Mean Girls comes of age, along with the rest of us  

Tina Fey’s sharp script from 2004 still holds up pretty well 20 years later. Mean Girls was one of those films that entered our vocabulary. “You can’t sit with us!” is a way to perkily exclude someone. “Stop trying to make fetch happen!” has been used countless times when someone tries to start a lame trend. And when someone is described as a “mean girl” – even if that person is well and truly into adulthood — the meaning is automatically understood.   

From screen to theatre, what are the differences?

Now Mean Girls has come to the stage at London’s Savoy theatre as a musical. There have been a few tweaks to the script because the world has changed and changed again in the past two decades. There are references to Ozempic, air fryers and smartphone filters. But perhaps the most significant change is making Damian and Janis, the two gay characters, the narrators. They replace Cady, the lead character and narrator played pitch-perfectly by Lindsay Lohan in the original film.  

It would be lazy and asinine to roll one’s eyes and scream “WOKE GONE MAD!” while waving a rolled-up copy of the Express at a cloud because of the new narrators. Bringing Damian and Janis to the fore is a great way to update the script. This doesn’t take anything away from a storyline that still resonates with pretty much anyone who went to high school.  

The prominence of Damian and Janis, performed excellently by Tom Xander and Elena Skye, modernises the show. It is a wonderful way to show how society has grown up and moved forward in the past 20 years. The script has come of age, along with wider society. Xander and Skye’s presence, peppered with dry humour and camp fun, is important for gay teenagers who will see this show.  

Changing times

That there hasn’t been an outcry over this change speaks volumes. No hysterical newspaper columns. No homophobic Twitter storm following the reviews. Good. While we are seeing a lot of increasingly angry, divisive and often toxic debate on LGBTQ+ issues, the elevation – without controversy – of two gloriously gay characters is a joyous, positive thing. It is a theatrical moment to be proud of.    

As for the story itself, fans of the film will be pleased to know it still follows the same 2004 arc.

The easy – some would say cheap – laughs are still there. Regina George still gains weight by accidentally devouring what she thinks is a diet supplement. Karen is still almost irredeemably stupid. Regina’s mother is still the tracksuit-wearing lush who wants to be her daughter’s best mate, rather than a parent.   

Would the script feel more 2024 if Regina became accidentally addicted to Botox and fillers? Maybe, although I’m not sure how that could be shoehorned seamlessly into the script.   

Was Karen’s idiocy laid on a bit too thickly? Maybe, although most of us can recall laughing at something daft someone said in class many moons ago. I remember one of my school friends responding to the history teacher asking, “What happened to Schleswig-Holstein after WWII?” She said, “he was shot.” I’m still a history nerd and that 33-year-old incident still cracks me up

As for Mrs George as the perma-drunk matey mum, I remember this genre of parent in 1980s and ‘90s rural Australia. I’m sure they still exist in the UK and beyond in 2024. They’re a fair target for parody. She (or he) could be reading this very article now.  

While this latest incarnation of Mean Girls has come of age, along with the rest of us, it’s not a classic coming-of-age tale. But it doesn’t have to be an earnest Dead Poets Society-style show. The universal themes of bullying, of wanting to fit in, of doing terrible things to each other all resonate way beyond our school days. In Mean Girls at the Savoy, they’re told with a lively script, a dizzyingly bright set and bouncy tunes.   

Another article you might like:Midlife Coming of Age

We are all Mean Girls deep down

My hot date for press night was the amazing Sangeeta Pillai, who runs an award-winning sex-positive podcast for South Asian women. Our school days were worlds apart. Mumbai and the Australian towns of Wagga Wagga and Bathurst might not have much in common at first glance, but we both went to school with people who are reflected in Mean Girls. Kids can treat each other abominably, no matter where you go.  

As Sangeeta and I discussed after the show, it is not uncommon to come across people in our adult lives who don’t seem to have evolved from when they were at school. Jacob Rees-Mogg, 55, is way too obsessed with where people went to school and what that supposedly says about them, for example. I can think of plenty of prominent people who make a fine living out of embarrassing attention-seeking. The other day, LinkedIn suggested I connect with a former boss who was – and for all I know and care, still is – the epitome of an overgrown mean girl.  

Schoolyard behaviour doesn’t necessarily end for everyone when they leave school. But the one thing we can control is our reaction to adult Mean Girls behaviour. The Mean Girls characters come of age and become better people before our very eyes on stage. And there’s no reason why we can’t go through this process multiple times when we’re adults.    

   

Without giving too much away, there is an inevitable resolution at the end of Mean Girls. And in midlife, many of us come to our own realisations and resolutions about how we treat other people – and how we expect to be treated by others. It’s a bonus coming of age. My latest coming of age process has been about setting boundaries and not being afraid to cut out toxic people.   

There is plenty for grown-ups to relate to in the Mean Girls musical, whether it’s teenage characters who give you schoolyard flashbacks, teenage characters whose behaviour is reflected in adults, or adult characters who make you feel seen.

Above all, Mean Girls is a lot of fun. The main reason to go along is to have a good laugh. But only the most sheltered theatregoer will leave without having a few thoughts provoked by Tina Fey’s fantastic writing.    

Book tickets here: Mean Girls Stage Show