Review: MEAN GIRLS, Woking Theatre - Tour
Photo credit: Paul Coltas
Besties, we reviewed Tina Fey’s comic musical Mean Girls at the Savoy in 2024 (Review: MEAN GIRLS THE MUSICAL, Savoy Theatre | West End Best Friend) so we were delighted to catch up with its first UK tour at the newly renamed Woking Theatre this week. If you saw the 2004 film starring Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams or the West End show, it is a chance to once again enjoy this cautionary tale of female teenage angst in an Illinois High School.
It’s been stripped back from the Savoy staging with the video walls replaced by flown cloths to set the multi-location scenes, but the large, high energy, youthful ensemble fill the stage for the big numbers in Tommy Wade-Smith’s choreography, with some fun fast paced movement sequences using the canteen and classroom tables. Like its “sister” shows (Legally Blonde, Waitress, Six, The Bodyguard) which are also all touring at the moment, the show has a strong appeal to mothers and daughters in particular who recognise the characterisations from the original film or their own schooldays.
For those who don’t know the film, the narrative is quite simple and focuses on the female characters. Cady Heron (a spirited performance from Emily Lane with some fine vocals) has relocated from a home-schooled life in Kenya to North Shore High School in Illinois and is desperate to fit in. She dumbs herself down in maths class to appeal to the fittest boy in the class Aaron (Ben Oakley), and is desperate to be liked by the dominant school girl Regina (Vivian Panka) and her acolytes, insecure Gretchen (Kiara Dario) and dim-witted Karen (Sophie Pourret), known collectively as The Plastics. In doing so, she alienates herself from her two well-meaning gay friends who narrate the tale, the punkish Janis (Georgie Buckland) and the charismatic Damian (Max Gill) who set the scene with their opening number ‘A Cautionary Tale’. The message is straightforward as Cady herself notes, “I was so eager for people to like me that I lost myself in the process.”
Faye Tozer, best known from Steps fame but now an established musical theatre performer, has a very busy night with some very quick costume changes in three roles. Cady’s bohemian mother Ms Heron, Regina’s pink bombshell mother Mrs George, and teacher Mrs Norbury, whom Cady accuses of pushing drugs. The role is played for laughs throughout though, hardly getting a chance to show off her singing talents.
The music by Jeff Richmond and Nell Benjamin is light, poppy and fun without being truly memorable on a first listen, but with our favourite song being delivered by Janis, ‘I’d Rather Be Me’, reminding all of us to be honest and true to ourselves. The sentiments are in sharp contrast to earlier songs, ‘Meet the Plastics’ and ‘Apex Predator’, the behaviours of the girls seeking to be the centre of attention. It is impossible not to be swept along by the energy on the stage, or not to be satisfied by the rather predictable resolution at the end. It’s what this audience wants to see, a fun entertaining and sparkly night out without being too preachy or radical, and a positive upbeat message to send them home happy. The message is: Don’t be mean, Girls.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Nick Wayne