Still funny and still “so fetch”
Mean Girls has made it to Ottawa. Produced in Canada by Broadway Across Canada, Tina Fey’s book-turned-movie-turned-musical is on-stage at the National Arts Center until Oct. 23.
Mean Girls (the movie) fans will agree the musical did the cult-classic teen movie justice. The musical was funny in all the same places and held onto the same core themes.
English Bernhardt was amazing in the leading role of Cady Heron. She sang her way through the North Shore cafeteria, falling for Aaron Samuels in math class, and taking down Regina George.
Speaking of the Plastics: Nadina Hassan (Regina George), Jasmine Rogers (Gretchen Weiners), and Morgan Ashley Bryant Stewart (Karen Smith), all played their respective “mean girls” perfectly. Each character got a chance to shine: Regina in the number “World Burn,” Gretchen in “What’s Wrong with Me?,” and Karen in “Sexy.”
By letting side characters like Aaron Samuels (Adante Carter), Janice (Lindsay Heather Pearce) and Damian (Eric Huffman) speak — or sing — their minds, the audience got to know them better; they became more personable, rather than just pawns in Cady’s story.
The show added an aspect of social media to bring the story up to date for 2022 audiences, but that element wasn’t in-your-face in the way I worried it would be. Rather than just giving characters from 2004 Snapchat and Instagram, the musical used it to show (very realistically) how negative comments can hurt people and how positive ones can become addictive. (For more on that, check out the Fulcrum’s interview with Adante Carter about his role as Aaron Samuels.)
Tina Fey has once again proven herself a fantastic and hilarious writer with Mean Girls the musical. The show will be in Ottawa until Sunday, Oct. 23, after which it will move to Toronto until Nov. 27 before heading back to the United States for the rest of the national tour.
