-Brenda Hillegas
photo by Jenny Anderson
Your favorite mean girls and all their quotable lines are on stage and set to music as Mean Girls the Musical returns to Philadelphia through October 8th only.
Don’t miss out on a seat at the Kimmel Cultural Campus Miller Theatre (and grab a “Fetch Fizz” in the lobby before the show if you’re 21+). Upper Darby’s own Tina Fey adapted Queen Bees and Wannabes, a parenting book that guides parents (and their daughters) through the gossip, cliques and boys of high school, into the hit 2004 film starring Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert, and Amanda Seyfried. With such success and a huge following, she turned that movie into the musical (songs by her husband Jeff Richmond and Nell Benjamin) that premiered in DC in 2017. After a short run on Broadway with a huge fan following (unfortunately, it never came back after Covid), the show is on tour again so everyone can enjoy the drama and fun at North Shore High School.
If you don’t know Mean Girls– Cady (the fantastic Natalie Shaw) is back in the US after growing up in the African safari and she’s about to start high school for the first time. New friends Damian (Ethan Jih-Cook) and Janice (Alexys Morera) try to guide her, but still Cady falls victim to “the plastics” anyway- the popular mean girls who run the school. Leader Regina (Maya Petropoulos), Gretchen (Kristen Amanda Smith) who just wants to please Regina, and the dumb (she says it herself!) but sweet Karen (MaryRose Brendel). Of course there’s a boy (and a fight for who gets to be with him), Aaron Samuels (Joseph Torres). Through the show’s two hour and 30 minute run, audiences will laugh at the antics of high school students and remember when we’ve all been there. Or maybe this is a good lesson for the high school student in your life!
Mean Girls is an iconic movie! And the musical definitely does it justice, with songs that actually work and will be stuck in your head for years (just ask me). Alexys Morera is a perfect Janice and her songs are some of my favorites in the show- “I’d Rather Be Me” and “Revenge Party”. Maya Petropoulous will have you loving the Regina number “World Burn”. If you don’t own the cast recording yet, you will after you see the musical! It’s one of the best.
And Philly, you can cheer on some local cast members with former Kimmel-based musical theater participants, Ethan Jih-Cook and MaryRose Brendel. They are both amazing in their roles and such fun to watch on stage. The ensemble also features University of the Arts grad, Mikaela Rada.
Your favorite scenes and lines are still exactly where they need to be, but the stage version is a little kinder. Still mean, but wrapped up nicely as a reminder to be yourself and make space for everyone to sit at your table. High school is rough and Mean Girls shows us that it doesn’t have to be so bad.
Tickets, through October 8th only, are here.
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