Review: MEAN GIRLS at The Overture Center

Be prepared for A Cautionary Tale, wherein somebody dies! ("Nobody dies")

From being homeschooled in the savannas of Kenya to attending North Shore High School, Cady Heron (English Bernhardt) has some huge adjustments to make. With the help of her new besties, Damian Hubbard (Iain Young) and Janice Sarkisian (Lyndsay Heather Pearce) she will embark on a new adventure. High School!

Staying true to the original movie, Tina Fey did a fabulous job on the book for the musical. The music by Fey's husband Jeff Richmond combined with Lyrics by Nell Benjamin add elements of fun and frivolity to the experience. The music was catchy, poignant, often setting or breaking the mood, depending on what the scene called for. "Do This Thing" was by far my favorite.

From Cady's first encounter with "The Plastics" you are in for a great ride. Dealing with topics such as bullying and high school politics, you will be transported into a school setting that makes you wish you could do high school all over again.

Frenemies, Queen Bee, Regina George (Nadina Hassan) and her minions Gretchen Wieners (Jasmine Rogers), and dim-witted Karen Smith (Morgan Ashley Bryant) rule the school with a Gucci like hold over everybody.

From the leads to the ensemble, every person in this cast does a great job. I often found myself mesmerized by the dancers as they moved in the background, adding depth to the staging and color to the show.

As the story unfolds the audience gets insight into the inner workings of the school through magnificent choreography, moving desks and an amazing video projection. The show makes the best use of space that I may have ever seen.

The bottom line is that these actors have mad "Squillz" and the show is totally fetch! Go see it! It's totally "tits"!

You Know You Wanna Sit With Us...

Madison, Wis. (August 15, 2022) - The First National Tour of Mean Girls- the record-breaking new musical comedy produced by Lorne Michaels, Stuart Thompson, Sonia Friedman and Paramount Pictures based on the hit film-is coming to Overture Center on Tuesday, Aug. 30 through Sunday, Sept. 4. Tickets are available at overture.org, in person at the ticket office or by calling 608.258.4141.

Mean Girls features a book by nine-time Emmy Award® winner Tina Fey, based on her screenplay for the film, music by three-time Emmy Award® winner Jeff Richmond and lyrics by two-time Tony Award® nominee Nell Benjamin. Tony Award® winner Casey Nicholaw directs and choreographs.

Mean Girls opened on Broadway in April 2018 to rave reviews at the August Wilson Theatre, following its world premiere at the National Theatre in Washington, DC, in the fall of 2017.

Cady Heron may have grown up on an African savanna, but nothing prepared her for the wild and vicious ways of her strange new home: suburban Illinois. How will this naïve newbie rise to the top of the popularity pecking order? By taking on The Plastics, a trio of lionized frenemies led by the charming but ruthless Regina George. But when Cady devises a plan to end Regina's reign, she learns the hard way that you can't cross a Queen Bee without getting stung.

New York Magazine calls Mean Girls "HILARIOUS! A smart, splashy new musical that delivers with immense energy, a wicked sense of humor and joyful inside-jokery." Chicago Tribune said, "Tina Fey writes FUNNIER, SMARTER, SHARPER satire than anyone else in the business." People Magazine calls the show "FRESH, FUN AND INFECTIOUS - Jeff Richmond and Nell Benjamin's songs keep the laughs coming!" The New York Daily News said Mean Girls "TICKLES THE EARS, EYES AND FUNNY BONE - the direction by Casey Nicholaw packs style, invention and red bull-force energy." And Entertainment Weekly calls it "A MARVEL: DAZZLING & HILARIOUS!"

The tour cast will feature English Bernhardt as Cady Heron, Nadina Hassan as Regina George, Jasmine Rogers as Gretchen Wieners, Morgan Ashley Bryant as Karen Smith, Lindsay Heather Pearce as Janis Sarkisian, Eric Huffman as Damian Hubbard, Adante Carter as Aaron Samuels, Kabir Bery as Kevin G., April Josephine as Mrs. Heron/Ms. Norbury/Mrs. George., Lawrence E. Street as Mr. Duvall and Adriana Scalice as Standby for Cady, Regina and Janis.

The cast also includes Wesley J. Barnes, Erica Simone Barnett, Noah Blessing, DeShawn Bowens, Susie Carroll, Brittany Conigatti, Mary Beth Donahoe, Niani Feelings, Sky Flaherty, Samuel Gerber, Jamary Gil, Dan Horn, Maya Imani, Asia Marie Kreitz, Olivia Renteria, Grace Romanello, Sydney Mei Ruf-Wong, Marcus Shane, Kaitlyn Louise Smith, Tovi Wayne and Iain Young.

The creative team includes Scott Pask (Set Design), Gregg Barnes (Costume Design), Kenneth Posner (Lighting Design), Brian Ronan (Sound Design), Finn Ross & Adam Young (Video Design), Josh Marquette (Hair Design), Milagros Medina-Cerdeira (Make-Up Design), Mary-Mitchell Campbell (Music Director), John Clancy (Orchestrations), Glen Kelly (Dance and Incidental Music Arrangements), Mary-Mitchell Campbell, Jeff Richmond and Natalie Tenenbaum (Vocal Arrangements), Howard Joines (Music Coordinator) and Telsey + Co / Bethany Knox, CSA (Casting).

Mean Girls (Original Broadway Cast Recording), produced by Atlantic Records, is now available.

www.MeanGirlsOnBroadway.com

Follow @MeanGirlsBway on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

Broadway at Overture is sponsored by American Family Insurance. Our community partner for Mean Girls is SupraNet. Overture is grateful for this community support that helps make these experiences possible

OVERTURE CENTER FOR THE ARTS in Madison, Wis., is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization that features seven state-of-the-art performance spaces and four galleries where national and international touring artists, nine resident companies and hundreds of local artists engage people in nearly 700,000 educational and artistic experiences each year. With the vision to provide "Extraordinary Experiences for All," Overture's mission is to support and elevate our community's creative culture, economy and quality of life through the arts. overture.org

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