Mean Girls is the Broadway musical-comedy adaption of Tina Fey’s 2004 film of the same name. Fey, 
famous for her Saturday Night Live performances, wrote the show, and Casey Nicholaw directed and choreographed it, bringing the story, song, dance, and comedy together to make for a fun evening for theatregoers. The music is by Fey’s husband, Jeff Richards, and the sassy lyrics by Neil Benjamin.
The show, at the August Wilson Theatre, is true to the movie. For those not familiar with the story, it is about high-school cliques and how the group of “mean girls” known as “the Plastics” treat one another as well as others. Ashley Park plays one of the Plastics, Kate Rockwell plays the dumb blonde, and Taylor Louderman plays Regina, the “queen” of the clique. Grey Hensen does a terrific job as the narrator, and he and Barrett Wilbert Weed play a couple of outsiders, with gusto, song, and dance. Kerry Butler is quite good in a dual role.
The plot revolves around Cady, a new student wonderfully played by Ericka Henningsen, and the difficulties she — whose parents lived in Kenya and home-schooled her — has trying to fit into high-school society. She becomes one of the “Plastics” in order to gain notoriety and to get the love interest, but learns quickly that being a person who hurts and bullies others does not achieve good results. She learns that it is more important to be yourself and to genuinely care for the feelings of others. The moral is that you do not have to engage in hurtful behavior in order to be popular and to be liked.
This show has it all: humor, fun, dance, and engagement with the audience. I highly recommend it for an evening of fun.
