This January, Mean Girls kicked off their national tour in Los Angeles, bringing the classic teen comedy to the United States Life on the stage of Pantages.
At the show’s Los Angeles premiere, viewers wore pink costumes and Mean Girls merchandise while producers Also in attendance were Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels. Based on an original screenplay and book by Emmy Award Winners Tina Fey, Mean Girls In Town It’s the same story for new kid Cady Heron, who navigates the wicked world of high school suburbia — a place led by ruthless plastics and their queen bee, Regina George.
Ahead of the final weekend of Pantages performances, The Hollywood Reporter caught up with the musical’s composer Jeff Richmond joins the current cast to discuss the upcoming film musical adaptation, Richmond’s working relationship with his wife Fey, and how the show is breaking down Broadway diversity barriers. ”
For Richmond, the journey to bring Mean Girls onto Broadway began with securing the rights.
“Tina and I have been talking for years about trying to make a musical,” Richmond said of his wife and creative collaborator Fay. “[Mean Girls] It seemed like people were interested and asking about it, asking if we’d be interested in making a musical. Because we had such a close relationship with Lorne, and he was the one who had to give us the rights, we just said, ‘Let’s work on this. Hell, we could get the rights to the movie Tina wrote. , the Emmy-winning TV composer found his way back to his musical theater roots. Throughout his career, Richmond was a 29 Rock , Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt , Saturday Night Live and )Girls5Eva. Prior to that, he majored in musical theater in college and composed several musical plays and soundtracks before that.
following its debut and 1000 Broadway Pandemic Shuts Down, Mean Girls Reboots and Begins Its US Tour , just in time for the continued development of the musical film adaptation. “I trust everyone we put together and the production company, they’re really going to take care of it,” Richmond said of his current involvement with Broadway shows and tours. “We’ve got great management down the road and people are taking care of it. Now, the day-to-day is more about the film adaptation we’re doing.” In 94, announced that Lorne Michaels and “We’re very committed to this,” Richmond said. “What we’re trying to do (with the movie) is take a soundtrack that sounds like a Broadway soundtrack — in a good way — and [give] the movie a fresher palette. Make it sound more like you want Listening to something on Spotify instead of when you’re sitting in the center of eighth row in a Broadway theater or the Pantages. It kind of makes the whole thing fresher and younger. We sort of recreated the music for the movie, So it’s really fun.” Nadina Hassan, who played Regina on tour, added, “We’re one of the few girls who can play these roles professionally at this level, which is great. It’s been a blessing. Because now, when the movie comes out, what we do will also be shared with many others who may not have been able to come see our tour or see the Broadway cast. To be part of that legacy, I always Felt very lucky.” Over the past three decades of working together, Richmond and Fey have mastered the art of collaborating, not to mention their most important collaboration – their family. “Don’t forget about our kids,” he said with a laugh. “We collaborated on our kids and our dogs.” As for the collaboration on the musical, Richmond said it “couldn’t have been better.” “When we work together, we know when to step aside,” the composer added. “Like who’s playing this character? Who’s doing this? Who needs to work harder to get the script done for this? We’ve always been there for each other. Same office, same. She’s a really interesting person.” Mean Girls JENNY ANDERSON Casey Nicholas, Tina Fey, Jeff-Richmond, Nell Benjamin Jenni AndersonParamount Pictures are planning to adapt the musical version of the story into a film. Michaels will return to production with Fay, who adapted the script. Samantha Jain and Arturo Perez Jr. will direct, with Richmond and lyricist Nell Benjamin also returning to work on the film’s music. It was also recently announced that Angourie Rice, Auli’i Cravalho, Jaquel Spivey and Reneé Rapp will star.
The stage adaptation has also made significant strides in diverse representation by casting a person of color in each lead role.
Gretchen. “I saw almost all the original cast, and I was lucky enough to see Ashley De La Rosa, the Afro-Latino who played Regina that night. I saw her with [Ashley Park, who played Gretchen], and it was really Cool.”
With three women of color on the current
Mean Girls tour, Hassan stresses the importance of breaking down Broadway barriers. “Growing up and going to college by the end of the show, you didn’t see as many people of color in these lead characters,” she explained. “So it’s really cool to be playing Regina now, which I never expected. All three of us break down the different barriers of these characters in a way, which is pretty remarkable.”
From movie to musical to movie musical, Mean Girls has become a teen cult classic, with quotes like “So fetch!” and ” You can’t sit with us” was firmly established 2000s in early popular culture. Nearly Afterwards, viewers still find their way back to it.
“Tina talks about this all the time,” Richmond said of the show’s impact across generations. “It’s a new Mean Girls for every generation. You’ve got them all back to the original movie, but all of a sudden, there’s another version , and now the movies.”
“I think part of it is that Tina Fey is hilarious,” said Morgan Ashley Bryant, who played Karen on the show. added. “She wrote some super iconic lines that I think will probably stand the test of time. But I also think the core value of the story is to get rid of all the excess mess and just support each other as women, which is why I think So many women and young girls resonate with this story.”
Los Angeles Mean Girls will be on this upcoming weekend, That is, Sunday in January ends . Followed by tour group from January Traveling to San Francisco, followed by a week-long stay in Santiago, and from March 7 to Costa Mesa, the last stop in California in March . Tickets for upcoming performances can be purchased online.
