Bebe Wood plays Gretchen, Renee Rapp plays Regina and Avantika plays Karen in ‘Mean Girls.'.Photo:Jojo Whilden/Paramount
Jojo Whilden/Paramount
The newMean Girlsadaptation is aspiring to be as “fetch” as the original.
Mean Girls, the 2024 version, was announced as an adaptation of the hit Broadway show of the same name in January 2020, with original star and writerTina Feywriting the script and producing again, perDeadline. Four years later, the movie premiered on Jan. 12, 2024.
However, after theteaser trailerfor the highly anticipated film dropped — sans a single song — in November 2023, fans had a few questions. Mainly, where was all the music?
From how much singing will be featured to how it will differ from the original production, here’s everything to know about the upcomingMean Girlsmovie.
Yes,Mean Girlsis a musical
Jaquel Spivey plays Damian, Angourie Rice plays Cady and Auli’i Cravalho plays Janis in ‘Mean Girls’.Jojo Whilden/Paramount
The newMean Girlsis indeed a musical and includes songs from the original Broadway show.
“This is a very specific version of the musicalthat has a really specific place in a niche, culty theater way, that I think expands it to maybe people who aren’t super into theater,” Rapp told PEOPLE in April 2023.
Rapp also praised Fey, who wrote both movie iterations and the book for the Broadway show.
“Tina and our whole team just does such an amazing job adapting it, and the whole cast is really young and very cool,” she said.
No, it’s not a remake
Tina Fey plays ‘Ms. Norbury’ in ‘Mean Girls.'.Jojo Whilden/Paramount
Though the new movie is based on the original 2004 film, it’s not a direct remake, according to producer Lorne Michaels.
“It isn’t a remake, it’s a new interpretation,” he toldEntertainment Weeklyin December 2023. “It feels like a familiar enough story, but it’s for today.”
Tony Award-nominee Jaquel Spivey, who plays Damian, added that the goal wasn’t to recreate the iconic movie, but rather, to make a modern-day take.
“We love it so much that we’re going to make something fresh, because we can’t recreate it — it’s too iconic,” Spivey said.
“On set, we would say, ‘We want to uphold the sacred text,’ but also have it feel new and fresh because it is something different. It’s another take on it,” director Samantha Jayne added.
One way they made changes was to make the movie much more inclusive, including a more diverse cast and characters. “Representation is extremely important,” Jayne said. “To be able to see yourself reflected on screen is everything, so we wanted our actors to bring themselves to this role in every way possible.”
Was there singing in the trailer?
Renee Rapp as Regina George in the ‘Mean Girls’ trailer.Paramount Pictures/YouTube
Paramount Pictures/YouTube
When the teaser trailer first came out, the only song that could be heard was head mean girl Regina George’s introduction to herself in “Meet the Plastics.” But the real confusing moment hit when the full trailer was released, and not a single song was played. Instead, the trailer was set toOlivia Rodrigo’s “get him back!”
Fans posted about their confusion online, with one personon X writing, “if i was making a trailer of the broadway version of a show i would simply include the music so ppl know it is not just a remake.”
Another person onXwrote, “I’m surprised the trailer doesn’t feature any aspect of this being a musical, since u know, that’s the main difference in this version.”
How much singing is in the movie?
Busy Philipps plays Mrs. George in ‘‘Mean Girls.'.Jojo Whilden/Paramount
TheMean Girlssoundtrack is available on music streaming platforms and features 13 tracks, including Rapp’s collaboration withMegan Thee Stallion, “Not My Fault,” which is the credit song. However, the original Broadway show has 21 tracks.
While naturally, not all 21 made the cut, 11 other tracks in the film are from the Broadway show, with one more original song, “What Ifs.” The other tracks include “A Cautionary Tale,” “Meet the Plastics,” “Stupid with Love,” “Apex Predator,” “What’s Wrong With Me?,” “Sexy,” “Someone Gets Hurt,” “Revenge Party,” “World Burn,” “I’d Rather Be Me” and “I See Stars.”
Fey’s husband,Jeff Richmond, composed the movie and explained toEntertainment Weeklythe choice to make some of the songs original.
“People doing bedroom pop is very popular, basically producing all their songs in the bedroom,” Richmond said. “So that was our initial approach, but I wanted to bend the songs a little bit more to sound like radio hits, so we were changing the palette from Broadway to radio.”
What are the differences between the Broadway show and the movie?
Renee Rapp in ‘Mean Girls’ on Broadway.Joan Marcus
One of the main differences, to start, is the run times of each. Where the Broadway show is around two hours and 30 minutes, the movie comes in at just five minutes under two hours. The number of songs has also been cut nearly in half.
During the red carpet premiere of the movie, Cravalho told PEOPLE that she was honored (and nervous) to be tapped to play the modern version of Janis.
“1000% I was nervous. First of all, I have to say that I’m a friend and a fan of the original, and I’m not looking to remake the perfection that isMean Girlsfrom ‘04,” she said. “But also when Tina Fey is a part of a project that is a re-imagination ofMean Girlsthat also incorporates music from the Broadway musical, my little theater kid was over the moon. I was so excited to be a part of this.”
Why aren’t studios marketing movies as musicals?
Angourie Rice as Cady in the trailer for ‘Mean Girls.'.Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Even though Fey and the cast have set the record straight onMean Girlsbeing a musical, the question remains of why it’s not being marketed as such. It’s also not the only movie musical to experience this —Wonka,LeoandThe Color Purplewere all December 2023 releases that were not explicitly marketed as musicals.
The Hollywood Reporterwrote that studios are shying away from promoting musicals because of the negative connotations or perceptions that may be associated with them, such as every word being sung.
“If you spell out the word musical, people have pre-formed opinions. Musical has a connotation that [characters] are going to sing every word, and audiences can be turned off,” one studio marketer told the outlet.
PerDeadline, test-audience focus groups have been found to “generally hate” musicals, and studios have found that the only way to get audiences through the doors to see one is to conceal exactly how much singing will be involved.
source: people.com
