Mean Girls: The Musical Isn't Good

The musical songs themselves aren't really that good
Some are okay but must just aren't good

At least it's better than 2024

The issue about removing everything offensive is that those are absolutely things teens still deal with. Removing it from media is just invalidating because it pretends that all is well by sweeping it under the rug. For instance slut shaming among teen girls is a common issue that is prevalent in high schools. And teens absolutely spread rumours about others being gay or lesbian, and it can be very damaging. Even if someone is gay they might not want to be uncloseted. And if they’re not gay, the perception that they are just ruins their dating life.

And also, of course we want to portray the modern landscape as “kind” and “accepting”, but teenagers are conniving c*nts. You are trying to tell teens that their bullies are not homophobic and their peers aren’t judging them when they face that every day of their lives. We’re not saying that’s the right thing to do, but it’s a real issue that deserves to be portrayed in media.

I'll take "videos that make you pause in the midde to go relisten to candy store" for five hundred

Hoping you make a video on the 2023 mean girls

I aint watchin this vid cuz ima get mad at it cuz ur wrong BUT thats ok I will like it anyway

My biggest problem is that if they saw the original movie was so disrespectful and didn't age well (which I completely disagree with), then why water it down/change it amd remake it at all? Leave it alone! Tina Fey ruining her own amazing original idea is so weird

The fact that people like you are offended by Janice's lesbian line is exactly why they felt the need to water down and ruin what was so funny about it. And why there is no comedies being made anymore. Don't watch comedies if you are offended by everything!!!

I didn't believe Aaron for a second when he said that Cady had become a clone copy of Regina. Literally all you saw her do was tell you to shut up and admit that she lied about being dumb. Like what are you even talking about?

while i totally agree with like basically all of the points here, i do think that the criticism of the line " this is modern feminism talking/ i intend to run the world in shoes i cannot walk in " in sexy isn't a dig at modern feminism, but rather a joke about karen's misunderstanding of it. feminism generally promotes freedom of expression for women right, no matter how they want to dress, no matter how masculinely or femininely, and i personally interpret this lyric as karen misunderstanding that idea rather than thinking it's a flaw in modern feminism. i don't think her character has the brains for that 😭 obviously it's all up to interpretation but that's just how i understood it ^-^

I liked it.....

Tbh Mean Girls is more of a soundtrack musical to me, whereas others like (I don’t wanna say Falsettos or Hamilton because the whole musical is just song shsh) The Book of Mormon and yeah Heathers, the story moves with the song most of the time, and with mean girls it feels like it stops in the moment, or it’s a timeskip and while that can work I feel like if they added a reprise or two instead, like Cady singing It Roars alone in the bathroom as she eats before Janice and Damien find her or something, honestly I just love reprises
Like in Hazbin when they called back to previous episode songs I was just 😮🫵🏽 REPRISE
and then I saw the soundtrack and it was a reprise so
I’m just normal about reprises

I’m just yapping for realsies lol

Okay now talk about what happens when you take a film and make it a musical and then use that musical to make another film lol

I have a theory that A TON of the examples of the terrible lyrics come from Tina Fey directly — (HEAR ME OUT); Perhaps Fey she wrote extended scenes / drafts of lyrics or just prompts for what the songs would be about—- Perhaps the lyricists asked her questions (ex “What would so and so imagine as her perfect childhood party??” “What is the message Janice would say directly to the crowd if she could?”) And Fey launched some monologuing// jokes that they then lifted directly for the numbers?? I say this because, - I think it’s likely they were asked to try to specifically capture her style of humour, and because - MANY of the jokes within songs (that make up EXPLICITLY bad lyrics) sound SO MUCH like Tina Fey’s own brand of humor when spoken outloud. (A young Tina Fey imagining ‘the perfect party’ to include: “dresses, and cake.. And singing and dancing —-and cake” is the kind of flippant, (not particularly clever but earnest) offhand joke I can imagine in her book BOSSYPANTS for example). There’s several examples of this — and using incorrect grammar/ speaking simplistically/wrongly — It’s the kind of stuff Liz Lemon might say on 30 Rock and specifically capture Fey’s brand; but
put to paper, it’s really NOT witty. —- Now take out comic-timing, add time-signature, and make it all rhyme—- ?? Now it REALLY REALLY doesn’t work.
I could be wrong, of course. Just a theory that’s always struck me—- Either way, everyone involved has had PLENTY of time to reconsider and re-write these flaws… and they live-on, thru B’way— touring prod.—- high school vzn—- (and now, sadly) -another film.

