REVIEW: Mean Girls
By Gary Murray, volunteer theatre reviewer
They say that your schooldays are the best years of your life … welcome to North Shore High School.
Mean Girls came to Eastbourne last night as part of a nationwide tour of the musical.
Based on the 2004 film starring Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams, it was written by Tina Fey, famous for her stint on American comedy institution Saturday Night Live, and based on both her own experiences of high school and the book Queen Bees and Wannabees by Rosalind Wiseman.
Sixteen year old Cady Heron (Emily Lane) has been home-schooled in Kenya. On moving to the US she joins North Shore High School, a place riven with social cliques and human predators.
Chief amongst these are the ‘Plastics’, insecure Gretchen (Kiara Dario), dippy Karen (Sophie Pourret) and their leader Regina (Vivian Panka) who are at the very top of the tree: “They don’t have friends, they have accessories”.
Cady is helped to navigate this jungle by two outcasts she befriends – Janis and Damian (Georgie Buckland and Michael Dean-Wilson, who played Damian on Tuesday night).
The Plastics take a shine to Cady and she’s seduced by the power and the protection afforded by being one.
Will she sell her soul to remain a Plastic, or be true to herself?
This is a musical version of a well-loved movie. There was much excitement at the Congress Theatre before the show last night.
Inevitably, it’s going to have a broader brush than the film. In the movie we hear an inner monologue from Cady. Here, narration duties fall upon Janis and Damian. This works, largely because of the skill of the performances, but it’s not really applied consistently in the script.
Some things start promisingly but trail off. In the film, there is a hilarious scene where Janis and Damian are pointing out the various cliques in the school canteen. On stage this rather petered out, maybe because there simply aren’t enough cast members to represent them all.
But sometimes stage beats film; in a later scene, rather than the car used in the film, there’s an absurd and inherently funnier vehicle!
Many of the classic lines are present and correct. Songs are a bit average though to be honest and don’t add an awful lot. Exceptions are Apex Predator, I’d Rather Be Me and the Bond theme-style Someone Gets Hurt (nicely delivered by Vivian Panka).
Bad sound in the first half really didn’t help. But this seemed to be resolved after the interval.
Performance of the night goes to Georgie Buckland as Janis, ably assisted by Michael Dean-Wilson's Damian.
Also, a shout-out to Fergie Fraser who deftly played (on Tuesday night) the two mums and a teacher with some rapid changes thrown in.
This is very much for fans of the film and it works as a live-stage version of a much-loved movie, even if the inevitable happy ending hurtles towards us at a dizzying pace.
If you know the film, you’ll probably love the chance to see it live on stage. And if you don’t, there’s enough to keep you entertained.
:: Mean Girls runs until Saturday, 25 May, at the Congress Theatre. Tickets here
:: Gary Murray was a professional actor for 14 years in theatre, radio, TV and even a couple of operas. After many years on the tech side of the ticketing industry, he now works at Tech Resort and is a volunteer reviewer for Eastbourne Reporter
