MEAN GIRLS Previews — Page 6

I feel like similar reports have been coming out of Spongebob, Margaritaville, and now Mean Girls. (And possibly Anastasia from that salty Brantley review though I haven't heard any of that anecdotally.) What is going on? I don't think it has anything to do with the age of the target demographic. Is it just all the adaptations pulling in audiences who aren't used to seeing a Broadway show?

I can understand the purpose of the framing device at the top of the show, when they start telling the story in retrospect and it's technically one year later. It's just obviously the way they decided to introduce the story in general.

Opening numbers are hard and giving purpose and reason for the story told in any show is a difficult transition for writers to make. The transition being, going from no show being done on the stage to suddenly, there is a show on stage. I guess that is just how the writers decided to introduce the story - and it does work in the beginning. It does a great job of letting the audience know why these characters want to tell this story. It's just a shame that they didn't take the extra little time at the end to tie it up. They even have a set made up of led screens, so it would be easy to click "next slide" on the set designers powerpoint presentation and suddenly we'd be back in the future.

It's been done easily in other shows that are told in retrospect / flashback/forward

Once on this Island: Finale brings back the story-telling element in the finale to tie up how they were telling a story in the beginning

Wicked: The whole show is told in retrospect as there is a celebration that Elphaba is now dead and then the story starts when someone asks Glinda if it was true that they were friends and then the story begins. But the finale does bring us back to that celebration to tie up the timeline when Glinda reprises For Good while remembering that time with Elphaba. This was don in a very simple finale of people just screaming wicked a bunch of times but we got the point and the timelines made sense.

Book of Mormon: (kind of not the same) It starts with the pageant motifs of the history of mormons at the start of each act and then transitions to how the religion is spread in our story, but it was never explicitly a flashback or forward so we don;t have the same timeline problem.

My point is, musicals have a history of not taking up too much time in the finale to tie up flashback timelines. Cut one verse and chorus of Who's House Is This and use that time to explain the flashback in the finale. The curtain would go down at the same time and there would be no union issues.

A friend of mine is at the show tonight and Barrett is out with Tee Boyich making her debut as Janis.

If you check out Tee's Instagram story, it says she's "making her Broadway debut in a role she doesn't cover and learned at 3:30 this afternoon." Wow!

How absolutely thrilling for Tee Boyich and the cast! These are the moments that make Broadway special. I do wonder why one of the understudies didn't go on though.

Updated On: 3/20/18 at 12:08 AM

Was at the show tonight and overall, I had a fun time.

I'm not entirely confident in the quality of the show. The book is pretty strong, but it mostly sticks the movie, and when it deviates, it falters slightly. There's an added plot point of Aaron actually living in another district that feels shoehorned in as a way to give him some sort of character development or something. As it is, it does nothing to really add any sense of dramatic tension or anything.

I saw the show in DC and there have definitely been a lot of changes, some steps forward, a couple steps back, but mostly just some big ol' steps sideways. The score is still incredibly generic. The opening numbers of both acts are different, as are the finales of each. Couldn't really hum any of the songs for you now if you asked me, but they're relatively painless and enjoyable in the theater.

The cast is strong across the board. I found Erika Henningsen winning in DC and I find her just as charming and likable in New York. Cady is the least interesting character in the show, but Erika finds ways to add quirks and charm left and right.

Kate Rockwell all but walks away with the show, honestly. Every line gets a laugh, she's developed a hysterical character walk, and she's got a killer voice. Since casting was announced, I've been saying she should play Regina, but it would be a huge loss not to have her as Karen. Ashley Park is just wonderful. I've yet to see her give a performance and be anything but blown away by her. She's funny, heartbreaking, and isn't afraid to be wacky.

Taylor Loudderman is someone I've never been overly impressed with. I've seen her in several shows and have always left thinking she was solid and that's about it. In DC, I thought she was the weakest part of the show. I'm still not completely in love with her performance, but she's grown leaps and bounds in the months since their out of town. Her character voice has been toned down slightly so that you can actually understand what she's saying and she shows a little less blasé and a little more fire throughout. Could be amped up though.

Grey Henson is still delightful in every way, not much more to say. Tee Boych, though. I was blown away. I really had no idea she didn't even cover Janis until I got home and read my playbill. She seemed so confident with everything she said and did, and her voice was phenomenal. Really impressed by her.

Kyle Selig is good in what is truly a thankless, borderline featured ensemble role. Aaron deserves a song of some kind--either a solo or just something better than the horrible duet he has with Cady in act 2.

Direction is fine, save for the finale that lacks any staging at all until the choreography kicks in. The choreography is good but there's just too much of it. I feel like that past few Nicholaw shows I've seen, I've just felt like someone was afraid to tell him to tone down the dancing. Not every number needs to build to a huge group dance showcase. Sometimes less is more.

Overall, it's a fun time. I forgot every song as soon as it was over, and maybe that's ultimately for the best. Can definitely see myself making a return trip in the future to see how it's continued to change, and probably see Tee Boyich in the other roles she covers.

Apologies if this has already been discussed, but does anyone know why Barrett has been out as of late?

I don't understand these "tone" complaints. A musical comedy tone is already completely different than a realistic comedy film tone. Plus, who cares. It's not the film. There is no requirement that this story "feel" like the movie's story. There's actually no real need for it to tell exactly the same story. It's an adaptation.

Actually, I think the musical should have strayed further from the film, especially in the second act. The act's climax feels like it should be the woman-empowering assembly where it seems everyone is learning something. Then they just forget what they learned and another half hour of buses hitting girls and mathletes and stuff that feels completely anticlimactic. Yes, the screaming harpies in the audience would have been upset if the musical didn't advance exactly like the film, but everything after the assembly until the dance feels tacked on.

Looks like Barrett was back tonight. (1 & 2)

Any updates on previews? Material added or cut?

UnwoundFantasies said: "Does anyone have an updated runtime?"

Not sure if this helps, but I passed by the August Wilson at 4:40 after Children of a Lesser God and the audience was still filing out of the theater, playbills in hand. So I'd imagine it's running at about 2:30 - 2:35 right now.