For Mean Girls fans, this is so fetch: the film’s musical adaptation, which ran for almost two years on Broadway, is to be staged in London next summer.
The musical, now on its second North American tour, will open at the Savoy theatre in June. It has a book by Tina Fey (who co-wrote the screenplay for the 2004 teen comedy), is composed by Jeff Richmond, has lyrics by Nell Benjamin and is directed by Casey Nicholaw (who is also the choreographer). Casting for the musical, in which home-educated Cady Heron struggles to fit in with the intimidating clique of “Plastics” at her new high school, is yet to be announced.
After playing at the National theatre in Washington DC in 2017, Mean Girls opened on Broadway in 2018 at the August Wilson theatre. It received 12 nominations at the Tony awards, making it the joint most nominated show that year, but none resulted in a win. In a three-star review for the Guardian, Alexis Soloski wrote that the songs were “catchy enough” and the staging “sufficiently fluid” but concluded: “No offense, OK? Mean Girls is basic.” A film of the US stage production is to be released next year.
News of the London production was announced on 3 October which is considered the unofficial Mean Girls day due to a line in the film where Cady (played by Lindsay Lohan) tells her crush, Aaron, what the date is.
Producers Lorne Michaels and Sonia Friedman called Mean Girls “a timeless comedy that for decades has connected with generations of audiences across the globe”. Previews for the show begin in June. London is already home to musicals based on the films Frozen, The Lion King, Mrs Doubtfire, Moulin Rouge! and Back to the Future.
