Interview: Tym Brown Plays the Principal Role in MEAN GIRLS

Plastics last.

And the Plastics of North Shore High School – the self-obsessed, their-way-or-the-highway trio of “mean girls” at the center of the eponymous hit 2004 feature-film comedy, the 2018 Broadway musical it inspired, and the 2024 feature film based on the musical  – have done just that, becoming an enduring part of pop culture.

With book by nine-time Emmy Award winner Tina Fey, music by her three-time Emmy Award-winning husband, composer Jeff Richmond, lyrics by Nell Benjamin (“Legally Blonde”), and original direction and choreography by Tony Award winner Casey Nicholaw (“The Book of Mormon”), “Mean Girls” returns to Boston for a one-week engagement at the Emerson Colonial Theatre,  April 29 through May 4.

Partly inspired by the 2002 Rosalind Wiseman nonfiction self-help book “Queen Bees and Wannabes,” and also by her own high-school experiences, Fey’s “Mean Girls” is set at a suburban Chicago high school where 16-year-old Cady Heron transfers after more than a decade in Africa on a research trip with her zoologist parents, Betsy and Chip.

After a rocky first day, she is befriended by fellow students Janis Sarkisian and Damian Leigh, who give her the lowdown on the school’s various cliques. They urge her, unsuccessfully, to steer clear of the Plastics, led by Queen Bee Regina George and her not always ladylike ladies-in-waiting, Gretchen Wieners and Karen Smith, who are wasting no time in trying to recruit the newbie.

The role of North Shore High School principal Mr. Ron Duvall was played in both films by actor and comedian Tim Meadows, a longtime cast member of NBC-TVs “Saturday Night Live.” On the current North American tour of the musical, the part is being played by actor and singer Tym Brown.

A Milwaukee, Wisconsin, native and graduate of the America Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA), Brown has had featured roles in the musicals  “Summer: The Donna Summer Musical,” “Next to Normal,” and “Sister Act.” By telephone recently from a Montreal tour stop, Brown talked about “Mean Girls,” what it’s like following in the footsteps of Meadows, and more.

Were you familiar with “Mean Girls” before you landed this tour?

I didn’t know much about the Broadway musical version of the story, but I had seen the original movie with Lindsay Lohan and enjoyed it very much.

What did you think of Tim Meadows as Mr. Duvall?

I thought he was great, but then anything he does is funny. His humor is always spot-on, no matter what character he is playing. And when it comes to “Mean Girls,” you can’t play Mr. Duvall without thinking of him – his dry comedy and droll delivery.

Have you included any nods to Meadows in your performance?

No specific nods, but I do try to very subtly pay homage to him. We’ve been told, however, to stay true to the characters and play them our own way so I always keep that in mind.

In your own life, have you ever been sent to the principal’s office?

I’ve never been sent to the principal’s office for doing anything bad. I have no memory of my high school principal, but my principal at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School in Milwaukee, James Henry, laid the law down, for sure, but he was hip and cool, too. You always wanted to treat him with respect. No one ever had anything bad to say about Mr. Henry.

From your experience, what has made “Mean Girls,” in all its forms, so enduringly popular?

I think people who grew up with the 2004 movie still love it, and now, through this stage musical and the movie it inspired, a whole new generation has found and fallen in love with this story. That social media has been added in this musical version only helps make the show more relevant to today.

What is it like working with the young performers who play the teenagers?

It’s good, because I have some life experience under my belt now that helps me to relate to them. Back in Milwaukee, I worked for a time as a life skills mentor so I’m able to share what was most beneficial to me as a young performer. Personally, I think it is most important not to become jaded by show business, which is something I try to impress on the younger actors in our cast.

When did you get your start in musical theater?

I started performing professionally in a production of “Godspell” in Los Angeles when I was just 20. I learned pretty quickly, however, that theater can be a dog-eat-dog world. I love to perform, to sing, to dance, and to act, though, so whatever it takes, it’s worth it, because it’s what I love to do.

I went to AMDA in New York and then transferred to the Los Angeles campus. I was one of 41 students in the first graduating class from AMDA Los Angeles. I was in the studio program for film and television students and I learned about everything from how to break down a script to memorization. Since finishing my undergraduate degree at AMDA, however, most of what I’ve done has been in musical theater. I come from a musical family and I am a singer, but I’m not really a dancer. I call myself a strong mover.

One last question, when it comes to “Mean Girls,” is it true that “On Wednesdays, we wear pink”?

Absolutely, our audiences are a sea of pink on Wednesdays. I think it’s great that catchphrases from the movie, like that, “You know you want to sit with us” and others are still so popular.