Mean Girls – West End Reviews Round-up

"The Broadway hit provides a welcome splash of summer fizz"

"This snarky adaptation of the hit 2004 film never allows a dull minute, even if its general thrust is cosily predictable"

"... the songs (by Jeff Richmond and Nell Benjamin) are catchy yet forgettable. But just as there was a winning comic zest to the film (scripted by Tina Fey), so this spin-off (which spawned a film itself) has a rare combination of warmth, goofiness, snarky wit and perceptiveness. Tweaked for London, the superbly well-cast production, directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, never allows a dull minute even if its general thrust is cosily predictable."

"Such material won’t awards for Sondheimian subtlety, but it still connects to our modern goldfish-bowl world of constant social expectation and demand. Summer froth, perhaps, but with a sting; a loud show that’s surplus to requirements yet in its way quietly necessary."

"So good it might actually make fetch happen"

"This is a riot of peppy, poppy songs and is certain to be a whopping West End hit"

"Brace yourself, London: the Plastics are in town and they mean-girl business. After a Covid-induced delay, the ebulliently snappy musical of the 2004 Lindsay Lohan high school-film-cum-cultural-phenomenon is in town – and judging by the frenzied reaction from pink-clad audiences, it is going to be a whopping hit that is here for a very long time. This might just be the production that will “make ‘fetch’ happen”."

"Tina Fey has adapted her whip-smart film script for the stage, sprinkling in a few judicious references to current day slang (Jesus as a “nepo baby”) but essentially remaining highly faithful to the original."

"Burn doesn’t bring quite enough definition to good-girl-temporarily-turned-bad Cady, but Elena Gyasi and Grace Mouat are a hoot as Regina’s loyal acolytes and Skye and Xander are delicious as cynical commentators on the out-for-the-kill action."

"Tina Fey’s musical of the 2004 film is pink and perky"

"This is the 1950s musical turned inside out. Letting women know they don’t have to be decorative or have a chap in tow; letting chaps know they don’t have to be jocks – the fellows muscling around with heave-ho shoulders look more strenuous than imposing."

"Not that this is an attempt to weird-up the genre: it is a friendly, popular show, whipped along with video designs by Finn Ross and Adam Young offering all-over pink walls, lavatory tiles, bursts of stars bearing George Michael’s face."

"... the knockouts are the two gay authentics who are in charge of the narrative. Elena Skye is focused, spiky, crisp. Tom Xander gracefully and wittily makes his languorous wrists and hips contradict what he is singing. He is something rare: extraordinarily lovable. Fetch. Indeed, grool."

"Tina Fey’s high-school classic gets musical spin for the Insta era"

"Plastics and fellow students give high-grade performances but the songs and production don’t get quite enough"

"What it doesn’t have is one killer tune like Dead Girl Walking from Heathers: The Musical or It’s All Happening from Bring It On – or, indeed, those shows’ sleek, set-piece choreography. Several songs almost get there"

"Fey’s book adds some zingers but also sanitises some of the screenplay and the overall effect – with Jeff Richmond’s music and Nell Benjamin’s lyrics – is less corrosive from the start and drags towards the end."

"The pristine school surroundings and several bland songs result in a sometimes flat production, directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, that lacks the quirky gawkiness of Be More Chill. Some of the lyrics simply don’t sound like they would be sung by teenagers."

"Tina Fey’s updated script is sublime, but the bland songs water her surreal, acerbic humour down"

"... the ‘Mean Girls’ stage musical that finally arrived in London in 2024 is very, very funny. And it’s not because it’s a nostalgic evocation of the film, which follows naive homeschooled teen Cady Heron as she’s thrust into a clique-riddled Illinois high school, with hilarious results. It’s because Fey has straight up rewritten lots of the jokes and she’s done a spectacular job."

"Unfortunately she isn’t a songwriting genius, and here’s where ‘Mean Girls’ comes unstuck. The songs – with music by Fey’s husband Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin – are not funny. They occasionally raise a smile... Moreover, they sentimentalise her acerbic vision: ‘Mean Girls’ isn’t as nihilistic as ‘30 Rock’, but it’s still caustic as teen movies go. The trad stylings of the songs serve only to pedestrianise it."

"Still, director-choreographer Casey Nicholaw’s production is a lot of fun."

"Why I still can’t resist Tina Fey — and her Mean Girls musical"

"The all-singing, all-dancing version of the 2004 film is a slick update for the social media age — even Taylor Swift and air fryers feature"

"Forgive me for a moment, but I am still in the process of revving myself up for the thrill of finally seeing Mean Girls on stage as a musical."

"It funnels the quick wit that Fey went on to channel into her genius sitcom 30 Rock into its most accessible form. It’s great. The original is, anyway. The musical is … pretty good. Yes, sorry, bit of a comedown, but I am not the only one who found an oddly sluggish first half seemed to recalibrate my expectations, if the muted reaction in the room was anything to go by."

