"Likable but seriously over-padded...The trouble lies in the less assured translation on adolescent social angst into crowd-pleasing song and dance. Richmond and Benjamin’s many many (many) musical numbers are passable by middle-of-the-road Broadway standards...Yet they rarely capture either the tone or the time of being a certain age in a certain era...As long as they're talking, the leading students of 'Mean Girls' exude an idiosyncratic, carefully exaggerated comic charm."
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"Tart but sweet...A canny crossbreed of 'Heathers' and 'Hairspray'...Fey is one of the sharpest comic writers in America, and the show remains her vehicle...The most famous lines from the screenplay are here, but Nicholaw's energetic staging wisely breezes past them; the newer jokes get bigger laughs, while the score successfully builds on Fey's knowingly corrective tone...Where 'Mean Girls' glows most is in the spotlight it shines on its cast. Louderman is sensational."
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"'Mean Girls' isn't just a fun, and very funny, show: It's continuously, mischievously self-aware...Has its share of beloved moments to live up to. And it delivers...'Mean Girls' isn’t flawless. The first act is so strong, with such a well-built, fast-paced arc, that the second half feels like it takes a few tugs on the starter cord before the lawn mower fires up again...It’s not shocking that 'Mean Girls' is a fast-paced fancy funtime, but it’s a real treat to find that it’s still witty, worldly, and wise."
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"The cast is all-around good, but special credit goes to Butler...Also convincing are the 'art freaks,' Janis and Damian who in Fey's rewrite function as narrators...Fey's screenplay is so taut and quotable that the addition of songs seems almost gratuitous, and Richmond's music has the interchangeable pop-anthem sound that's become standard on Broadway. But who needs Tina Fey to reinvent musical comedy? She does just fine with the help of Casey Nicholaw."
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"'Mean Girls' is funny enough, and so, I suppose, is the new musical version...Of the 18 songs by Benjamin and Richmond, 'What's Wrong With Me?' is dramatically savvy, but none of the others add value: They exist solely to let the actors sing...Another super-safe musical whose target market is those who loved the movie...Nicholaw's dances are zippy and Pask's 'set,' which consists mostly of video projections, is fun to look at. The cast is fine, too."
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"Vibrant, beautifully sung and visually splendid, this funny charmer - book by Fey, music by Richmond and lyrics by Benjamin - broadens the original Paramount movie - a bar-raiser for teen flicks - to full musical comedy scale without sacrificing any of the mordancy and compassion...Stays true to the plot of the film while smoothly updating the high school mischief-making for the age of social media...Songs are loaded with cleverness."
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"Delivers a fizzy blast that tickles the ears, eyes and funny bone...This season's most likely to crowd-please...Not the same as saying it's a great musical - but the show surprises and impresses...Songs are easy-to-like...An excellent cast...Staging packs style, invention and Red Bull-force energy that showcases the material to the max...Dance numbers get repetitive...The book gets a bit choppy towards the end...Still, Fey's baby is a lot of fun."
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"The show’s high fun factor comes as no surprise...Nicholaw gets this material. The stage swirls with non-stop traffic, if not perfectly executed dance movement...The staging is actually too busy, too colorful, too loud, as if Nicholaw doesn't want us to notice that not much of interest is happening...Fey has front-loaded the show with great gags...Snappy one-liners...Benjamin's lyrics aren't half as clever as Fey's off-the-cuff wisecracks, but they get the job done and are quirky enough."
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