When I was in third grade, I watched the original Mean Girls movie for the very first time. I remember feeling so mature and grown up while pretending to laugh at some of the inappropriate humor displayed in the film. I remember telling my friends that my babysitter let me watch Mean Girls, and felt so cool because no one else was allowed to watch it. As I got older and began to understand the movie better, it quickly became my favorite movie. That reigns true to this day. The original Mean Girls gives us everything: humor, friendships, relationships, drama; I love it all!
The original Mean Girls stars Lindsey Lohan as Cady Heron, Rachel McAdams as Regina George, Lacey Chabert as Gretchen Weiners, and Amanda Seyfried as Karen Smith. In addition to these icons, Amy Poehler and Tina Fey were both in the film. Some may not know that Tina Fey is the mastermind behind the Mean Girls franchise; how iconic! The film is one of the most notable of the 2000s and is a classic favorite loved by many. This is why it’s so controversial to have a reboot of it.
Mean Girls The Musical made its debut on Broadway in 2017. Once again, written by Tina Fey, it held true to the original storyline but just added music! People were intrigued to see if Fey could pull this off, and she absolutely did. Mean Girls the Musical ended up doing extremely well on Broadway and expanded into having traveling casts — they even came to the Altria! I was lucky enough to see the show on Broadway and at the Altria. On Broadway, I saw Renee Rapp play Regina George, and she was phenomenal. The actors and actresses were top-notch, and the songs were so catchy. The musical is the most perfect girly, raunchy show that has had people obsessed for the last few years.
This leads us to the newest edition of the franchise, Mean Girls (2024). Written by the legendary Tina Fey once again, stars Angourie Rice as Cady Heron, Renee Rapp as Regina George, Auli’i Cravalho as Janis Ian, and Christopher Brieny as Aaron Samuels. Most of these actors have had recent fame; Renee Rapp played Regina on Broadway and has had recent fame with her music career and in the show Sex Lives of College Girls. Auli’i Cravalho recently played Moana in Disney’s Moana. Also, Christopher Briney has been a teen heartthrob after starring in The Summer I Turned Pretty. With these amazing cast members, you would think people would be raving about the movie, right?
Wrong… people have been hating on the new Mean Girls, and here’s the biggest reason why. Many people claim that the movie did not clearly state that it was a musical. Although some clips with musical aspects were shown in trailers, I agree that it wasn’t explicitly stated to be a musical. This really got people on the wave of hating the movie. In addition, many of the songs they brought to the movie from the musical were cut or done in a different way. In addition, Rice didn’t have the best singing voice, leading her to walk-sing her songs. That was super off-putting and, in a way, disrespectful to the musical.
What do you think? Was the movie a hit or a miss?