| MEAN GIRLS in DC (herein lie a few spoilers) | |
| Posted by: carolinaguy 08:37 am EST 11/20/17 | |
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| Saw this in a packed house (at the heinous National) on Saturday night. I've never seen the movie for some reason--I love Tina Fey but have just never made the effort to go back and see this. So, I really only knew the basic plot outline going in, as well as a few of the ubiquitous lines. Given that Fey is the most famous name on the marquee, I was expecting a lot of book scenes and tons of dialogue. But it's pretty much wall-to-wall music--the piece has been fully musicalized, sometimes successfully, sometimes a little less so. I expect this will be a hit in NY just as it has been in DC. There's a lot to like and the cast radiates energy and high spirits. There are a few issues to be addressed, but there's plenty of time before Broadway to do that. There's flat-out too much exposition. The first three numbers feel like opening numbers (no song list, so any song titles here will be my assumptions) and it takes a little too long to set up the world of the show, so some trimming is in order. Richmond's music is all pleasant in the moment, but most of it is not memorable and many of the songs begin to take on a certain sameness. When he does go a little out of the box, such as with a straight-up hip-hop number near the top of Act 2 called something like "Whose House Is This?", it tends to work. The best song is an 11 o'clock-ish number for supporting character Janice called "I'd Rather Be Me" (I assume). The sound at the National was a little muddy, so some of Benjamin's lyrics get lost in the mush, but they seem to be professional and in-character if not exactly Sondheimian in complexity. (Though I would note to her that "status" and "bad ass" do not rhyme, no matter how much you repeat it and no matter how much you have the singer contort the pronunciation.) The staging is first-rate. This is by far Nicholaw's best work since Book of Mormon. The individual scenes all move and there's tons of character and business detail--note the way he has the actors do fantastic in-place choreography with their arms during the Mathletics scene. The classroom scenes shift quickly by having the actors at schooldesks on wheels doing a quarter-turn to indicate time and place transitions, with ensemble members taking turns quickly shifting from student to teacher roles. Scott Pask's set is a functional knockout--mostly a curved wall with marvelous projections that encompass everything from the "burn book" pages to brick institutional walls with directional signs that will instantly transport you back to your high school in your mind. The complex lighting is equally impressive. My only qualm with any of the staging is that there are a few occasions where the end of a scene seems to get a little squashed, where maybe a song could have used a bigger button or something and had more impact. There are no clunkers in the cast. Every performance is accomplished and everyone does get their share of moments. Of particular note are Barrett Wilbert Weed as Janis Sarkisian (who gets what I thought was the best song, as mentioned earlier) and Kerry Butler, playing all the adult females. Butler in particular is astounding and probably Tony-nomination bound, creating three very distinct and very different characters with some quick changes that must be beasts. She only has one solo (a rare ballad as Mrs. George that's effective and humorous), but enough ensemble numbers and comedy bits to warrant awards consideration. The end could use a little more focus--Cady's transformations from good girl to fake mean girl to real mean girl and back to good girl are fully fleshed-out, but Regina's transformation from mean girl to nicer girl is a little squishy. I mean, she gets hit by a bus (great staging moment) and suddenly she's nicer? This is not long after she's had a huge revenge number (complete with hydraulic levitation), so it feels like there needs to be a counterpoint musical moment there. And the whole thing could use just a skosh more sentiment to give the ending more oomph--a comment that could apply to many Fey-penned projects, brilliant as she is. This is a musical, after all. But all in all, I felt like it was a good show, and close to being a very good one. I hope they make the necessary tweaks and have a big success at the August Wilson. |
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