In 2004, Mean Girls had surprise on its side. Sharper than your average high-school comedy, it tapped Heathers’ influence for PG-13 mischief and turned a canny riff on teen cliques into a quotable meme machine. Even with songs, social media, and savvy casting added to the mix, this enjoyable but safe musical redo, coming via-Broadway, lacks that freshness: it’s the old Mean Girls with smartphones, essentially, with an attendant risk of redundancy.
With plot beats so familiar you can set your hall clock by them, returning writer Tina Fey’s script offers tweaks to details more than bold rethinks. And despite co-directors Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr.’s previous experience with shorts and pop videos, the film only fitfully summons the gusto that fans of musicals might expect.
