Is the New Mean Girls Movie a Musical? What to Expect When the Broadway Adaptation Hits Theaters

New Mean girls the adaptation tries to be as “acceptable” as the original.

Mean girls2024 version, was announced as an adaptation of the Broadway hit of the same name in January 2020, with original star and writer Tina Fey rewriting the script and producing, per Deadline.

In December 2022, the cast was announced, including Senior year actress Angourie Rice takes over for Cady Heron, originally played by Lindsay Lohan, and Reneé Rapp reprises her role from the Broadway play as Cady’s nemesis Regina George. Fey would also reprise the same role she played in the original film nearly 20 years ago.

Musical film ‘Mean Girls’: Everything you need to know

However, after the teaser trailer for the much-anticipated film — minus a single song — was released in November 2023, fans had a few questions. Basically, where was all the music?

From how much singing will be featured to how different it will be from the original production, here’s everything you need to know about the upcoming Mean girls movie.

That, Mean girls is a musical

Jaquel Spivey plays Damian, Angourie Rice plays Cady and Auli’i Cravalho plays Janis on ‘Mean Girls’.

Jojo Whilden/Paramount

New Mean girls is indeed a musical and will include songs from the original Broadway play.

“It’s a very specific version of a musical that has a really specific place in a niche, cult theater sense, which I think extends to maybe people who aren’t really into theater,” Rapp told PEOPLE in April 2023.

You see Mean girls Actors side by side with other actors who played the characters

Rapp also praised Fey, who wrote the film iterations and the book for the Broadway show.

“Tina and our whole team just do such an amazing job of adapting, and the whole cast is really young and really cool,” she said.

No, it’s not a remake

Tina Fey plays ‘Ms. Norbury’ in ‘Mean Girls’.

Jojo Whilden/Paramount

Although the new film is based on the original 2004 film, according to producer Lorne Michaels, it is not a direct remake.

“It’s not a remake, it’s a new interpretation,” he said Entertainment Weekly in December 2023 “It seems like a familiar enough story, but that’s for today.”

Tony Award nominee Jaquel Spivey, who plays Damian, added that the goal was not to recreate the cult film, but to make a contemporary picture.

“We love it so much that we’re going to do something fresh, because we can’t recreate it — it’s too iconic,” Spivey said.

“During the recording, we would say: ‘We want to support the sacred text’, but also that it feels new and fresh because it is something different. It’s another take on it,” added director Samantha Jayne.

One of the ways they made changes was to make the film much more inclusive, including a more diverse cast and characters. “Representation is extremely important,” Jayne said. “Being able to see yourself on screen is everything, so we wanted our actors to bring themselves to this role in every way possible.”

Was there any singing in the trailer?

Renee Rapp as Regina George in ‘Mean Girls’ trailer.

Paramount Pictures/YouTube

When the teaser trailer first appeared, the only song that could be heard was bad girl Regina George introducing herself in “Meet the Plastics.” But the real confusing moment came when the entire trailer was released and not a single song was played. Instead, the trailer is set to “Bring it back!” Olivier Rodrigo.

Fans posted their confusion online, with one person to X writing“If I were doing a trailer for a Broadway version of the show, I’d just include the music so people know it’s not just a remake.”

Another person on x wrote: “I’m surprised the trailer doesn’t show any aspect of this being a musical, since you know, that’s the main difference in this version.”

How much singing will there be in the film?

Busy Philipps plays Mrs. George in Mean Girls.

Jojo Whilden/Paramount

Apple Music has Mean girls soundtrack available for pre-order and features 13 tracks, though no names have been revealed yet except for Rapp’s collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion, “Not My Fault,” which is assumed to be the credited track. However, the original Broadway play has 21 songs.

While of course not all 21 made the cut, the other 12 songs in the film may also not be from the Broadway play. Fey’s husband, Jeff Richmond, composed the film and narrated it Entertainment Weekly that some songs were original.

“People who do bedroom pop are very popular, they mostly produce all their songs in the bedroom,” Richmond said. “So that was our initial approach, but I wanted to bend the songs a little more to make them sound like radio hits, so we changed the palette from Broadway to radio.”

To that end, every main character – except Chris Briney’s Aaron Samuels – sings, and just like in the Broadway play, Cady’s narration will be replaced by music.

What are the differences between a Broadway play and a movie?

Renee Rapp in ‘Mean Girls’ on Broadway. Joan Marcus

One of the main differences, to begin with, is the operating time of each of them. While the Broadway play is about two hours and 30 minutes long, the film is only five minutes short of two hours. The number of songs is also almost halved.

However, one thing that will remain the same is Janis and Damian, who act MoanaAuli’i Cravalho, or Spivey, will tell the story — which is different from the original film.

“Something like that [directors] Sam and Art said I was amazed, ‘What if Janis and Damian directed their own high school experience?’ “, said Bebe Wood, who plays Gretchen Weiners EW.

Why don’t studios market movies as musicals?

Angourie Rice as Cady in ‘Mean Girls’ trailer.

Paramount Pictures

Although Fey and the cast set the record straight Mean girls Since it is a musical, the question remains as to why it is not advertised as such. It’s also not the only movie musical to experience this — Wonka, Leo and Purple all are releases from December 2023 that are not specifically advertised as musicals.

The Hollywood Reporter wrote that studios avoid promoting musicals because of the negative connotations or perceptions that can be associated with them, such as every word sung.

“If you say the word musical, people have preconceived opinions. The musical has a connotation that [characters] he’ll sing every word, and the audience can tune out,” said one marketing expert at the studio.

Per Deadlinefocus groups of test audiences were found to “generally hate” musicals, and studios found that the only way to get audiences through the door to see them was to disguise exactly how much singing would be involved.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education