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Catherine Brunell
Catherine Brunell

Mean Girls Welcomes Catherine Brunell

The Broadway musical Mean Girls welcomes Catherine Brunell to the hit production currently playing at the August Wilson Theatre. The actress will join the cast in the roles of “Mrs. Heron / Ms. Norbury / Mrs. George.” Brunell will begin performances tonight, December 11, succeeding Tony-nominee Jennifer Simard, who played her final performance on December 8.

Catherine Brunell has appeared on Broadway as Portia in Something Rotten!, Eponine in Les Miserables, Cora in the original cast of Thoroughly Modern Millie, as well as in Mary Poppins, Elf, A Tale of Two Cities, and in the Deaf West revival of Big River. Regionally, she’s appeared in productions at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Old Globe Theatre, Paper Mill, MUNY, Barter, Goodspeed. Television credits include Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and The Sound of Music Live!

Brunell joins he current Broadway cast of Mean Girls which includes Erika Henningsen as Cady Heron, Reneé Rapp as Regina George, Krystina Alabado as Gretchen Wieners, Kate Rockwell as Karen Smith, Barrett Wilbert Weed as Janis Sarkisian, Grey Henson as Damian Hubbard, Kyle Selig as Aaron Samuels, Cheech Manohar as Kevin Gnapoor and Rick Younger as Mr. Duvall. The ensemble features Aaron Alcaraz, Darius Barnes, Stephanie Lynn Bissonnette, Maria Briggs, Collins Conley, Cailen Fu, Devon Hadsell, Curtis Holland, Sasha Hollinger, Olivia Kaufmann, Brittany Nicholas, Pascal Pastrana, Becca Petersen, Drew Redington, Jake Swain, Riza Takahashi, Daryl Tofa, Teddy Toye, Bria Jené Williams, Gianna Yanelli and Iain Young.

Based on the popular film of the same name penned by Tina Fey, the stage version sees the popular actress/screenwriter adapting her screenplay for the Broadway stage. Music is by three-time Emmy Award-winner Jeff Richmond, and lyrics by two-time Tony Award-nominee Nell Benjamin. Tony Award-winner Casey Nicholaw directs and choreographs.

“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, The Disney Song Encyclopedia, and The Encyclopedia of Television Theme Songs. His latest book, Sitcommentary: The Television Comedies That Changed America, released on October 15. He maintains a theater and entertainment blog at markrobinsonwrites.com.

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