Mean Girls on Broadway: A Review
Review and plot summary for Tina Fey’s Broadway show — Mean Girls. Find out everything you need to know about this entertaining musical — seating chart, ticket information, schedule and more.
“Mean Girls” is Broadway’s favorite teenage action-packed drama! Each evening the August Wilson theatre turns into a high school jungle, with Cady Heron, Regina George, and her lackeys, Aaron Samuels as the apex predators. “Mean Girls” is based on the cult Hollywood classic with the same name. Tina Fey is to be held responsible for both the script of the movie and the book of the musical. The music is by Jeff Richmond and the lyrics — by Nell Benjamin.
The show is widely loved by the teenage public so don’t be surprised to see a lot of young faces in the audience.
Mean Girls Plot Summary
What happens when you throw the child of the Kenyan savannah Cady Heron in the (sub)urban jungle of modern-day Chicago. The show is filled with comparisons between the feral lands of Africa and the urban contemporary world. In both places being the apex predator (or at least in her pride) is a matter of survival. “Mean Girls” is a story of friendship, betrayal, revenge (party!), regicide, and it is all set in a Chicago high school. Actually, it is pretty well stated in the opening song — “the cautionary tale of fear, and lust, and pride”.
“Mean Girls” on Broadway — Review Act I
Janis Sarkisian and Damian Hubbard, a couple of lovable oddballs that we’ll get to see a lot, introduce Cady. She has just transferred from Kenya. Her parents are scientists, who have lost their funding, thus returning to the US. Janis and Damian are showing Cady around the school, introducing their classmates to the new girl. No one seems to notice her, and all she wants is “friends with hands”.
Among the rest, Cady meets The Plastics — the power trio of the school, led by Regina George, aka the Queen Bee (or the Apex Predator). She is the main “antagonist” of the show and in my humble opinion is one of the finest villains on Broadway. She might lack the loath and brutality of The Phantom and the ruthlessness of Aaron Burr, but she is nonetheless cruel and cold-hearted. She also seems to share some old grudge with Janis. Her pride consists of Gretchen Wieners and Karen Smith. Gretchen is Regina’s second in command and somewhat of a confidant. She’s a disco ball (since Regina is the sun). Karen is the comic relief of the show — sweet and somewhat well-intended, but very shallow, responsible for most of the laughs in “Mean Girls”. They invite Cady to have lunch with them and she quickly ditches Janis and Damian.
Cady later meets Aaron Samuels — the attractive boy of the show. She pretends to be shallow so Aaron can explain math to her. Although she’s an expert in math and that doesn’t remain unnoticed by Kevin, captain of the Mathletes, but the “plastics” advise her to decline, since this will be “a social suicide”, so she declines.
Later, the newly-formed Plastic quartet meets at Regina’s place, where Cady confides that she has a crush on Aaron, but Gretchen freaks out because he’s Regina’s ex. The girls confide more — Gretchen shares that she lost all her confidence because of Regina. Then the Plastics introduce Cady to the Burn Book. Gretchen shares the story of Regina and Janis. They used to be best friends, but Regina didn’t invite her on her birthday, so Janis lost it and had to go to therapy.
The next day Aaron shares to Cady about his relationship with Regina and invites Cady to his Halloween party, but without telling her that she needs to dress sexy for it, so she shows up in a scary costume. Gretchen, being the snitch she is, tells Regina about Cady’s crush. She proceeds to flirt with Aaron just to give Cady a lesson. Furious, the young lioness plots with Janis and Damian on how to get her revenge. They feed her high-calorie Kälteen Bars to take her only achievement away — “being a hot person”. When she puts on some weight, Cady dismisses her from the Plastic table for wearing different clothes. But Regina swears that the world will burn!
“Mean Girls” on Broadway — Review Act II
Cady is the new Queen Bee and leader of the plastics, totally mimicking Regina in every single aspect. And everyone hates that — Aaron, Janis, and Damian. She throws a huge party, no-showing a contest, attended by Janis and Damian. At the same time, Cady gets drunk at her party, confessing to Aaron that she played stupid all along, just to spend time with him. He storms out. She tries to follow him, only to run on Damian and Janis, who throw a picture of the three of them at her.
Meanwhile, Regina isn’t staying idle. She releases the Burn Book, sending the whole school into turmoil. It contains insults virtually to everyone, except the Plastics. The school administration calls for an assembly to take care of this disaster. Janis throws an amazing speech boosting the confidence of the damaged girls. Regina rushes out but gets hit by a bus. Don’t worry — she’s as ok as a person that got hit by a bus can be. Cady takes the whole responsibility for everything and gets suspended for three weeks. And obligated to join the Mathletes on return.