"Crucially, the songs run the gamut between the passable and the adequate. Jeff Richmond, the composer, also Mr Tina Fey, apes genres a treat but is no great melodist."

"Jokes still land, the acting is terrific and the songs have more emotion to play with as the story clicks into gear in the second half. I ended up enjoying the new Mean Girls, but I’d say it goes longer rather than deeper."

"Still breezy and arch but ultimately the stage show is not so fetch"

"This musical adaption demonstrates the law of diminishing returns"

"This breezy, arch but boneless musical adaptation by Tina Fey of her milestone high school comedy demonstrates the law of diminishing returns. The 2004 film set a bracingly acerbic marker on the familiar story arc of a naïve newcomer’s journey through some permutation of acceptance, betrayal and redemption. Since then, countless other smart, sassy entertainment products have explored the territory, many of them (Glee, High School Musical) through song. Countless revivals have reminded us that Grease did it first and best back in 1971."

"Bouncily directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, the stage show sticks pretty close to the original, but updated to include allusions to social media, Ozempic and the increased pornification of teenage life: there are jokes about blowing, fingering and choking within the first 20 minutes."

"The dialogue, and some clever dance routines lift an efficient piece of entertainment. But we’ve seen it all before, from the gauche, non-white calculus nerds to the hip-cocked poses and pelmet skirts of the hotties."

"Tina Fey’s musical is full of zingers"

"Fey’s one-liners linger longer in the memory than most of the bubblegum songs, while a strong cast work hard to lift some workaday choreography"

"As in the original, Tina Fey’s script lands plenty of smart jabs, even if the production values lack the movie’s veneer of teenage designer-label gloss."

"As a stage show, the director Casey Nicholaw’s production isn’t in the same class as that other teen movie spin-off, Legally Blonde, but it’s engaging enough, although Fey’s one-liners linger longer in the memory than most of the bubblegum songs by the composer Jeff Richmond and the Legally co-lyricist Nell Benjamin."

"The cast work hard to lift Nicholaw’s workaday choreography. Georgina Castle is convincingly steely as Regina George, the long-legged, super-blonde queen bee who rules over her ruthlessly materialistic brood, the Plastics, like some stick-thin Wicked Witch of the West."

"Plastic re-churning of the original"

"Tina Fey’s musical is a hot-pink and soulless singsong version of the 2004 classic"

"The script, by Fey, is self-aware to its core and very, very funny with snappy lines"

"Still, this is essentially a reconstruction of the original, with added music. Jeff Richmond and Nell Benjamin’s poppy songs feature plenty of bangers. Regina’s revenge anthem, World Burn, makes her sound like a calculating, evil genius. Janis’ fiery number, I’d Rather Be Me, lashes out at the established pecking order and feels like an overdue cry of relief. But is that enough? Or does it feel like just another part of Mean Girls’ ever-expanding hot-pink brand?"

"... in whatever form it is packaged, Mean Girls is bound to attract an audience. It’s just a shame then that the constant re-churning of this story is starting to feel soulless – plastic, even."

"Not a cool musical – just a distinctly average musical adaptation"

"Lacking a musical identity and feeling spiritually like a period piece, this stage adaptation of Tina Fey’s Noughties classic feels like an exercise in doing the bare minimum"

"Tina Fey’s script was razor sharp, plentifully daft, with a dark edge that set it apart from its peers. All of that’s here. If the movie didn’t exist, this would be fine. I mean, the score by Fey’s husband Jeff Richmond would still be a bit anodyne, every song filler-y, most of them unmemorable, the direction by Casey Nicholaw functional, his choreography fruitlessly maximal, the digital set a bit empty and unimaginative. But the movie does exist, and everything that’s good about the musical is just a good bit from the movie. It isn’t a bad musical, really, but there isn’t a single moment that justifies its musical existence."

"Good points: the cast. There’s a great performance from Tom Xander as Damien, one of the “art freaks” who befriends Cady..."

"Mean Girls: The Musical is riotous nostalgia trip with kickass characters and fresh jokes, but uncatchy songs drag"

"This is a nostalgia fest for those who already have the T-shirt, know every smart, tart, jokey line, and heartily agree with its Hollywood-wholesome message: 'Calling somebody else stupid doesn't make you any smarter.' Fans will doubtless make a gala of every night."

"Updated by Fey (even Ozempic gets a mention), there are new lines to treasure... Alas, no take-home tunes. Uncatchy pop songs composed by Fey's husband Jeff Richmond, with lyrics by Nell Benjamin ('I've got status, I'm a badass' will stick) add more length than strength to the lean, mean original (better served by Blondie and Janis Ian, and the choreography (Casey Nicholaw) is as uninspired as an aerobics work-out."

"But it remains a terrific tale filled with kickass characters, brought to riotous life by a cracking cast."