Buffyspeak is the exact opposite of what you described. Do your research.

Wait, Regina in the film has an eating disorder? I never noticed!

i want to defend this musical but tbh, the only reason i love it so much is because its the first musical i saw live.

The thing about Janis's sexuality isn't that she is or isn't. It's about the fact that a rumor can adversely affect a person's life.
Maybe she was a lesbian. Maybe she was bisexual. Maybe she herself just bought the label until she started to date Kevin. It doesn't matter, because it's about how Regina hurt her reputation.
And if you think 2010 wasn't gay friendly, you should've seen the 80s!

Chat how do we feel about this in 2024 now

We need an update about the musical movie!❤❤❤

they did also throw away Gretchen wieners jewishness from the movie. if you do pay attention from the movie, she states about the fact regina wouldnt allow her to wear a pair of earrings she got for Hannukah but i noticed that only because im a 30 year old jewish guy myself

Having come back to this video a couple years later, there are a couple of points I still agree and disagree with, but the thing that made me want to comment was the modern feminism line in "Sexy". I would argue that the song is definitely about women's roles in the world in general! Karen of course is not (consciously) aware of it, but I think it's about the pressure that is placed on women from an incredibly young age to be desirable at all times. The "modern feminism" line is honestly my favourite in the whole show because to me it's a commentary on choice feminism - young women are taught to go to extreme lengths to be as sexy as humanly possible, which leaves less time and energy for other things (like running the world lol). Whilst they 100% have the right to do this, and can be successful doing it, it's ridiculous to ignore the structural reasons behind their decisions to, for example, buy shoes they cannot walk in. The musical movie changing the line to "watch me as I run the world in shoes I cannot walk in" was a big disappointment for me because it's just way less funny and impactful.

Turns out all the issues in the musical were carried into the movie adaptation of the musical.

Im still screaming over the fact that they got rid of Stop for the movie but had the icarly theme song because of paramount licensing only for the reboot to get cancelled a few months before release💀

Personally I adore the new movie, which basically keeps all the problems of the musical but maybe even worse.
But basically, as a Mean Girls 2024 fan, I will never claim the 2024 film is good.
It's one of those "vibe films" were it's more about the vibes, singing along etc and not actually about the story.

It very much feels like a cheap, simple, industry-produced version of the old film/musical. Honey, I grew up in the 2010s, I'm used to industry-produced stuff and love that! But is it any quality? No, absolutely not, I'll be the first person to admit that. I can still love it though.

It seems like many of the problems people had with the musical movie were already problems in the musical.

I don't think that Janice was said to be straight in the movie. I think she kisses the guy and then sneers afterwards.

I just don't think Mean Girls works as a musical :/

I like mean girls the musical fairly well but it’s kinda forgettable unlike the movie who people have been obsessed with till this day.

it's so weird to me how bad the musical numbers are when legally blonde NEVER missed

i disagree on you with legally blonde because it is very hard for highschoolers to do what they did. i think the musical was unfortunately (it is my favorite musical) unsuccesful due to mismanagement which led to the highschoolization

Idk that movie Janice is gay. She may be, and it's ok, but people can decide you're something you're not, and it happens all the time in high school. This label is both a weapon and a shield.

She reminds me of my neurodivergant students. Talent. Black and white thinking. Wanting to fit in. She wanted what all kids want; friends.

