In the recent trend of movie musicals being afraid to tell people that they are, in fact, musicals, “Mean Girls” might be the one with the least to worry about. Genuinely exciting in some ways while understandably stilted in some others, the end result of reviving a beloved film for a new adaptation ends up being a far savvier move than you might expect.
Though there are surprises to be found here in other ways, anyone familiar with the 2004 original “Mean Girls” will recognize the plot contours. After being homeschooled and living her formative years in Kenya, Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) has to navigate the treacherous social waters of North Shore High School. Helping her along the way are instant pals Janis 'Imi'ike (Auliʻi Cravalho) and Damian Hubbard (Jaquel Spivey). When Cady catches the eye of school royalty Regina George (Reneé Rapp, reprising her Broadway work) and her coterie of Plastics (Bebe Wood as Gretchen Wieners, and Avantika as Karen Shetty), a plan emerges to flip the high school pecking order from the inside out.
