Review: MEMPHIS IS TICKLED PINK TO WELCOME MEAN GIRLS at The Orpheum Theatre Memphis

Mean Girls at the Orpheum Theatre is so fetch! Ehhh, well apparently "fetch" isn't going to happen... but you get the gist! If you enjoyed the 2004 film written by Tina Fey, you will love the musical! Our favorite characters take center stage, singing and dancing their hearts out. Mean Girls has become a beloved film around the world and theatre audiences can expect to see a lot of the same jokes and gags on stage.

Creative teams started work on the musical adaptation in 2013, and by 2016 (October 3rd, to be exact, which fans have dubbed as "Mean Girls Day") it was announced that the musical would premiere in 2017. Mean Girls premiered at The National Theatre in Washington, D.C. on October 31, 2017 and ran through December 3rd, 2017. The show then began previews at the August Wilson Theatre on Broadway in March of 2018 and officially opened on April 8, 2018. Like so many shows on Broadway, Mean Girls was another casualty of Covid-19 and permanently closed in March 2020, after only 833 performances.

The scenic design of this show is fun and captivating. Props to the scenic designer Scott Pask as well as video designers Finn Ross and Adam Young. For the pre-show, we are treated to digital pages from the "Burn Book", which really is the star of the show and the film. My friend and I had fun just reading and pointing out the horrible comments written under all of the pictures, as social media users are apt to do.

The show opens up with two of my favorite characters from the film, Janis and Damian, who break the 4th wall and open up to the audience about their friend Cady Heron. It's interesting because the film is told in first person, from Cady's point of view. Janis and Damian often turn to address the audience as they pull us into this wacky adventure. Mary Kate Morrissey and Eric Huffman capture the audience with their first powerful notes. The two of them capture the beloved characters so perfectly, that we easily find ourselves cheering them on. Janis's powerful number "I'd Rather Be Me" in Act II becomes like an anthem as the ensemble joins in and the audience is left wanting to get up and join Janis and the other girls in solidarity.

Mean Girls is not particularly a "deep musical" but it's fun and energetic and has plenty of the lines we love to quote from the film. All of the ensemble numbers were entertaining and kept me on the edge of my seat. When the "Plastics" grace the stage, we never know what exactly is going to happen. Nadina Hassan, Megan Masako Haley, and Jonalyn Saxer made for a fun and insane duo but it was also wonderful to see each of them have their own moment to shine. Danielle Wade's Cady Heron was easy to like from the beginning when she sings "It Roars" amongst the animals of the African plains. Another fun and wacky moment is when Cady sees the teens from her school become the animals from her homeland. At times, I wasn't sure if I was watching Mean Girls or the Lion King.

This musical is filled with laughs, heart, and lots of pink! It's a fun mixture of the film and something new. Every actor is fun to watch and listen to and the music is downright catchy. One thing I love about the show is the percussion portions, provided by the actors themselves. During choreography involving lunch trays or pencils, the additional music adds to the fun factor of the show.

Mean Girls runs through May 1st, so do yourself a favor and get your tickets today! And remember, on Wednesdays we wear pink!

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