Mean Girls

For a fun night out (and do remember to wear something pink on Wednesday) Mean Girls the musical remains a fond reminder of good times past.

This is the third stage musical that I have been lucky enough to review this month, and after the excellent local production of The Addams Family put on by Sound Ideas at Norwich Theatre Playhouse, and the award-winning touring production of Operation Mincemeat last week at Norwich Theatre Royal, I had high hopes of hitting a third home run with my return to the Theatre Royal this week for Mean Girls, a musical adaptation of the teen film comedy, written by Tina Fey.

Mean Girls quite rightly became a pop culture phenomenon following its cinema release in 2004, following 16 year old Cady Heron (played by Lindsay Lohan) as she attempted to negotiate a path through the tribal cliques of North Shore High School, having moved from Kenya to Evanston, Illinois, where she had been home-tutored. Terms such as 'Plastics', 'Mathletes' and 'Queen Bees' suddenly become part of a new vocabulary as Cady discovers what it is like to be fresh meat at North Shore.

Mean Girls – The Musical first opened in the United States in 2017, and transferred to the West End two years ago. For this UK touring production it is the turn of Emily Lane, who made her stage debut as Brigitta von Trapp at the London Palladium twenty years ago, to take on the role of 16 year old Cady. And herein lies the problem.

The energy and the enthusiasm of the entire cast is beyond doubt. The script is both punchy and pertinent, and goes out of its way to highlight issues of both identity and diversity. The choreography by Ben Clare produces some sparkling dance numbers that really fill the stage with colour (thanks to costumes designed by Katrina Lindsay). And the songs themselves (written by Jeff Richmond with lyrics by Nell Benjamin) include some real showstoppers – Georgie Buckland (as former 'Plastic' now turned goth, Janis) refusing to conform or compromise with her heart-rending 'Id Rather Be Me', and Vivien Panka (as spiteful Queen Bee, Regina George) unleashing her final dose of venom in the climactic 'World Burn'. However, are any of cast seriously convincing us that they are 11th grade high school students?

Fortunately, the lovely Faye Tozer is awesome, and hilarious, in her triple role of playing maths teacher (and Mathletes coach) Ms Norbury; Cady's zoologist mother Mrs Heron; and also as the outrageous mother of Regina George. She is joined in school by Joshua Elmore, who plays the part of headmaster Principal Duvall. All we were missing was a quick burst of 5,6,7,8.

Other cast members who deserve a mention are Sophie Pourret as bubbly plastic airhead Karen Smith; Kiara Dario as her gossipy cohort Gretchen; Ben Oatley as Aaron Samuels, the object of Cady's desire, and also Regina's ex; Max Gill as the wonderful 'too gay to function' Damian; and Karim Zeroual as Kevin, leader of the Mathletes.

For a fun night out (and do remember to wear something pink on Wednesday) Mean Girls the musical remains a fond reminder of good times past. But personally, I shall stick to the film version. Because, believe me, fetch is just never going to happen.