Writing for the Broadway Mean Girls musical started in 2013, nine years after the debut of the cult high school film of the same name. If a musical counterpart to the film was necessary for fans and the developing franchise alike, wouldn’t the music for a Broadway adaptation be ordered sooner? And if a film—or any form of media—has reached the standard of a “classic,” does adaptation into an incidental genre mean anything? In that sense, did this reinvention follow too soon?
People loved it. Mean Girls: The Musical served as an extension of the film, not as an overwrite or an amendment. The original script was transformed into a novel during a period when the original movie’s quotable remarks were still somewhere in cultural consciousness. This new canon of Broadway adaptations was set in motion by the stage adaptations of Legally Blonde in 2007 and Moulin Rouge in 2018. Musicals have been becoming increasingly popular on screen as well—think La La Land and Elvis as Academy Nominees. The Mean Girls musical attracted fans of the film by entering new and campier territory, and lured theater fans to the Mean Girls brand through catchy songs and scripts–which could also be used for smaller scale production. A musical shifted the film beyond itself to ground the script’s residence as a cultural curio of the 21st century.
The 2024 film—a remake of the remade musical that was itself a remake of the original film—lacked any sense of necessity because of its conflicting methods of storytelling. The 2004 film felt important because of its immediate cult following, and the subsequent musical, even if ancillary, added a new perspective to the original movie.
In the original Mean Girls film, a montage of minor characters reveals Regina’s importance to the viewer with ridiculous comments like “she met John Stamos on a plane one time and he told her she was pretty.” This introduction falls more subtly than the Broadway version, where the changed medium calls for a more explicit introduction. In the 2018 musical, Regina announces herself through the line“My name is Regina George, and I am a massive deal” in a number introducing the “Plastics.” This more obvious form of storytelling makes sense in the theater, where dialogue and music make up for foregone intimacy of pans, zooms, and jump cuts.
Regina George’s botched introduction in the musical-movie is representative of a larger stylistic problem. Certain songs were cut down and had lyrics changed, in an unnatural attempt to fit the musical into the film format. Communication became muddled as it was translated from the expression of the musical into the realm of the film. The movie and its Broadway inspiration were intended as separate entities—one being an exciting footnote to the other, not a replacement. Mean Girls (2024) is neither, departing significantly from the musical while attempting to not make any changes to the 2004 film. The project is made contradictory by its unavoidable redundancy.
The movie appeals directly to fans of the original musical by casting original Broadway members, along with new and memorable young stars like Avantika Vandanapu and Auli’i Cravalho. Yet the 2024 film remains trapped between mediums, unsure of how to frame itself. “This movie is a broad comedy with music. Yes, it could be considered a musical, but it appeals to a larger audience,” said Marc Weinstock, the Paramount president covering marketing for the film. This negation begs viewers to consider the importance of a transformed project. Is it approaching the original content in a different light, like the musical did with the 2004 script? Or is it seeking to appease every prior audience and maintain a fanbase that has outgrown it?
Mean Girls is a classic but was successful as a teen movie because it stood apart from peer films. Another 2000s franchise comes to mind—High School Musical to its sequels to High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. Some things need more time before they can be regurgitated. Bahz Lurhmann’s Romeo and Juliet was a unique 1990s dystopia grounded by Shakespeare. Even Scarface was a remake. But for a truly successful remake, the original work needs to either be an undeniable classic or stumble out of obscurity. Mean Girls (2024) was not a fresh take, nor an attempt to find a new audience, but ultimately a way of juicing any leftover interests of the two existing audiences to keep the older works alive. At this point I will probably be too confused when we get to Mean Girls: The Movie The Musical The Remake The Musical The Movie The Show.
