Broadway: “Mean Girls” (from 2019)
I hated high school. Four years of Hell, nerdy eyeglasses, and getting picked last for dodgeball teams. But I figured if Tina Fey could make me laugh at that unspeakably dreary stretch in my life, “Mean Girls” on Broadway was worth a look. Fortunately I was right and it is indeed, ahem, “fetch.”
There’s no nutritive value whatsoever in this amusing slip of a musical; the plot of a high school newbie (Erika Henningsen in the Lindsay Lohan role) who tries to worm her way into the cool crowd is nothing new, and the message of “be yourself” is right out of Hallmark.
Yet there are certain yuks along the way, provided by such standouts as Jennifer Simard (as the teacher who is played in the film by Tina Fey, or so I’m told) and Cheech Manihar (who plays the Indian-American hip hop mathlete). Music is VG in spots; just don’t expect “Kiss Me Kate.”
The dance numbers run away with the show; directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw (“Book of Mormon.”) And for the record, I did love the Neil DeGrasse Tyson reference. At the August Wilson theater. (Friday)
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