(Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, Orlando FL) The Mean Girls musical had its opening night before a Walt Disney Theatre full of pink-clothed, adoring fans, and there were some extra 'goodies' to be experienced this evening as well!
First, attendees to the show received an email communication advising them that the preferred color of attire this evening was going to be pink. Fashioned after one of the iconic lines of the musical (and movie) -- "On Wednesdays, we wear pink" -- attendees showed up to convey their solidarity with 'The Plastics', the super-elite popular girl clique of the North Short High School (NSHS), the fictional setting of where these characters attended school.
Second, we had a 'Kind Card' table. So, before the show began, attendees were invited to fill out a Kind Card, basically some positive words to later be shared with a complete stranger. Mean Girls invited the potential opportunity for some folks to relive some of their less than stellar memories from high-school. For some, this may have even included forms of bullying. The Kind Card was a nice offering to help re-direct thoughts towards more positive and motivational messaging, and hopefully this was more the mindset that guests left with as opposed to any dark recollections from the past. The Kind Cards were later shared with random guests during the 20-minute show intermission.
Third, drinks? So there were 2 show-inspired specialty drinks that were offered at the bar:
1) Cool Mom: pink Whitney vodka, mixed with some house watermelon lemonade, garnished with fresh mint and fresh melon balls. We elected to have some Sprite added to ours, which made this taste real nice!
2) Recess Zero Proof Cosmo: non-alcoholic mocktail with guayusa and adaptogens. It tasted kind of like a lightly-infused fruity seltzer drink. I preferred the Cool Mom.
Fourth, there was a Q&A with select members of the cast, post-show. I LOVED this experience, and wish that this could be offered every opening night. There was an opportunity to ask some more in-depth line of questions, but the questions originated from fans. There were some pre-selected questions, but also some time was allotted for questions to be raised directly from the audience in attendance. This took just under 30 minutes, and was really a great way to attract aspiring thespians closer to the arts!
I believe most people are familiar with the story of this musical, and the show (and book) that pre-dated it. Just to recap: Cady Heron was a young student from Africa, who moved to the US, where she had the oh-so-fun fortune of trying to adapt to a fairly unforgiving high-school culture, plagued with cliques, peer-pressured opinions, and social conscientiousness... you know, the 'fun' part of growing up, right? She gets in with The Plastics clique (aka, the Mean Girls) where she has a heightened exposure now to all of the above pressures, where she unfortunately experiences these influences herself, and sometimes even dishes it right back out.
For me, the music for this show wasn't particularly memorable. I'm not going to leave this one and walk away humming or singing any catchy tunes. But, I feel that the lyrics contained within the songs, did help to tell the overall story, and I did feel that the songs did well to draw out some additional emotion from the characters who were signing them. For instance, "What's Wrong With Me", although very playful at its surface, did expose some inner feeling that I believe many of us had as were growing up, while trying to learn more about ourselves, but oftentimes this question would linger and unfortunately go unanswered.
My comments on the cast:
Katie Yeomans (portrayed Cady Heron): Katie essentially played 2 parts -- when Cady was the inexperienced new girl from South Africa, and when Cady became the head of the Mean Girls. Katie did well in both roles as she was very believable and relatable in her new-to-the-world character, and also was able to strut her stuff when she glammed up and was leading the cool clique at school. She sang and acted well.
Joshua Morrisey (portrayed Damian Hubbard): Joshua's interpretation of Damian was refreshing and fun. Lots of fun. He was energetic and playful, and reminded you of the kid that everybody wanted to be around growing up. Josh sang powerfully, and had his energy up the entire time. Very well done, Joshua.
Alexys Morera (portrayed Janis Sarkisian): Alexys was very good. She was the tough and misunderstood kid. She was cool, while maintaining a level of sensitive fragility. Very good on vocals, strong acting skills.
Paloma D'Auria (portrayed Regina George): Paloma was intimidating and powerful on stage. Later in the show when her character became 'injured', I think she may withdrawn a little too much, and was even wondering if we had the same actress on stage still. When she played the confident Regina, she has this sly and seductive Cruella de Vil quality about her, and also sang with that same level of mystique. Loved her while she was the 'bully', but only kind-of-liked her when she stepped off that pedestal.
Kristen Amanda Smith (portrayed Gretchen Wieners): Gretchen was dynamic and lovable. She did a fantastic job of making you empathize with the character as she was considered one of the cool girls, but had so much internal turmoil, it reminded me of my less-than-fun moments from high-school. I saw myself in this character, and for this I absolutely loved her performance. Great job with "What's Wrong With Me".
