New Mean Girls Material Announced From Tina Fey’s Production Company

Tina Fey and her production company have been in the works for a book adaptation and musical reboot of their 2004 cult classic Mean Girls for years, but it isn’t until recently that the public had been given dates and promos for the projects. The Mean Girls novelization was released September 5, was written by Micol Ostow, and, according to early reviews, is a direct script to novel translation, with only point of view changes and small bonus material. What this means is the dialogue of the novel is entirely faithful to the book; the only difference is the character perspectives shift throughout in an effort to give insight into a particular character’s motivations and feelings. Most reviews are positive, but emphasize that the new book isn’t “new” per say, but just a new way to experience the movie.

The musical, on the other hand, is not nearly as faithful: it's a reboot featuring the same cast of characters, but set in 2017. This allows the musical to incorporate social media into the story, as well as make the musical more relatable for a younger generation, since just a couple of years after its release, Mean Girls was already outdated with the prevalence of smartphones. But this information has been speculated since about spring of this year (and earlier); what’s new is the production was formally announced and given a release date of April, 2018. Also, a promo was released in mid-September which gives the first look at the Plastics and the chemistry that Taylor Louderman (starring as Regina George) has with Ashley Park (Gretchen Wieners) and Kate Rockwell (Karen Smith). The production is expected to do well and most estimates predict that the musical won’t just do well in sales, but with Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon) directing and Jeff Richmond (30 Rock) writing the music, it’s expected to be a successfully-funny reboot that stays faithful to the core of the original- just with a slight (and necessary) modern day twist.

Works Cited

Dibdin, E. (2017, March 13). Read an Excerpt from the Mean Girls YA Novel. Retrieved from Cosmopolitan website: http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/movies/a9126636/mean-girls-novel-excerpt/

[Goodreads page for Mean Girls Novel]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34077604-mean-girls

Jimmy Fallon and the Tonight Show. (2017, May 11). Tina Fey Shares Details About the Mean Girls Broadway Musical [Audio file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI1NZ1VM3aU

Mcphee, R. (2017, September 11). The Plastics Talk and Sing-At the Same Time- in Teaser for Mean Girls Musical. Retrieved September 14, 2017, from Playbill website: http://www.playbill.com/article/the-plastics-talk-and-singat-the-same-timein-teaser-for-mean-girls-musical

[Mean Girls Broadway]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://meangirlsonbroadway.com/#home

Medeiros, M. (2017, September 11). A Promo Video for the Mean Girls Musical is Finally Here and it’s Honestly Perfect. Retrieved September 14, 2017, from Refinery29 website: http://www.refinery29.com/2017/09/171798/mean-girls-broadway-musical-promo-video-facebook

Paulson, M. (2017, September 6). The Mean Girls Musical is Coming to Broadway in March. Retrieved September 14, 2017, from New York Times website: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/06/theater/mean-girls-broadway-musical.html

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