Mean Girls: The Review

The Woodhaven Theatre Company closed its much anticipated production of Mean Girls: The Musical on Saturday, May 13th. As a huge fan of the original Mean Girls and the musical, I was both excited and nervous to see how the WTC would handle the show and perform it on stage. I was excited because, of course, I was going to be able to see classmates and friends perform a show loved dearly—plus, the spring productions are always something to look forward to at the end of the year. But I did have my worries. Mean Girls is known for its crude and distinctive humor, and admittedly, it isn’t all that PG-friendly, so the thought of too much censorship made me worry that the musical might lose its charm. My expectations were also way too high since last year I saw WTC’s phenomenal rendition of Spongebob: The Musical. I had sworn up and down that, nothing could beat it— and was I proven wrong.

My first impression as I watched the characters take the stage was that this was cast perfectly, especially the casting of Gretchen Wieners and Regina George. Emily Natter perfectly captured Gretchen in my opinion, and her screeches perfectly captured Gretchen’s quirks in the original. Elaina Primeau was a perfect pick for Regina George, as she perfectly captured her attitude. All the castings were amazing, but those two stood out to me the most.

Hands down, the best part of the show for me was the actors’ strong delivery. I was scared, again, that the songs would not be able to live up to the original musical, but the ensemble just clicked. This adaption kept the humor and signature moments of the original show, and the cast 100% delivered. There were moments when my mouth was on the ground, or my stomach was cramping because of how hard I was laughing. My favorite moment had to be iconic, “She doesn’t even go here!” It was apparent throughout the show that the cast and directors seriously respected the source material.

The songs were incredible, too. I could tell that the main cast had experience with singing and truly gave their all to the songs. A few of my favorite songs performed were ‘Meet the Plastics,’ ‘Sexy,’ ‘Revenge Party,’ and ‘World Burn.’ However, I may be biased because those songs were songs I already loved from the original. I was impressed by Lillian Fellows’ (Karen Smith) songs in particular. When I went on opening night, Fellows sang any of Karen’s signature songs, I heard laughter and some people singing along to themselves. I enjoyed how Lillian performed ‘Sexy,’ which I believe was the song that needed to be performed the best.
I cannot end the review without mentioning how amazing the crew was in the background. The idea of having cubes that spin and create different backgrounds was a genius idea, and the crew’s ability to switch the cube and change scenes efficiently is the reason why everything ran smoothly. The sets were detailed and it’s hard to acknowledge it. Even from far away, I could see the math equation written on the chalkboard during the AP Calculus scenes, or how they decorated and painted the bus that was Regina’s doom. The crew was dedicated and hyper-focused on making sure things went smoothly which makes them the real heroes of this musical.

I said that nothing could beat the performance of Spongebob last year, but, I take it back. This production is hands down the best performance I’ve seen from the WTC to this date. I could go into detail and give specific ratings for each category of what the show did right or wrong— but no point system in the world can describe how much fun I had while watching. The experience itself was one I know I will never forget, and I hope it’s one that the cast and crew can be proud of for their lifetimes. It might be bold of me to say this, just because I might be proven wrong once again, but I don’t think anything could top WTC’s performance of Mean Girls.