Rating: 4/5 stars

From Sept. 26 to Sept. 30, a touring production of the musical version of “Mean Girls” came to the Landmark Theatre in Syracuse. I was fortunate to be able to attend the production on Sept. 29.

“Mean Girls” ran on Broadway from April 2018 to March 2020, and a cast album was released while the album ran. Though the musical received a good amount of attention and excitement, the music and story are what might be expected from a converted teen comedy movie: a lot of fun, and not a lot of substance.

I attended the production having listened to the soundtrack, but I had never seen the performance staged before. The show, with a runtime of 2 hours and 45 minutes, consisted almost entirely of musical numbers.

All of the actors did an excellent job with their roles. Cady Heron, played by Natalie Shaw, was onstage for most of the show. She ran non-stop, carrying demanding vocals throughout the performance. Shaw managed to carry the music healthily and with beautiful connection between phrases and notes. Her character was easy to connect with, and she created a version of the character that made poor decisions, but owned up to her actions and remedied what she could. 

Karen Smith and Gretchen Weiners, played by MaryRose Brendel and Amanda Smith respectively, were the comedic highlights of the show, and Bryant received the bulk of the laughs from the audience. Another standout was Damian, played by Ethan Jih-Cook, who served as a narrator and comic relief. His vocals were impressive and he had a good connection with the audience and a fun presence onstage.

Janis’ vocal line in the show was complex. The character was originated by Barrett Wilbert Weed, who has some notoriously unhealthy vocal habits, particularly noticeable in her growl and her belt. Wilbert Weed’s vocals are recorded on the cast album, and so any actress seeking to portray her has a very specific sound to live up to. But doing so healthily is near impossible, since Wilbert Weed’s sound is created in a way that can seriously injure the voice. Alexys Morera, who took on that challenge, did as well as one can with what she was given. Though her vocals seemed somewhat unbalanced, she conquered it in a vocally healthy way, hopefully redefining expectations for the audience.

The story was simple enough, but effective. The show’s humor fell flat at times, very much reading as a millennial story being attempted for a Generation Z audience. The show would have done better without these misguided attempts at rewriting the humor; a significant appeal of “Mean Girls” is that it sits comfortably in the early 2000’s. The humor from the source material was effective; the newer attempts typically were not.

There have been some lyrical changes from the original cast recording which were apparent to me, having listened to the original album. These lyric changes seemed to primarily remove African stereotypes, such as lyrics about animals and one in particular about a man who “being Kenyan … ran fast.” The lyric changes made some of Cady’s songs shorter. The changes would not have been apparent to those unfamiliar with the album, but they did not do much in terms of reducing stereotypes. Much of the story is hinged upon Cady being different, and her background as a girl growing up in Kenya still felt fairly stereotypical. Done with this comedic approach, I do not believe the lyrics needed to be changed, but am not opposed to it either.

Though the “Mean Girls” musical is nothing special, the cast that brought it to life was truly spectacular and turned mediocre writing into a hilarious and light-hearted evening.

Image from Monica Silvestre via Pexels