Mean Girls has officially become a Broadway musical following a trial run in Washington DC, with the first reviews coming in.
Original screenwriter Tina Fey has returned to write the book, and her husband Jeff Richmond (30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) has penned original music.
Previews started on Monday (March 12), and fans and critics have already started sharing their thoughts online.
Cara Kelly of USA Today writes: “For those Gretchen Weiners-types who may have worried the adaptation, announced in March, could never match the perfection of the film, put your fears aside. It doesn’t disappoint.”
She adds: “While Rockwell may be able to elicit roaring laughter for simply repeating the line, “I’m a mouse, duh,” Mean Girls does more than that. Karen gets a whole solo dedicated to the memorable utterance, another Rocky Horror parallel with freight-night style dancing, in which she laments the burden of being the dumb hot one.”
The Guardian reports: “Even before the show ended, fans who hadn’t managed to land a ticket crowded the fuschia stage door of the August Wilson Theatre, standing in the drizzle and hoping for autographs.”
Then some people started critiquing the critics:
Former Miss USA contestant MacKenzie Green wrote: “From the show I saw in DC to what it’s become, this musical brings it! It’s got camp, not one but two killer tap breaks, and belting for days! The beats from the movie are still there but they found the most brilliant moments to dig in to.”
Freelance writer Lauren Carrillo was also impressed:
Mean Girls was highly entertaining, funny & left you with a positive message…definitely recommend seeing it while it's on Broadway!
— Lauren (@feistymexarican) March 14, 2018
Jujamcyn Theaters president Jordan Roth posted the cast bow on Instagram, which also gives us a good look at the cast costumes:
The crowd gave an enthusiastic response:
And the fans have been loving it too:
mean girls is finally on broadway which is exactly where it belongs the show is so diverse and has such an important message and the entire cast is beautiful and there are so many broadway debuts pic.twitter.com/uZw0aAPNsB
— annika (@annikaceIeste) March 13, 2018
Currently there are no West End dates for Mean Girls the Musical, but tickets for the Broadway show are on sale here.