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REVIEW | Mean Girls - The Musical, UK and Ireland tour - Sheffield Lyceum
AD | Tickets gifted in exchange of an honest review. All views are our own.
The 2004 Tina Fey film hits the road across the UK and Ireland as once again we have another 00s film being turned into a musical. That's right, Mean Girls gets the glitzy musical theatre stamp and arrives at the Sheffield Lyceum as the last touring musical to wrap up 2026 before panto season...
Mean Girls follows, The Plastics (Regina, Gretchen, and Karen) the ruling trio of high school North Shore High, but as new arrival Cady Heron arrives, the plastics welcomes Cady into the school, but Cady unfortunately gets caught up in The Plastics ruling ways and decides to try and take the reigns. But high school survival is not what Cady is used to. Friends turn enemies, love falls apart and a tragic accident happens.
As audiences arrive at the Lyceum Theatre wearing their various shades of pink...as well as myself, we settle into seeing the direct from the West End, UK and Ireland tour of the 2024 Broadway transfer stage adaption of the loveable film.
I've seen the show before in London and, from London to tour there's noticeable changes that make this tour of Mean Girls the Musical a fluffy pink musical that resembles nothing but another 00s stage adaption that feels flat, but with the positive of a collection of some good songs, witty characters and some standout performances.
Written by Tina Fey, writer of the original film, no doubt wants to please fans with a show that feels familiar to them, with recognisable lines, noticeable characters, and overall something to be enjoyed. While the show is certainly to be enjoyed by fans of the film, Fey's book is noticeably easily simplistic, though as a result unfortunately the book finds itself being too surface throughout, but it does have moments of comedy that are pleasing. On a positive note, there are lines straight from the film but the script feels trimmed with noticeably some lyrics been removed or tweaked from songs, and overall for the most part the book feels 2D which feels like it is missing slightly more depth and feeling unfortunately tiresome. Fey's larger than life characters burst out from the page. with writing a terrific duo in Janis and Damian (played by Georgie Buckland and Max Gill) with also writing a commanding, sarcastic and dry humoured ruthless mean queen Regina George, (played by Lillia Squires - at the reviewed performance), and also the excellently writing of the brightly, innocent, quirky, and slightly unwise character in Karen (played by Sophie Pourret), the characters are written well and are easily established, so it is unfortunate that the rest of the book doesn't follow suit.
Although the book is uneven, Nell Benjamin’s songs deliver what is a modern pop sound throughout, the songs do an acceptable job in moving the plot and bringing emotions out of characters thoughout, but however nicely written and mainly entertaining the numbers are, they somewhat feel lacking in somewhat a little too easygoing, with wanting to be something more within their sound and lyrics. There are standout numbers that are memorable numbers such as, I'd Rather Be Me is a lively anthem for the show. The lyrics are toe-tapping and bring a smile to the face and has a noticeable uplifting sound by Jeff Richmond. World Burn is an overall darkly written number, with Benjamin's lyrics delivering an overall powerful number that centralises Regina's character brilliantly. Apex Predator is another pleasing number that is memorable with easily recognisable sound to it. The songs do their job correctly and Nell Benjamin's lyrics and Jeff Richmond's music do go well together, but on the other hand sometimes the numbers feel slightly too simplistic with needing a bit more flavour to them.
Directed and Choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, Nicholaw delivers what is sadly a weakly directed show at times. Our opening number 'A Cautionary Tale' delivers a nice likeable feel to it setting the scene, Janis and Damian, who act as narrators at times, welcome you to their presentation of how the story went, from time to time we swiftly move back to presentation reminding us their side of the story, and is a clever directional choice. Although Nicholaw's direction struggles to fill the stage, feeling empty and sparse in places, even with school desks (clunkley moving around the stage), and fly in set pieces, the show struggles to burst out to its true potential feeling confined and lacking expected energy with the only time the stage felt at its fullness was during the final scene and during the Halloween party. The best moments come from Janis and Damian, these moments are comedic, and bring fun-ness to the show and are easily enjoyed by the audience. Nicholaw depicts the scenes from the film well and from the response from the audience are noted and appreciated and well liked.
As we come to the choreography, as spirited, lively and sharp it was, it does fall short. Feeling uninspired, but I must say executed with brilliance by the cast. Overall the direction and choreography leaves you with something that is uneven and resulting in being a rollercoaster in pace and energy with few enjoyed moments.
It’s without question that standouts of the night was Georgie Buckland and Max Gill (Janis and Damian) after seeing Buckland in The Devils Wears Prada as Andy Sachs, it was nice to see Buckland play a character far from Andy Sachs.
Buckland is sharp in the delivery of dialogue, witty, sarcastic and commands the stage every time. Buckland shines vocally - with I'd Rather Be Me as one of standout performances. Buckland and Gill work excellently well together and deliver a pleasing power duo. To be able to see Buckland's switch from Sachs to Janis is a delight to watch. Buckland delivers an offbeat character in Janis, and shifts through the emotions of Janis. Buckland shines from start to finish.
Max Gill, plays best friend Damian, Gill's sharp comedy is pleasing, never missing a beat on the timing, Gill's campy performance is superb. Gill delivers a lively and droll performance together throughout equally matching each other never being majorly over the top, but still being larger than life as the characters are written. Gill's performance is a joy.
Sophie Pourret's portrayal as Karen is Bubbly and lighthearted, with amusing deliver pleasing the audience throughout.
It must be said carrying on, I understand that venue to venue have different stage spaces that limit the sets being big, flashy, and wowing. Though Scott Pask's set design is simply mainly made up of dropped in backdrops and wings a couple of fly-in set pieces of such as a door to help resemble other locations, Pask's design is certainly minimalist and feels more like it keeps to only what’s essential, feeling paired back and streamlined.
Overall, Mean Girls is for the entertainment factor, it's here for nights out and also for your fans of the beloved orginal. We have a long trail of movie to musical adaptions, Mean Girls struggles to find its footing to add anything different or new to the film when placed on stage (apart from the songs), it's a shame, as with fantastic performances, some entertaining songs and an insane amount of pink and mean-ness it's an underwhelming stage adaption that needs more.
★★★
Mean Girls - The Musical plays at the Sheffield Lyceum Theatre until Saturday 14th of November before touring until the 30th January 2027:
