Review: MEAN GIRLS at The Renaissance Theatre Company

At the end of Saturday night’s performance of MEAN GIRLS, Donald Rupe (Co-Founder) stepped on stage and corralled the cast back out after bows to sing happy birthday to longtime Renaissance company member Michelle Cobin (Karen), reminisce about the poignancy of Blake Aburn (Director) helming a Renaissance Theatre Company show on the 54 West Stage, and to celebrate the multiple cast members wearing myriad hats in putting the production together so quickly. As has been clear for some time now, and as was reiterated that evening, The Ren is a tightly-knit family and troupe of artists that have made an indelible mark on Orlando’s arts and queer scenes. The performance venue and gathering place has leaned away from traditional theatre and heavily embraced drag bar/club/immersive experience projects in recent years; MEAN GIRLS marks their first foray back into published commercial musical theatre territory in recent memory.

Rupe’s post-performance assertion that “The Ren[aissance Theatre Company] doesn’t do things like a normal theatre does” should almost be its tagline — The Ren’s party-hard DNA is all over their production of MEAN GIRLS at their temporary home on Church Street in Downtown Orlando as they await the return to their original stomping grounds on Princeton Street. The scrappy experience is a chaotic swirl set at the intersection of a bar, a group hang, and theatre. It’s messy, but it’s also undeniably fun.

Upon entering the temporary space at 54 West (formerly known as the Fringe ArtSpace) it’s clear that The Ren has succeeded in doing their best to bring their trademark immersion to a new venue. Just beyond the entrance (and bar, of course), visitors are dropped into the North Shore High School Spring Fling. School desks, lockers, and hand-made banners create several “fetch” photo opportunities for audiences, all with pink walls, pink lighting, and early 2000’s pop tracks thumping. It’s a pretty genius way to engage with the source material and to make use of the lobby. While waiting out a significant technical delay on Saturday night, however, the space swelled with an entire stranded audience; the smaller square footage began to emerge. In crafting this experience, The Ren is certainly accustomed to much more dynamic (and sizable) accommodations — but that’s simply a limitation of their temporary digs, not of the creative team. (The Ren also hosts an afterparty each night in this space, inviting audiences to stay and play once the show ends.)

While debaucherous vibes are certainly a fit for the material, alcohol reveals just how deep The Ren’s leanings as a bar and club have become, briefly overcoming the graces of producing traditional theatre. Pre- and post-show drinks are a staple of any theatrical endeavor, but at MEAN GIRLS on Saturday night, bar staff continually delivered cocktails in the middle of the performance, frequently calling out names and orders in full voice from the aisles while the cast was on stage. Even dine-in movie theaters make deliveries more discreetly, and one hopes that this system is revisited or reworked for the remainder of the two-month run.

The theatre itself spreads out like a hand fan from far upstage, meaning that the stage is very wide and quite shallow, with a large angle of audience to play to, which the cast takes care of with ease. The stage itself is relatively spartan, simply adorned with pink lockers (à la Sharpay Evans) on both sides. In a clever use of space, these lockers flip down like Murphy beds to become benches, cafeteria tables, and more.  A pair of stand-alone flats become bathroom stall doors and assist with creative scene transitions, hiding and revealing cast members throughout, and a rolling platform rounds out the modest design as a pantheon, a staircase, and a bedroom. There’s not much in the way of set dressing, smartly eschewing unnecessary detail in favor of efficiency when changing scenes and locations at a breakneck pace as the musical calls for. A few of the locations are clear - the girls’ bathroom, Ms. Norbury’s math class - but the majority of settings blend together into an undefined pink wash of “somewhere”. More inventive lighting design may have helped distinguish one locale from another; largely speaking, the lights are a bit of a weakness throughout, often missing marks or cues, leading to a whiffed call on one of the most iconic moments in the show when a character is meant to be hit by a bus.

Blake Aburn steers his cast successfully through Tina Fey’s hysterical libretto, and all involved do their best with Nell Benjamin’s notoriously abysmal lyrics. MEAN GIRLS suffers from the same ailment that many modern musicals adaptations do, which is an unfortunate misunderstanding of the musical theatre structure; that is to say, there are several songs that exist in this show simply for the sake of being a musical and which get in the way of the show’s momentum rather than moving it forward. That is not the fault of the creative team at The Ren; it’s merely a fact to contend with. Everything is beautifully sung by an extremely talented cast (this cannot be understated) and we are treated to a live band playing the score - something that is always a pleasant surprise. The sound balance could use a few checks, as we do occasionally lose dialogue to overly loud underscoring.

Lauren Cole and Joe Russi as Janis and Damian not only open the show, but handily carry the entire thing. With soaring vocals, incredible chemistry, and totally lived-in performances from both, every moment they are on stage is thought-through, hysterical, and feels utterly true. These are not carbon copies of the Janis and Damian you know from the movie; they certainly take inspiration, but they are their own people who you feel like you already know and certainly want to be friends with. Cole’s “I’d Rather Be Me” is thrilling in its own right, and suffers only from relatively uninspired staging surrounding it. (Damian’s splashy tap number “Stop” is cut in this production, which is absolutely criminal with Russi's talent.) Isabel Bernal has a tough assignment in portraying Cady, a girl who does not know who she is, and therefore tries to be everything that she is not; this leads to more of a shell of a person than one with depth. She does well enough, but it’s hard to overcome that pull of generics. Bernal also has an incredibly powerful voice, but has occasional trouble with pitch accuracy, causing some unintended dissonance on duets.

Jenny Totcky brings a stony aloofness and a terrifying stillness to queen bee Regina that is a departure from the typical quick and sharp-taloned predator. It’s a brilliant choice, resulting in a woman who knows she controls everything around her without needing to exert herself; watching that facade crack is even more fun. (It also doesn’t hurt that she towers over most of her cast mates in heels.) Her cold calculation and stellar vocals on “World Burn” make it one of the most electric moments of the entire evening. Ciera Muhammad’s Gretchen is a painfully codependent frump (she’s in flats for a majority of the show) that seems to believe her only value lies in being a part of the whole; unfortunately, her portrayed discomfort sometimes crosses into a disengagement from the scene. Michelle Coben’s Karen, on the other hand, is totally committed to her vapid wandering, making acting and reacting choices that are eye-wateringly funny. Her opening to “Sexy” is undoubtedly one of the funniest things in the show.

The principal cast is rounded out by a wonderfully dynamic performance from Becca Southworth in all three adult female-presenting roles and an exasperated delivery of Mr. Duval from Nick Bazo. Bryan De Souza is perfectly cast as an aggressively overstimulating Kevin G. The ensemble is filled to the brim with dancers of an extremely high caliber, literally kicking and flipping all over the stage to Abby Cash’s athletic choreography. It appears as though the supporting cast has been given quite a large amount of creative freedom in group scenes, which did lead to several moments of inappropriately stolen focus on Saturday night. There is a sense that a great many moments came from communal suggestions and contributions rather than a singularly focused vision, which causes some dissipation of creative intent, but aligns with The Ren’s commitment to its found-family roots.

The cornerstone phrase for this production seems to be “efficiency” - notably, of cost and of time. The production timeline for this show was incredibly short (less than a month from casting to opening night), and one hopes that the cast and technical team continue to settle into a smoother groove as the run moves forward. After a several long months of hardship, The Renaissance Theatre Company deserves a win; and while MEAN GIRLS may not exactly be the grand slam that they’re aiming for, it still roars defiantly as the company seeks to define itself in a space away from home.

MEAN GIRLS runs through March 15. For tickets, visit the link below.