Mean Girls the Musical is “so Fetch”

About two years ago I was scrolling through Facebook when an advertisement for Mean Girls the musical popped up on my newsfeed. I was instantly intrigued after I noticed that one of the Plastics was played by Taylor Louderman. Taylor had performed in the production of Bring It On: The Musical, which I had seen in New York six years prior. I became obsessed with that musical after her performance, despite my initial reluctance to see it. After the show, my family and I stood outside the stage door to meet the cast. Taylor was super sweet and took a picture with us. I became one of her fans that day and began listening to her performances on YouTube constantly.

So, I was ecstatic when I saw that she would be performing in a musical adaptation of one of my favorite movies. From there, the journey of my love for Mean Girls the musical grew as I began listening to the Broadway soundtrack on a loop. I started watching covers of some of my favorite songs from the show including one sung by Regina George called “World Burn.” Another cover that caught my interest was performed by Youtuber, Mariah Rose Faith. She added such power, confidence, and a villain-like essence to the song that I really enjoyed it. Although I liked her voice and how she portrayed the infamous Regina George, I resigned myself to the fact that I would only be able to appreciate her singing through her YouTube channel.

This past August, for my birthday, my parents let me choose two musicals to see at the local Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center. I instantly knew my two choices would be Les Misérables and Mean Girls and I decided to Google who the cast would be for each production. There, I discovered that Mariah Rose Faith would be debuting as Regina George in the touring cast. I was super excited to see her live, but I was concerned that I would end up seeing an understudy instead. I figured I’d have to wait until February to confirm whether I’d see her live or not. When Mariah posted in Instagram that she was in Orlando, I reached out to her via her post to ask if she would be starring in the performance I was going to. I was thrilled when she actually responded to my comment and confirmed that she would be performing “unless [she’s] sick or something happens!” This only increased my anticipation as I waited for the day of the performance.

The day finally arrived when I entered the theater to see Mean Girls. The background of the stage was filled with pages from the Burn Book to set the tone of the show.

 Tina Fey welcomed audiences with humorous, pre-recorded pre-show announcements, reminding us to turn off our cellphones and providing other info. During the opening number, I noticed that some of the lyrics had changed as well as parts of the melody of the song. Initially, I was annoyed because I had expected the tour production to be identical to the Broadway version that I had watched clips of on YouTube. Throughout the show, the production continued to change lyrics or rearrange the music to familiar songs.

During intermission, I attempted to figure out why the touring company had decided to make these changes. I pulled out my phone and Googled my question. Other people had similar questions on a thread on reddit; however, no one had an exact answer as to why these changes were made. Although I was unsuccessful in solidifying an answer, I decided to accept that the tour version of the show fit the space and audience. In addition, those who hadn’t listened to the Broadway version would never know the difference.

The tour production kept the most iconic lines from the film, which I was happy to hear, but others were adjusted due to casting. I reminded myself that art is constantly changing in order to adhere to the world it is communicating to. Since the movie came out in 2004, the writers of the musical had fun adapting the show to today’s era with the inclusion of social media, emojis, and memes to help drive the storyline. With these additions, the musical recognized the power of social media in society and addressed both the negative and positive uses of social media where hurtful comments can harm individuals, but positive ones can also cause a false sense of love that can be addicting. In the musical, Cady becomes obsessed with her social media image and starts neglecting her friends in order to maintain her online status.  

Even so, the actors of the tour production did a phenomenal job in recreating the Mean Girls storyline and making it their own. The production celebrated individuality and addressed how being popular often comes at a cost. One particular moment that focused on this was during the song, “Apex Predator.” In this song, Janis and Cady are singing about Regina’s impact on society as Regina, Gretchen, and Karen walk in slow motion with the other cast members gawking at them. During this scene, Jonalyn Saxer, who played Karen Smith, choked on a pretzel instead of flirting with the boys like in the Broadway production. I loved this extra moment because it showed that although these girls are put on a pedestal and are treated as goddesses, they are actually human.

Another actress I adored while watching the show was Danielle Wade’s portrayal of Cady Heron. She developed the iconic character into her own version by making Cady this quirky, awkward new girl who only wanted to fit in. I thought Danielle’s version of Cady was more relatable because she was timid at first when meeting new people but eventually grew into herself, rather than coming off as confident and eager right from the start. Danielle’s portrayal showed the character arc of Cady more clearly by showing how she grew from needing to fit in at first to eventually accepting who she was and wanting to be a light for others.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the character, Janis, in this show. When I’ve watched the movie in the past, I’ve never felt a strong connection to her; however, Mary Kate Morrissey’s representation left me feeling fierce for my individuality. When Mary Kate sang “I’d Rather Be Me,” I felt empowered by my own uniqueness and confident that I didn’t need the approval or acceptance of others to be happy in life. Mary Kate helped me find my voice because, like me, she is shorter than others, but she still drew in audience members with her powerhouse voice and edge.

Lastly, as previously mentioned, I was very excited to see Mean Girls because of Mariah Rose Faith, and she did not disappoint. I got chills every time she sang because she evoked such emotion through her tone and volume to create the glamorous vengefulness of Regina George. She didn’t seem to try to just sing beautifully, but instead took the opportunity to dig deeper into the song to show Regina George’s power and confidence.

I felt like the touring production of Mean Girls portrayed all of the iconic characters from the film in a more relatable sense, which was so fetch. (For those unfamiliar with the term, Gretchen Wieners frequently used the word fetch in the film, trying to “make it happen,” or hoping it would become popular. The word’s actual meaning is supposed to be “nice,” “cool,” or “awesome.”)

Throughout the production, audience members could relate to the desire to fit in through Danielle Wade’s portrayal of Cady by her timid voice and tense body language. We could also relate to the idea of wanting to be perfect but experiencing instances of imperfection in real life, such as when Karen choked on the pretzel instead of being poised and pretty. Although Mean Girls is a popular film, the stage production allowed audiences to see this familiar storyline through a new, theatrical lens.

The music heightened the emotions the characters were feeling as well as highlighted the internal monologue of the characters to portray them as real, genuine people. With all of that in mind, I’d highly recommend seeing this theatrical adaption of the classic film because it applies to everyone by celebrating individuality and showing that no matter who you are, “you are real and you are rare, you star.”