The brand new movie “Mean Girls” was released in theaters on Jan. 12. “Mean Girls” is an adaptation of the 2018 Broadway musical with the same name, both are based off of the 2004 movie “Mean Girls” starring Lindsay Lohan. All three “Mean Girls” projects were written by Tina Fey who also plays Ms. Norbury in both the 2004 and 2024 movies.
The new movie is directly based off the Broadway music including 12 songs from the original musical as well as one new song that palsy during the credits. “Mean Girls” has major names in its cast including up and coming star Reneé Rapp.
Rapp got her start in high school performing musical theater, performing at the Jimmy awards her senior year and going on to be Regina George on Broadway in 2019. Though she only got to be Regina George for six months before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down Broadway it wasn’t the worst thing for Rapp.
During the pandemic she began auditioning for movie and television roles and landed the hit HBO series “The Sex Lives Of College Girls.” She did two seasons of the show before beginning her musical career.
On Nov. 11, 2022, Rapp released her first EP titled “Everything To Everyone,” though the EP didn’t get attention immediately eventually the songs “In The Kitchen” and “Too Well” made their way to TikTok introducing a brand new audience to Rapp and her music.
Rapp has only grown since, her first full length album titled “Snow Angel” was released Aug. 18, 2023, she stars as George in the brand new 2024 film, and she was the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live” on Jan. 20, along side host and “Saltburn” star Jacob Elordi.
The film also features well known names like “The Office” star Jenna Fischer, “Moana” star Auli’i Cravalho, “The Summer I Turned Pretty” star Christopher Briney, some newer names such as Avantika Vandanapu and Angourie Rice as well as returning cast members Fey, Tim Meadows and Lohan.
The movie features many iconic songs from the Broadway musical, my favorites being Rapp’s rendition of “World Burn” and Vandanapu version of “Sexy,” both songs have been on repeat since the soundtrack was released. Another of my favorites is “Not My Fault” by Rapp and Megan Thee Stallion, the song was written based off the line “It’s not my fault you’re like in love with me or something” from the 2004 movie and was played during the credits for the new film.
Songs that didn’t quite live up to my expectations were “What Ifs” and “Stupid With Love” both sung by Angourie Rice who plays the main character Cady Heron in the film. Both songs were instant classics in the Broadway musical. Rice’s rendition of the songs just didn’t sit right with me, they felt like they were lacking in the vocals and the background music just felt quiet and like it was missing something.
The cast did a fabulous job in embodying the iconic characters from the 2004 film. Auli’i Cravalho who played Moana in the Disney classic “Moana” played the iconic art freak Janis Ian along side Jaquel Spivey who played Ian’s best friend Damien. I feel like both of them fully embodied their characters, Jaquel was some of the most perfect casting I’ve ever seen, he is extremely funny and I thought played Damien absolutely to a T. Rapp was the absolute best casting in the entire film, not only did she have previous experience playing George but she perfectly played her, she is the perfect modern version of the character and her absolutely stunning vocals helped her to play the character absolutely perfectly. Vandanap was also an absolute perfect choice to play the ditzy character or Karen Shetty. She perfectly plays the stupidity and ditziness of Karen.
Overall I really enjoyed this film, I loved the music and the acting was phenomenal. I really enjoyed both Fey and Meadows coming back to reprise their roles and the surprise appearance from Lohan who starred as Cady in the 2004 film. I recommend this movie to anyone who likes a good musical number and to literally anyone who loves Rapp as much as I do.