Maryrose Brendel (portrayed Karen Smith): Everyone loved this character, and for me, I couldn't stop smiling when she was on stage. Her character wasn't the brightest in the group, but you couldn't help but like and love her. She did an excellent job of playing this part. She 'played dumb', and made you want her on your side. She wasn't annoying (which could have easily happened with this part). She was solid.
Kristen Seggio (portrayed Mrs. George, Ms. Norbury, and Mrs. Heron): For me, this was one of the silent gems of the show. She was funny and commanded the scenes between mother and daughter, as Mrs. George. She was funny, and relatable. Her character had to be one of the 'cool moms' who was forcing her coolness at times amongst her daughter's friends, but she did a wonderful job with this! Did Kristen actually play 2 other parts this night?? I didn't realize that Kristen also played Ms. Norbury (I had to keep doing double-takes to make sure it wasn't actually Tina Fey on stage). We also saw a completely maternal side of Kristen in the role of Mrs. Heron. EXCELLENT JOB KRISTEN!!!
Michael Mottram (portrayed Mr. Duvall (the Principal): Michael was another silent gem here. He was the authoritative principal of the production... He was commanding, yet funny. His lines were short, but he delivered them perfectly, and his comedic timing was excellent. Very well done, Micael!
The ensemble cast was supportive, and did very well with choreography. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think to imagine 'tap dancing' through lunch trays, nor did I envision seeing set changes by simply rotating student desks 90 degrees at a time.
The music may not have been the best, but that is not to detract anything from what this wonderful cast did. Overall, the cast made this show FUN, and portrayed the multiple different layers of social hierarchy in high-school. I saw vulnerabilities conveyed on stage through the characters, and saw herd-mentality developing onstage -- again, all part of that wonderful high-school experience here in the States.
Overall
I also LOVED the accompanying experiences pre-show, which helped to really make performance an EXPERIENCE rather than just an attended show. It may have been part of the Mean Girls festivities exclusively, but I would not be opposed to future communications from Dr. Phillips on 'recommended attire' because it really helped to add a whole other dimension of fun to the experience.
To the Mean Girls cast: you all did very well. Thank you for taking me back through emotions of love, hate, vulnerability, social acceptance, uncertainty, cliques, peer-pressure, and gossip in the span of 2.5 hours. You made me recall of these feelings, without trapping me in that space. Keep up the energy and keep this one playful, and this will continue to be a great experience for your remaining shows on the tour!
Bailey Guinigundo
First, attendees to the show received an email communication advising them that the preferred color of attire this evening was going to be pink. Fashioned after one of the iconic lines of the musical (and movie) -- "On Wednesdays, we wear pink" -- attendees showed up to convey their solidarity with 'The Plastics', the super-elite popular girl clique of the North Short High School (NSHS), the fictional setting of where these characters attended school.
Second, we had a 'Kind Card' table. So, before the show began, attendees were invited to fill out a Kind Card, basically some positive words to later be shared with a complete stranger. Mean Girls invited the potential opportunity for some folks to relive some of their less than stellar memories from high-school. For some, this may have even included forms of bullying. The Kind Card was a nice offering to help re-direct thoughts towards more positive and motivational messaging, and hopefully this was more the mindset that guests left with as opposed to any dark recollections from the past. The Kind Cards were later shared with random guests during the 20-minute show intermission.
Third, drinks? So there were 2 show-inspired specialty drinks that were offered at the bar:
1) Cool Mom: pink Whitney vodka, mixed with some house watermelon lemonade, garnished with fresh mint and fresh melon balls. We elected to have some Sprite added to ours, which made this taste real nice!
2) Recess Zero Proof Cosmo: non-alcoholic mocktail with guayusa and adaptogens. It tasted kind of like a lightly-infused fruity seltzer drink. I preferred the Cool Mom.
Fourth, there was a Q&A with select members of the cast, post-show. I LOVED this experience, and wish that this could be offered every opening night. There was an opportunity to ask some more in-depth line of questions, but the questions originated from fans. There were some pre-selected questions, but also some time was allotted for questions to be raised directly from the audience in attendance. This took just under 30 minutes, and was really a great way to attract aspiring thespians closer to the arts!
I believe most people are familiar with the story of this musical, and the show (and book) that pre-dated it. Just to recap: Cady Heron was a young student from Africa, who moved to the US, where she had the oh-so-fun fortune of trying to adapt to a fairly unforgiving high-school culture, plagued with cliques, peer-pressured opinions, and social conscientiousness... you know, the 'fun' part of growing up, right? She gets in with The Plastics clique (aka, the Mean Girls) where she has a heightened exposure now to all of the above pressures, where she unfortunately experiences these influences herself, and sometimes even dishes it right back out.