Things start to improve for Cady when the Mathletes win the next championship they attend. She then sneaks into Spring Fling. They kiss and make up. There she runs into Regina (no pun intended). They have a warm conversation and make peace. Cady proceeds to win Spring Fling Queen only to break the plastic crown and give every girl a piece. She reconciles with Janis and Damian and they, together with all the rest sing the final song — “I see stars”
Critical and audience reception, and acclaims
“Mean Girls” received great critical acclaim and even better audience acclaim, going toe to toe with the movie cult classic. Sadly, it didn’t win any Tony Awards, despite its twelve (!!!) nominations.
The cast is lovable — all of them and young, fresh, and with great singing voices. Sabrina Carpenter currently plays Cady and is amazing as both the innocent girl that lived in the savannah and as the Queen Bee. Cameron Dallas recently replaced Kyle Selig and is doing fine. Reneé Rapp is perfection! She gives us a Regina that we want to hate, but we won’t because she’s just amazing! Kate Rockwell steals the show as the lovable (and hot) dummy Karen not only for curing sex cancer.
Music
We owe the music to Jeff Richmond. Fun-packed and filled with emotion, “Mean Girls” has some of the best musical numbers currently on Broadway. The original cast recording debuted at number 42 on the Billboard 200 chart.
“Mean Girls” on Broadway — Seating Chart (August Wilson Theatre)
Every evening The August Wilson (245 West 52nd Street in midtown Manhattan) turns into the wildest high school around. With its 1,222 it can accommodate a lot of students and their parents. It is popular throughout both groups especially because of the cult status of the movie, so be quick to get your tickets. They can sell out in a matter of hours.
Mean Girls — Discounted Tickets & Availability
Mean Girls is one of the Broadway shows that offers discounted ticket options.
Discounted tickets for Mean Girls start at $59 in the back of the mezzanine and go up to $199 for the premium seats in the center of the orchestra. In my opinion the best value seats are the orchestra center seats for $109 (regular price $169) or the $79 seats in the Orchestra side (regular price: $169 - more than 50% discount).
In this section you will learn how to buy the cheapest possible tickets.
Venue Box Office
Buying directly from the theatre is usually the best option if you don’t mind making the trip to the box office. The venue is located in Manhattan on 52nd street between Broadway and 8th Ave (map). When you get to the venue simply give the person behind the counter the following discount code: MGBOX. You will then be presented with discounted ticket options which will save you more than 50%.
TKTS Booth in Times Square
Two major advantages of the TKTS booth, located right in the middle of Times Square are :
1) You don’t have to give them a discount code — prices are already discounted
2) You can buy tickets for multiple performances (not just Mean Girls) at the same box office
The disadvantages are that you are usually restricted to buying tickets for same-day performances. And the lines ….. On a busy day you can end up waiting about an hour for your turn to come.
This is why, we recommend to go to the box office with the discount code. You will receive the same discounts and you won’t have to wait in line as long.
Where to Buy Tickets Online
The easiest and cheapest tickets available are through the specialized discounted sites for Broadway like BroadwayPass and TodayTix. Tickets listed on these sites are sold at the box office prices and already include all available discounts. The checkout process is quick and easy. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster as well, but they are not discounted by default. Make sure to enter the discount code manually.
The second group of online vendors are the resale sites like Stubhub, VividSeats, Seatgeek etc. Resale sites are usually dominated by professional ticket sellers (aka brokers) who buy cheap discounted tickets ahead of time and try to resell them at a markup. The resale market is useful when the box office is sold out (e.g. a few hours before the show starts). However, prices can be marked up as high as 200–300% so make sure you check the discounted sites first. These websites are also known for charging high service fees so before deciding to buy make sure you have seen the final price right before checkout.
Mean Girls Schedule of Performances
Monday → no show
Tuesday →7pm
Wednesday →2pm, 8pm
Thursday →8pm
Friday →8pm
Saturday →2pm, 8pm
Sunday →2:30pm
Conclusion
High school can sometimes be very dangerous. It may not be the Pride Lands of “The Lion King”, yet there are some very dangerous (apex) predators. Still, we all remember our high school years fondly and that is why “Mean Girls” the musical is well-loved by parents and teens alike!
More Broadway Resources
This is a great resource on how to buy cheap discounted tickets for Chicago.
This is a useful review of Aladdin.
