How can we ever forget our awkward days in hight school, especially when ‘Mean Girls’ nails those inner-demons so well. Tina Fey’s musical has a little bit of everything you want in a show, and some things you didn’t know you needed. It’s all here….just as it was in your high school cafeteria: Two faced friends, un-warranted anxieties over the stupidest things, lost loves, new-found hate, uncomfortable silence, unbearable noise….you get the picture! The difference in the musical and our everyday high school is the amount of talent in this cast…..REMARKABLE!
We have all been to a show where there are one or two characters we depend on to belt the songs, score the dance moves and bring up the energy. This cast doesn’t miss a beat! All of this talent, working in harmony, to remind us. that somewhere, somehow, we all belong! When the show begins, so do the laughs…Damian Hubbard (played with pure zeal by Eric Huffman lets the audience settle into the hysteria that. is soon to incur. His wry ‘Where Do You Belong?’ brings the entire audience back to those days of angst from 9th-12th grade! And it is from there we encounter songs like ‘Sexy‘ (Which brought back nightmares to this formal teacher at Halloween Time), to the first act anthem ‘Fearless‘ which keeps us all rooting for Cady Heron (played with that great blend of vulnerable and voracious by English Bernhardt).
I am not one to want more musicals based on movies. It causes a certain expectation that raises the bar fairly high…but it’s the writing in this show that allows the musical to navigate, seamlessly, through the story we all know. ‘Mean Girls’ are the ones we hate but want to be….and in being a ‘Mean Girl’ you somehow seem you have made the big time. You remember it. You recognize those people on the stage….muscle-heads, nerds, geeks, pot-heads…..and you can’t help but wonder where they are today!
Outside of the music and mayhem there is a stage that fascinates with its high tech scene changes, which launch us from African Savannah to High School Cafeteria, Math Class to bright pink bedrooms. The variety of settings alone is engaging and exciting to see. The use of props throughout the show leans to genius…(of note, the cafeteria trays…ummm, YES!)…and those rolling cafeteria tables we all got accustomed to as kids are a mainstay of the ‘fast-paced’ frenzy that is ‘Mean Girls.’
It’s not all fun and games, for sure. ‘What’s Wrong with Me’ (performed by Jasmine Rogers with heart and grit) struck a chord and took me back to those days of wanting to just fit in. And there it is….at its core. Wanting to fit in! ‘Mean Girls‘ keeps us laughing all the way, as Fey’s 2004 film did. Little do we realize that as we are laughing, we are learning the most valuable of lessons…..JUST BE YOU!
There were a few moments in the show when I thought the music was a little loud….(ok, I’ve been out of high school for 40 years)…but it, too, reminded me that I long for that feeling of innocence and finding my place. ‘Mean Girls‘ makes no apologies for its direct hit on social status, and that’s important. There’s a lot of people pulling us all in different directions, even for us adults…..but as the song reminds us ‘I’d Rather be Me!‘
‘Mean Girls’
Where? The Schuster Center
When? May 31 – June 5
How? Tickets are available at https://www.daytonlive.org/events/mean-girls/
