really been done a lot and was used pretty well but takes some of the oomph out compared to the Broadway version. The transition from “A Cautionary Tale” to “What Ifs” is a one shot that goes from a garage to Africa and then to a high school. This relatively high production value definitely increases the fun factor of each song exponentially.
“Mean Girls” is a serviceable retreading of the same story as the 2004 movie and as musicals go is incredibly solid. If you’re looking for a fun and pretty mindless musical joyride through a satirized American high school this will definitely be great for you. If you’re a die hard fan of the Broadway musical you may leave a bit disappointed.
Directed by Samantha Jayne, Arturo Perez Jr.
Starring: Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Auli’i Cravalho, Jaquel Spivey, Avantika Vandanapu, Bebe Wood, Christopher Briney, Jenna Fischer, Busy Phillips, Tina Fey, Tim Meadows, Jon Hamm, Ashley Park
Rated PG-13
Runtime: 112 minutes
My Rating: ★★★½
