Mean Girls
Book by Tina Fey
Music by Jeff Richmond
Lyrics by Neil Benjamin
Directed and Choreographed by Case Nicholaw
August Wilson Theatre
June 14, 2018
Production website
💉💉 out of 5.

Mean Girls was a very loud show.  That is my professional opinion.  Done.  I  mean seriously folks  how loud do you have to mic a belt? This is going way beyond trying to balance the singer with the orchestra.  This is bringing the concert experience into the very small, intimate world of the theatre.  I thought it might be my age showing, but even the teenagers I was with claimed it was getting a bit painful.

Apart from the volume, Mean Girls deliverers exactly what you see on the marquee: lots of pink, lots of attitude, lots of angst and lots of teen-lingo.  If you like the marquee, you will like the show.  A student of mine sitting by me explained the show as the love child between Heathers and Legally Blonde – – makes sense to me.

Apart from the volume, this was also the first show that I have seen in NYC that used almost exclusively a large projection screen spanning the entire back wall of the theatre.  It was beautiful.  It could take you anywhere.  It was like acting in front of ONE BIG ASS TV.  It really could take your breath away.  But again – I worry that this is going to become the norm.  I worry that we are now going to project all the sets and nothing is going to be built or acted UPON – – now we are just going to act in front of screens.

This show felt like a really good show at Disney or Epcot in Orlando.  Technically wow!  Cute and funny?  Sure.  Theatre – or the future of theatre – God, I hope not.