NEW YORK — Broadway actor Jaquel Spivey has landed his first feature movie role.
The Tony-nominated star of “A Strange Loop” has been cast to play the role of gay best friend Damian Hubbard in the film adaptation of the “Mean Girls” musical, based on Tina Fey’s 2004 high school comedy.
Spivey will join Renée Rapp, who reprises her role as superficial teen queen Regina George during the musical’s Broadway run, which ended in March 2020, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “Little Mermaid Live” star Auli’i Cravalho has been cast as Janis and “Spider-Man” movie franchise star Angourie Rice is set to play Cady Heron in the eagerly anticipated project.
Production and release timetables for the film are not yet known.
Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert and Amanda Seyfried starred in the original film the musical is based on. The 2018 Broadway show, produced by “Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels, was nominated for 12 Tony awards and lost out in all categories. “Mean Girls” garnered the Drama Desk Award for outstanding book of a musical for Fey.
Spivey, 24, made his Broadway debut in “A Strange Loop,” Michael R. Jackson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical. The Raleigh, North Carolina, native won a Drama Desk award for portraying an overweight, gay writer who works as a Broadway theater usher while traversing life in New York.
The show announced it will close Jan. 15.
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