‘Burn Book’ on Broadway: “Mean Girls” takes the stage

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The new Broadway musical, “Mean Girls,” is an entertaining performance based off Tina Fey’s 2004 hit movie. The play focuses around Cady Heron, (Erika Henningsen) a girl who switched from being home-schooled in Africa to an equally wild jungle: public high school. Janis (Barrett Wilbert Weed) and Damian (Grey Henson) become her official welcoming committee and assist her in navigating through social cliques.

  Eventually, Regina George (Taylor Louderman), leader of the school dominating Plastics clique, takes Cady under her wing. The entertaining plot consists of naive Cady, still loyal to Janis and Damian, as she helps her two best friends get revenge on Regina for petty meanness and a rumor spreading from years ago.

  Hit movies turned Broadway shows, such as West Side Story and Hairspray, often become huge successes due to their preexisting popularity. However, there are a plethora of occasions where this is not the case, such as Breakfast at Tiffany’s and The Little Mermaid.

  Updating an old movie and transforming it into a well-written, original, and entertaining play is a process that Fey nearly perfected with “Mean Girls.”

  The show kept many of the original and iconic lines from the movie like “You go Glen Coco!”, “That’s so fetch!” and the Jingle Bell Rock dance/song performance number while also adding in many references to the ever-growing social media presence to modernize the show.

  As soon as the audience walks into the theater they see a profuse amount of pink as well as screens filled with pages from the Burn Book. The Burn Book is a crucial plot point between Cady and the Plastics with [quirky] insults such as “Made out with a hot dog” and “Too gay to function.” The scenery throughout the entire play is creative and unique, for the screens allows it to change quickly and conveniently.

  Walking into the theater, I had expectations that there would be a few songs when appropriate here and there; I was completely wrong. Every few minutes there would be another new song and dance number tied into the scene.

  The music and choreography fit together perfectly in an impeccable fashion. However, the dance numbers and slightly catchy music give an unrealistic impression of high school that makes some points in the play comical, and others unbelievable.

  Taking a popular and well-known movie and transforming it into a show, especially one able to compete with the original, is a difficult task that was successful with the show. Each main character receives a more detailed development in comparison to the movie where their true colors are really exposed, rather than just superficial and shallow personalities.

  While the abundance of songs quickly gets old, the satire and impressive performances quickly make up for it. Despits minor flaws, Mean Girls is an entertaining musical filled with lots of potential for all genders and age groups looking to watch a newer version of a classic.