The upcoming movie adaptation of the 2017 Mean Girls musical based on the 2004 movie of the same name based on the 2002 book Queen Bees and Wannabes will now be hitting US theaters Friday, 12 January 2024 instead of coming to the Paramount+ streaming service (as originally planned).
The movie adaptation is being directed by Arturo Perez and Samantha Jayne from a script written by Tina Fey, with songs by Jeff Richmond and Nell Benjamin.
The film stars Angourie Rice as Cady Heron, Auli’i Cravalho as Janis, Jaquel Spivey as Damian, Avantika as Karen Smith, Bebe Wood as Gretchen Wieners, Christopher Briney as Aaron Samuels, Mahi Alam as Mathlete Kevin Gnapoor, and Reneé Rapp reprising her Broadway role as Regina George. Busy Philipps is set to appear as Mrs. George and Jenna Fischer will play Ms. Heron. Tina Fey and Tim Meadows will reprise their roles from the original film with Jon Hamm joining as Coach Carr. Tony nominated star of the Broadway production, Ashley Park, is also set to appear in the film.
Some of the songs were enjoyable, but the forced stars motif that’s only introduced at the end and the way the musical seemed to beat you over the head with its message in contrast to how the movie did it nice and subtly? The dramatic Bond villain songs for Regina when she was less upfront FUCK YOU BITCH and more sneaky about her cruelty?
I don’t want to see the movie adaptation of the musical. Just stick to the original movie.
But it’s a good thing that proshots are becoming more prevalent, this is great for making theatre more accessible to people who don’t live near too many performing arts venues and people who don’t have the money to afford this tickets.
I’ve never seen a production of the musical as it’s never been staged where I live, or been on where I’ve visited. So I stopped trying to make it happen, resigned that it was not going to happen.
I think nothing beats the experience of live theatre, but agree that proshots do improve accessibility and also (like cast recordings) help a show have an afterlife that can spur subsequent productions.