Tina Fey’s high school comedy has gone through several iterations since its first cinematic outing in 2004, and now it is back on a UK tour.
The musical version has been a film and stage show, and while adapted by Fey, it makes several switches to the story of Cady Heron, who moves from Kenya to the US and faces the culture shock of shifting from home education to high school.
There, she encounters The Plastics – a trio of teenage girls headed by Regina George, who rule the school, and Cady plots with her new found-friends to infiltrate them – but ends up turning into one.
The film is darkly funny, helped by Fey’s sharp wit and willingness to break taboos, and also featured landmark performances from Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams.
The musical is sadly less – to borrow a phrase from the franchise – fetch. While there are still funny moments, it loses some of its playfulness and immediacy on stage. In this production, it also feels underpowered in its leading ladies.
Emily Lane as Cady and Vivian Panka as Regina both have great voices but feel uncomfortable in their (often quite sparkly) shoes. Lane over-engages, with every song at maximum power and little room for the warmth and innocence that made Lohan’s portrayal so winning. Panka is supposed to be the queen bee, but doesn’t command attention in the way this role really needs.
The two girl’s joint love interest, Aaron, is played by Ben Oatley, who seems to be channelling his inner Mark Zuckerberg, and is much more awkward than swoonsome.
By contrast, Kiara Dario and Sophie Pourret as sidekicks Gretchen and Karen really shine, with rounded enjoyable performances. Dario is manic and obsessive without descending to farce, and Pourret plays the bimbo beautifully: her slow walk off stage during The Karen Variations is priceless.
It’s also a pleasure to watch Faye Tozer in her tripled-hatted role as teacher Ms Norbury and both Cady and Regina’s mums. She doesn’t get much chance to sing, but switches seamlessly between these very different roles with some confident character acting.
The production feels in need of a bit of glow up, with design and staging that sometimes feel more high school than West End – disappointing when they clearly can do better. There is one moment where Regina glowers over a photocopier, sharply lit, and with a pulsing light bar descending from the top of the arch like the scanner bulb whisking across the page; if only that level of creativity was copied through the rest of the show, I wouldn’t be reaching for my burn book.
On one level there is nothing wrong with the show. The book is still funny, the songs smart, the choreography competent, and the performances consistent. And as the narrators remind us, it’s not clever to say mean things.
But we also learn that it’s not smart to play dumb – and I think they could do so much better.
Mean Girls continues at Norwich Theatre Royal until 17 October 2026, tickets £15.90-£83.74, then touring.