October 3rd also known as Mean Girls Day, the comedy classic about navigating cliques, highschool, and finding yourself, all while being incredibly quotable and funny the entire time. I have loved this movie since I was in high school, so when a musical was announced I was beyond thrilled, but then I listened to the album and my thrill died quite a bit. I have not seen this show live yet, but I have decided to give the album another try as there is a film version of the musical in the works. Will I warm up to this musical or was it far too fetch for me?
The musical for me is still a mixed bag, there is a lot of quality numbers in here but for every "World Burn" or "I'd Rather Be Me" there's a "Revenge Party" or "Who's House Is This". The best way to describe this musical is that it is like a rave, sometimes the crow is all jumping in unison and sometimes it is more akin to a mash pit. With the people in crowd being the lyrics and melodies, sometimes the lyrics are stepping all over each other and do not fit will.
They feel rushed at times or like the songs are trying to cram too many words in one long stretch of the song without many rooms for a break. There are also sometimes where the rhymes, near rhymes, or a line does not rhyme at all and it does not land. Like in the aforementioned "Revenge Party" there is a line that tries to just use the word cake twice to make it fit twice and connect with a line later on and it does not work. The wording sometimes is jumbled, and it feels like those performing it are trying to play catch up. There is plenty of potential in this show though so I feel like if it went through rewrites and stayed in production longer then something truly great could have come out of it.
That being said some of the songs do work, this show is not a complete dud. There are some fun upbeat songs, a killer villain song, and a few in-between. Not to mention one of the best reprises I have ever heard in the show, where the sped of pacing actually works because it fits the emotion of the music and left my jaw on the floor the first time I heard it. It is one of the most powerful reprises I have heard in a long time, so much so I will probably dive into greater detail on it later. This show is not without some decent high points and it would be unfair to it to focus just on the bad.
I hope the movie makes it truly different and works on some different aspects, similar to the In Heights where certain aspects are cut and even edited, in that case I think this show could go from okay, to really good or even great.
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