Mean Girls
Congress Theatre, Eastbourne
until Saturday 25th April
I have always been a huge fan of the original Mean Girls film and was a teenager myself when it was released in 2004. Now over 20 years later and firmly in my ‘I’m not a regular Mom; I’m a cool Mom era’ I was excited to see the musical adaptation of the popular teen comedy with my tween daughter. The plot of the musical is essentially the same as the original film, minus a few minor characters and lines in the production that we saw, with the key message of the story and being true to yourself being as pertinent for girls and women alike as it was two decades ago.
This was an incredibly strong cast, who each bought an extraordinary amount of talent and characterization to their roles to make these diverse and complex characters real and relatable. In a slight derivation from the film format the musical starts with Janis (Georgie Buckland) and Damian (covered at this performance by Michael Dean-Wilson) breaking the fourth wall to introduce the audience to this ‘Cautionary Tale’. Throughout the show this duo worked extremely well together, Michael Dean-Wilson was effervescent as Damian with his tap-dancing number being a joyful part of the show. Georgie Buckland was perfectly cast as Janis who has a slightly different background story in this production to the film version with Regina (Vivian Panka). Her vocal performance in the bold ‘I’d rather be me’ was flawless and is the song from the show that I keep finding myself singing to a day later.
At the performance I attended the audience were treated to a superb performance from another cover within the cast with Ms Heron/Ms Norbury/Mrs George being played by Fergie Fraser, the sheer skill in playing three very different women within one show with such skill and precision was inspiring. As was the ability to make some very quick changes between the various roles.
The central role of Cady Heron was played by Emily Lane. She perfectly captured Cadys transition throughout the show from an innocent teen who had previously been homeschooled by her mother all her life to plastic and then again through her redemption arc. The scenes in which Cady relates the behaviours of the other teens in her new High School to the wildlife in the Kenya that she has moved from were fun, and made Cady believable as someone who lost her way trying to fit in.
Mean girls wouldn’t be mean girls without the plastics. The trio of Regina, Gretchen (Kiara Diaro) and Karen (Sophie Pouret) worked fantastically as the Queens Bees of North Shore High who becomes Cadys ‘frenemies. Part of the beauty in transforming stories like this into a musical version is the ability to learn more about the characters through song, which we certainly do through Gretchens beautifully sung “What’s wrong with me?” which is extremely relatable to girls and women at all ages.
Mean Girls is still culturally relevant for tweens, teens and women of today, it remains the ultimate story of how far should someone go to fit in? With fun staging which included a high school with movable desks and Damians travelling by Scooter. This energetic and talented cast who are most definitely all-stars this show makes for a fun night out at the theatre with a worthwhile moral takeaway.
Mean Girls is playing at the Congress Theatre Eastbourne until April 25, 2026.
Reviewer: Lisa Dawn
Cast
Emily Lane stars as Cady Heron,
Vivian Panka as Regina George,
Kiara Dario as Gretchen Wieners,
Sophie Pourret as Karen Smith,
Georgie Buckland as Janis Sarkisian,
Max Gill as Damian Hubbard, (in Eastbourne Michael Dean-Wilson)
Ben Oatley as Aaron Samuels,
Karim Zeroual as Kevin Ganatra,
Joshua Elmore as Mr Duvall and
Faye Tozer as Ms Heron/Ms Norbury/Mrs George. (in Eastbourne Fergie Fraser)
Completing the cast are Charlie Barnard, Rebekah Bryant, Michael Dean-Wilson Savannah Ffrench, Fergie Fraser, Thomas Gotobed, Jenny Huxley-Golden, Trisha Kumar, Sadie Levett, Arjun Mudahar, Jessie Odeleye, Stefanos Petri, Charlotte Pourret, Jack Rose, Tori Louise Ryan, Lillia Squires, Jayd’n Tyrone and Chay Wills.