For me, the music for this show wasn't particularly memorable. I'm not going to leave this one and walk away humming or singing any catchy tunes. But, I feel that the lyrics contained within the songs, did help to tell the overall story, and I did feel that the songs did well to draw out some additional emotion from the characters who were signing them. For instance, "What's Wrong With Me", although very playful at its surface, did expose some inner feeling that I believe many of us had as were growing up, while trying to learn more about ourselves, but oftentimes this question would linger and unfortunately go unanswered.
My comments on the cast:
Katie Yeomans (portrayed Cady Heron): Katie essentially played 2 parts -- when Cady was the inexperienced new girl from South Africa, and when Cady became the head of the Mean Girls. Katie did well in both roles as she was very believable and relatable in her new-to-the-world character, and also was able to strut her stuff when she glammed up and was leading the cool clique at school. She sang and acted well.
Joshua Morrisey (portrayed Damian Hubbard): Joshua's interpretation of Damian was refreshing and fun. Lots of fun. He was energetic and playful, and reminded you of the kid that everybody wanted to be around growing up. Josh sang powerfully, and had his energy up the entire time. Very well done, Joshua.
Alexys Morera (portrayed Janis Sarkisian): Alexys was very good. She was the tough and misunderstood kid. She was cool, while maintaining a level of sensitive fragility. Very good on vocals, strong acting skills.
Paloma D'Auria (portrayed Regina George): Paloma was intimidating and powerful on stage. Later in the show when her character became 'injured', I think she may withdrawn a little too much, and was even wondering if we had the same actress on stage still. When she played the confident Regina, she has this sly and seductive Cruella de Vil quality about her, and also sang with that same level of mystique. Loved her while she was the 'bully', but only kind-of-liked her when she stepped off that pedestal.
Kristen Amanda Smith (portrayed Gretchen Wieners): Gretchen was dynamic and lovable. She did a fantastic job of making you empathize with the character as she was considered one of the cool girls, but had so much internal turmoil, it reminded me of my less-than-fun moments from high-school. I saw myself in this character, and for this I absolutely loved her performance. Great job with "What's Wrong With Me".
Maryrose Brendel (portrayed Karen Smith): Everyone loved this character, and for me, I couldn't stop smiling when she was on stage. Her character wasn't the brightest in the group, but you couldn't help but like and love her. She did an excellent job of playing this part. She 'played dumb', and made you want her on your side. She wasn't annoying (which could have easily happened with this part). She was solid.
Kristen Seggio (portrayed Mrs. George, Ms. Norbury, and Mrs. Heron): For me, this was one of the silent gems of the show. She was funny and commanded the scenes between mother and daughter, as Mrs. George. She was funny, and relatable. Her character had to be one of the 'cool moms' who was forcing her coolness at times amongst her daughter's friends, but she did a wonderful job with this! Did Kristen actually play 2 other parts this night?? I didn't realize that Kristen also played Ms. Norbury (I had to keep doing double-takes to make sure it wasn't actually Tina Fey on stage). We also saw a completely maternal side of Kristen in the role of Mrs. Heron. EXCELLENT JOB KRISTEN!!!
Michael Mottram (portrayed Mr. Duvall (the Principal): Michael was another silent gem here. He was the authoritative principal of the production... He was commanding, yet funny. His lines were short, but he delivered them perfectly, and his comedic timing was excellent. Very well done, Micael!
The ensemble cast was supportive, and did very well with choreography. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think to imagine 'tap dancing' through lunch trays, nor did I envision seeing set changes by simply rotating student desks 90 degrees at a time.
The music may not have been the best, but that is not to detract anything from what this wonderful cast did. Overall, the cast made this show FUN, and portrayed the multiple different layers of social hierarchy in high-school. I saw vulnerabilities conveyed on stage through the characters, and saw herd-mentality developing onstage -- again, all part of that wonderful high-school experience here in the States.
Overall
I also LOVED the accompanying experiences pre-show, which helped to really make performance an EXPERIENCE rather than just an attended show. It may have been part of the Mean Girls festivities exclusively, but I would not be opposed to future communications from Dr. Phillips on 'recommended attire' because it really helped to add a whole other dimension of fun to the experience.
To the Mean Girls cast: you all did very well. Thank you for taking me back through emotions of love, hate, vulnerability, social acceptance, uncertainty, cliques, peer-pressure, and gossip in the span of 2.5 hours. You made me recall of these feelings, without trapping me in that space. Keep up the energy and keep this one playful, and this will continue to be a great experience for your remaining shows on the tour!
Bailey Guinigundo
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