Hi all, this is going to be a bit of a different post to start the year but I feel I need to do it…
Mean Girls, one of my favourite musicals and one of the musicals I first got into (even before I got into Phantom, can you believe??) has announced that it is now closed, another stagey victim of Covid-19, when I heard that I burst out crying because I was *REALLY* hoping that I could see it when we finally get to go to NY – it was one of my main reasons for going… But I haven’t had that luck.
So this is going to be my goodbye to Mean Girls Broadway post because it has helped me through some of my darkest days.
Mean Girls which is based off the classic 2004 movie with the same name, first opened in April 2018 at the August Wilson Theatre in NYC after a successful tryout run in DC… and then went on to be nominated for 12 Tony Awards but didn’t get any of them! They also released a cast recording which then also got released on vinyl!
Mean girls had just under a 2 year run at the August Wilson and this is my story on why I loved the musical and why I’m devastated I will never see it… Praying for a London run to be announced soon though!!
So I discovered mean girls around mid-May of 2018, it was after I had a big fight with a friend and before I had met my new friends so I felt like I was alone. The first song I heard was called ‘I’d Rather Be Me’ which is the song that Janis sings towards the end of the musical about not wanting to be with the bitchy/mean friends but rather to be with herself, which when you feel crappy and alone is the BEST song to belt out to make you feel better, forget the haters and love yourself, SUCH a great message and great anthem for anyone to belt out.
I then looked into the musical more, watched what performances there were because this was before the cast album was released and they performed at the Tony Awards, so this was the bare minimum of content but I just knew this musical was going to be big for me.
If you don’t know the story of Mean Girls, Cady and her parents move to America from Kenya and she has to fit in with all the ups and downs within High School life.
The first time we see Cady is when during the second song “It Roars” which is the song that introduces us to her. One of the lyrics that grabbed me was “nobody on the Savannah understands, none of my closest friends even have hands” which as an only child and whos closest friends are her 2 dogs… I related to… A lot, as well as her, want to impress people and fit in more.
So I already related to the main character and 2 of the side characters, I just fell more in love with the show from there, I stayed up all night watching the 2018 Tony Awards to see their performance and to see if they were going to win anything… Spoiler alert… They didn’t… Still bitter about that, I preordered their cast recording, watched as this small musical became bigger and bigger until it was one of New Yorks hottest shows.
The show had become such a staple in my life… It even started this blog… My Molly Ponders Musicals Instagram started as a Mean Girls fan page, it then opened up to a blog once I fell in love with more musicals. So without Mean Girls, there wouldn’t be this blog!
I was belting songs DAILY, interacting with the cast members online and supporting the show for 1 and a half years until me and my mum decided to book tickets and go to New York and see it… It seemed perfect… We got tickets for the anniversary night… Which was a Wednesday which… Is a no brainer if you know the show/movie! And then the pandemic hit…
We got 2 weeks away from flying over and then Broadway closed and I guess part of me knew that lt was going to happen but it didn’t stop it hurting any less – to be honest I stopped listening to any musical theatre for a while because I just got too depressed about it all being closed.
After about 2 months I started listening to it again… Mean Girls being one of the first because it never fails to lift me up and I prayed for the chance to rewind time and to be able to go but we couldn’t… So I prayed that it would survive this but it didn’t… And I’ve gotta say… Part of me knew it wouldn’t, I don’t know how but I had something in the back of my mind that was just like… Mean Girls has closed now and isn’t coming back…
This show has been more than a show to me, its been my happy place, it’s been my pick me up, its taught me SO many lessons, it’s given me so many friends and I just want to take a moment and thank it for that… It was here when I had no one and got me through…
Here are the lessons that each character has taught me…
Janis: It’s okay not to want to be like everyone else but you can trust people
Damien: Being both a musical fan and nice to people gets you everywhere so continue as you are
Cady: Be true to who you are and everything will work out
Regina: Even the fiercest people have days where they feel small & don’t apologise for things that aren’t your fault
Gretchen: there is nothing wrong with admitting that you aren’t okay, people’s actions aren’t your fault and that it is OKAY to take time for yourself.
Karen: just dance that negativity off and blast music
This show means the absolute world to me… I’ve even written a homemade lyric booklet with drawings where I hand wrote every lyric from the show out… The things we do in Quarantine am I right?? 😂😂
It has given me so so much joy and happiness, I just want to thank them for that
I also want to thank all of the incredible cast members because yall have made my life so happy I can’t describe it…
Thank you to; Erika Hennigsen, Taylor Louderman, Ashley Park, Kate Rockwell, Kerry Butler, Grey Henson, Cheech Manohar, Kyle Selig, Barrett Wilbert Weed, Rick Younger, Stephanie Lynn Bissonnette, Collins Conley, Ben Cook, DeMarius R. Copes, Kevin Csolak, Devon Hadsell, Curtis Holland, Sasha Hollinger, Myles McHale, Nikhil Saboo, Jonayln Saxer, Brendon Stimson, Riza Takahashi, Kamille Upshaw, Zurin Villanueva, Gianna Yanelli, Chris Medlin, Brittany Nicholas, Becca Petersen, Iain Young, Tee Boyich, Krystina Alabado, Sabrina Carpenter, Renee Rapp, Laura Leigh Turner, Catherine Burrell, Chad Burris, Cameron Dallas, Olivia Kaufmann, Ezra Knight, Jennifer Simard, Darius Barnes, Kevin Cosculluela, Ixchel Cuellar, Morgan Harrison, Pascal Pastrana, Drew Redington, Christine Shepard, Jack Swain, Daniel Switzer, Daryl Tofa, Teddy Toye, Tovi Wayne, Bria Jene Williams, Aaron Alcarez, Maria Briggs, Susie Carroll, Patrick Garr, Talya Groves, Ashley De La Rosa, Cailen Fu & Danielle Wade.
Also want to thank Krystina Alabado, Erika Henningsen and Renee Rapp for our amazing zoom sessions as well as Olivia Kaufmann for some of the conversations we’ve had on IG!
And Thank you to the incredible Tina Fey and Casey Nicholaw for making this incredible incredible musical that I will forever be obsessed with
So that’s it… That’s my post on this incredible musical… There’ll never be another musical which is as iconic as this was… Thanks for the laughs Mean Girls… Thanks for everything…
(now please hurry up and come to England)