The hit Broadway musical Mean Girls, that continues to delight audiences at Broadway’s August Wilson Theatre, is readying for its National Tour. With a launch commencing in Buffalo, New York on September 21, 2019, producers have announced the trio of actresses who will take on the roles of the notorious in-crowd queen bees known as “The Plastics.” Newcomer singer-songwriter Mariah Rose Faith will lead the trio as Regina George with Wicked national tour alum Megan Masako Haley as Gretchen Wieners and Mean Girls original Broadway ensemble member Jonalyn Saxer stepping into the role of Karen Smith.
Mariah Rose Faith is a Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter easily recognized from Team Starkid or Youtube. Jonalyn Saxer has appeared on Broadway in Mean Girls (Original Broadway Cast), Cats, Holiday Inn, Honeymoon In Vegas, and Bullets Over Broadway. Megan Masako Haley has appeared in NYC in Pacific Overtures (Tamate, Classic Stage Company), Big River (Joe Harper/Joanna Wilkes City Center Encores!) and has toured in Wicked (Nessarose).
Featuring a book by nine-time Emmy Award winner Tina Fey (based on her screenplay for the 2004 film) and a score by three-time Emmy Award winner Jeff Richmond (music) and by two-time Tony Award nominee Nell Benjamin (lyrics), Mean Girls opened on Broadway on April 8, 2018. Tony Award winner Casey Nicholaw directed and choreographed the production that went on to be nominated for twelve Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The original cast included Taylor Louderman, Ashley Park, Kate Rockwell, Erika Henningsen, Barrett Wilbur Reed, Grey Henson, Kyle Selig, and Kerry Butler.
“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. He maintains a theater and entertainment blog at markrobinsonwrites.com.