In jnr high, she had a best friend who probably attracted high school boys... RG is in yr 11 and dating the yr 12s. Let's face it, if she didn't take up sports, her dating pool in yr 12 would not be high school boys.

I think what went down is that RGs bf had a friend who tried it on with Janice. RG may even have supplied alcohol. Janice liked someone else and it was a disaster. RG spreads it round that Janice is gay to punish her. Janice eventually rolls with it and plays into the stereotype. Probably because more than one of her new group is not straight. But playing into the stereotype scares off male attention. By the time the mathlete who doesn't date white chicks asks her out when she confirms she's Lebanese. Janice, by now, has taken down RG and has some confidence, and gives him a chance.

It's a pity that they didn't expand more on Karen's 'don't share nudes' but also but being pressured into sex before youre ready for it is sadly an all too common problem teens face too.

"There's a screen that's part of the stage" No, that's the thing though!

Dear Evan Hansen uses like 23 screens in it's set.

Mean Girls is LITERALLY all a screen. The whole set is either LED wall or projection surface, and it's way more LED wall than you'd think.

I think the musical tried to do the exact opposite of the movie: have a good guy. there are no good guys in the film, until the very end when character arcs end. The musical tries to paint the main characters in a much more positivie light, trying to smooth over their flaws to make it more "okay" to root for said characters.

Words cannot express how much I appreciate the ad read being absent from the nebula version

U bish ur saying mean girls the musical is BAD? I can’t. THE MUSIC IS THE BEST AND ITS SO FETCH. Ur not fetch biatch😒and ur so fucking cringy like…

Came back to this since I have just seen it on West End and its interesting that a few of the songs Sarah flagged as filler/problematic they have cut out such as Fearless and Stop.

Will admit lots of the songs are not memorable.

However Janis did have a lesbian pride flag at the end!

im not watching this thing cause it will hurt to bad but if this is rage bait then shush and if it isn’t and you hate it 💀

I think the saddest thing about sanding the edges off of the meanness of the original, and this whole trend of "villains can't do anything problematic" is that it removes the chance for the audience to be validated for their experiences and feel catharsis. Feeling seen by a situation, even a horrible one, can validate you and that the thing you went through wasn't crazy and it wasn't just you. Janis is not a great person, she's pretty manipulative and vindictive, but that clearly comes out of a place of hurt. Whether she's straight or lesbian (depending on the version), homophobia is the central part of why her friend betrayed her and it adds to the sting of Cady accusing Janis of being obsessed and in love with her during their confrontation. Girls have not stopped being homophobic, in general and to people they suspect are queer (true or not). But the new movie adds a bizarre chain of events to the falling out and takes out the short and harsh barbs like "Oh my god, it's your dream, diving into a big crowd of girls". To me that just feels like it doesn't get how bullying is usually a microcosm of issues from the adult world, like homophobia, racism, classism and fatphobia.

I don't love Janis' ending in the original, but I could see an argument being made about how culturally isolated, racist ignorance would conflate Lebanese with Lesbian in the same way that we get "if you're from Africa why are you white?" Which, I don't think the original was making any real point about how POC women or women who are seen as not white enough/not the right kind of white are denied femininity and how that could be linked to lesbians having a complicated relationship to femininity. Tie it in with Orientalism and how "the East" is framed as being sexually perverse with mixed-up gender roles. But if they wanted to make that point in the remake they could've, and they didn't.

Didn't mind janis being straight in the end. So many people I know where bullied for being gay who were not gay. It's representation for them I guess.

Not only the songs are quite bad, but Regina’s costumes are bad because in the movies she wears short skirts but in the musical, she wears pants all the time which I didn’t really like because popular girls at school probably wear clothes that makes them look pretty like small skirts and High heels

I thought the fact that Janice was another type of mean girl and even that Damien is his own type of “mean girl” was an explicit part of the story.

mean girls the musical: it's like la croix, but with songs!