High school is horrible. It was horrible when I was in high school 30 years ago, it was horrible when the movie
Mean Girls came out 15 years ago (depicting the many and varied ways kids can be horrible to each other), and I can only imagine that it's even more horrible now with the addition of social media as a way to expedite bullying and the pressure to achieve a certain image. Last year's Broadway musical adaptation of the 2005 movie has updated the story to include modern elements and references, but at its heart it's the same smart, funny, feminist (sort of, eventually) story of the struggle to find oneself and be oneself amidst the pressures of life, as amplified by the high school experience. It may not as clever, original, or modern of a high school musical as, say,
Ride the Cyclone, the Off-Broadway musical currently playing at the Jungle Theater to sell out crowds. (
Mean Girls musical was nominated for multiple Tony Award but did not win any, 2018 being the year of the exquisite
The Band's Visit, coming to the
Orpheum in December.) But it's still a lot of fun, with a good message in the end, and it has a built in audience of several generations of former, current, and future teenagers who love the movie. Minneapolis is the first stop of the first national tour, and it's staying for two weeks.
Click here for info and tickets, including details of student/educator rush tickets.
