Being popular is everything, and the new Broadway musical Mean Girls is set to become the Queen Bee of national tours when the multi-Tony-nominated production hits the road in the Fall of 2019. Produced by Lorne Michaels, Stuart Thompson, Sonia Friedman, and Paramount Pictures, the musical is based on the hit 2004 feature film of the same name. Dates and cities for the tour, along with casting and other information, will be announced at a later date.
Mean Girls is nominated for 12 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book (Tina Fey), Best Original Score (Jeff Richmond and Nell Benjamin), Best Direction of a Musical, and Best Choreography (Both Casey Nicholaw). Taylor Louderman is nominated in the Best Actress in a Musical category, Grey Henson is nominated for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, and Ashley Park is nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Fey is this year’s Outer Critics Circle Award winner for Outstanding Book of a Musical. The production is also nominated for 10 Drama Desk Awards and 3 Drama League Awards, including Best Musical.
“Working with Tina and Jeff to bring Mean Girls to Broadway these past five years has been one of the happiest experiences of my life,” said producer Lorne Michaels. “We’re so proud of the show and thrilled people all over the country will see it.”
On Broadway, the cast of Mean Girls is led by Erika Henningsen as Cady Heron, Taylor Louderman as Regina George, Ashley Park as Gretchen Wieners, Kate Rockwell as Karen Smith, Barrett Wilbert Weed as Janis Sarkisian, Grey Henson as Damian Hubbard, Kerry Butler as Mrs. Heron / Ms. Norbury / Mrs. George, Kyle Selig as Aaron Samuels, Cheech Manohar as Kevin Gnapoor, Rick Younger as Mr. Duvall. The cast also includes Stephanie Lynn Bissonnette, Tee Boyich, Collins Conley, Ben Cook, DeMarius R. Copes, Kevin Csolak, Devon Hadsell, Curtis Holland, Myles McHale, Chris Medlin, Brittany Nicholas, Becca Petersen, Nikhil Saboo, Jonalyn Saxer, Brendon Stimson, Riza Takahashi, Kamille Upshaw, Zurin Villanueva, Gianna Yanelli, and Iain Young.
“Cady Heron may have grown up on an African savanna, but nothing prepared her for the wild and vicious ways of her strange new home: suburban Illinois. How will this naïve newbie rise to the top of the popularity pecking order? By taking on The Plastics, a trio of lionized frenemies led by the charming but ruthless Regina George. But when Cady devises a plan to end Regina’s reign, she learns the hard way that you can’t cross a Queen Bee without getting stung.”
Mark Robinson is the author of the two-volume encyclopedia The World of Musicals and maintains a theater and entertainment blog at markrobinsonwrites.com.