Mean Girls: The Musical: The Best of Both Worlds or the Worst

Mean Girls, originally released in 2004, has been an iconic movie since its release, so when a musically reenacted version was brought to Broadway, fans of the original movie and theater kids alike rushed to buy tickets. Mean Girls: The Musical The Movie was announced in January 2020 and released on Jan. 12, 2024, and just like everyone did when the original movie was released, people raced to the theater to take a look at this new adaptation of an iconic movie.

This movie has taken a lot of backlash for many valid reasons, but there are many good things about it, starting with the majority of the cast. Renee Rapp played Regina George fantastically; Rapp has performed as Regina George in the Broadway adaptation of Mean Girls, so I believe it was a great idea to bring her to the cast. She also had amazing comedic timing with all of her lines and was a vocal powerhouse, which, in a movie like this, is so important. 

I also enjoyed the performances of Jaquel Spivey, Auli’i Cravalho, and Avantika Vandanapu. Spivey and Cravalho brought so much to the table with their incredible singing and acting while Vandanapu’s comedic timing had the theater laughing every time she spoke. I think this adaptation may have even been funnier than the original. As someone who was unsure about the casting choice for Aaron Samuels, Christopher Briney did an outstanding job portraying Aaron. 

One of the main things I had an issue with in this movie was that they cut a good amount of songs that were in the Broadway adaptation. The movie was meant to be based off of both the original and Broadway adaptation, and the fact that they cut some of the songs made me feel like they cut off some of the main storyline. The original Mean Girls movie is also supposed to be nostalgic, and in the new movie, that nostalgia was taken away by modernizing the new movie by having so much of it having something to do with TikTok. The budget for this movie was $36 million so I could see how difficult it would be to get top tier costumes, but I feel like the costume department definitely could have done better. 

Another issue I had with the movie was that it was supposed to be an adaptation of the original Mean Girls movie, not a word-for-word copy with some of the songs from Broadway on there. There should be a happy medium between paying tribute to the original film while also giving the new film its own originality. 

I also think that Cady Heron could have been better cast. Angourie Rice did a fantastic job with acting out Cady, but when it came to her musical performances, something was missing. Rice doesn’t have a theater background, which I see as the key to having a great cast for a musical movie. The brand sponsorships were also very obvious, which isn’t entirely a bad thing, but I think it’s better to have a subtle brand drop than have it thrown in your face. Overall, I think Mean Girls: The Musical was a decent movie. I wouldn’t say that it was good, but I also wouldn’t say it was bad. There were many things that the cast and filmmakers could have done better. I think that Renee Rapp was one of the best parts about the movie because of her comedic timing, acting, and powerhouse voice. If you aren’t a huge fan of musicals, I recommend that you go see the movie, but if you are a fan of musicals, I would just say be aware of some of the things that I didn’t really enjoy about the movie.