Mean Girls - Savoy

Steve hit the nail on the head for me. Georgina Castle as Regina George makes this show and her performance is utterly off the wall. Her Regina is like an alien who almost knows how humans behave. Just bigger and more extra. I thought she was utterly phenomenal. Damien and the Plastics are also great, each of the actors finding something extra, something more than the movie performances.

But overall I thought it lacked ooomph and sparkle, inspite of the great central performances. Most of the ensemble pieces dragged, inspite of everyone giving it their all. I wonder how much of this is to do with the screens/lack of scenery. It felt…empty somehow.

Someone more musical than me can probably help me understand what’s bugging me about the score and the pacing. Act two feels rushed. The themes feel distinct, but somehow both under and over-used. I loved the Cool Mom’s reprise of Gretchen’s song. But Stars seems to be shoe-horned into what ever the song at the party is, and isn’t given enough space to breath before it blossoms into Kady’s last big number.

Glad I saw it but I really would like to see this ‘properly’ staged.

I loved this last week. Some truly excellent dynamic pricing got me an excellent priced ticket for just about what a rush ticket costs. I´m not too fond of these modern shows, but I had an excellent time. Everyone was giving 100% and I loved all of the ensemble had their little moments to shine. We had an understudy for Karen, she was excellent! Georgina brought the house down with her vocals, but I think the show belongs to Charlie Burn. Her voice is beautiful, and her acting is wonderful. Her vocals alone are worth the ticket price!

I´m not the biggest fan of the set with all the screens, but it was nontheless a camp and very fun night out. I´d go again in a heartbeat. Five stars from me.

I really hope Georgina Castle gets recognised when Olivier nominations come out next year.

Having had a couple of days of watching some intense plays, a break in which could just switch off my brain was needed so a trip to the Savoy for this afternoons show was in order. I’ve neither seen the film nor am I particularly familiar with the score so I wasn’t going to pay big money for this. A £25 rush ticket got me a great seat on row E of the DC. Having read recent posts that the audience for this one can be quite lively, I was really surprised to find a really subdued and respectful audience at the performance so I could enjoy this one in peace.

With the 2.5hr run time was a fun watch thanks to the 5⭐️ cast and band which I couldn’t fault. With the majority of the main cast on at this performance, we did have some alts on - Cliona Flynn as Cady and Mervin Noronha as Kevin. For the cast, Georgina, Grace , Elena and Tom were the real standouts here. Georgina with the killer vocals and acting should definitely be up for an award with this performance as Regina. I absolutely loved her here. Tom’s comedy was just perfect and hit the mark. For their efforts alone it was worth the ticket price. 

As for the score, it was decent enough to listen to and moved the story along nicely. There wasn’t any numbers in there were I thought were duds that I wouldn’t want to listen to again. The sound mixing was fine today from seat with being able to clearly hear both band and vocals.

Whilst a fun watch, my main issue is the “set design” with this show which I’d rate at 2⭐️. While I’m a big fan of a great video design in my shows, I don’t want it to be the main feature on stage as it is used here. It should supplement a decent physical set and I will say I thought that this was the biggest let down with the show. When you’ve got large parts of the stage looking bare of long periods, I don’t care how good your video design is, it just looks cheap and does a disservice to the hard working cast on stage and musicians the orchestra pit.

As for the book, it was ok but when lumped in the genre of US high school MT shows, I’d say I found Heathers overall a better product which I have revisited a number times on tour in Liverpool. I liked the darker edge that Heathers brings whilst still having that fun element as a counter balance. 

I would be happy to revisit MG with better and more staging but not in its current state. I’ve seen it but won’t  be rushing back for a revisit no matter how great this cast are. Overall I’d give this one a 3.5⭐️. More set and it gets bumped to a higher rating.

I've seen this last week - what a nice surprise. That's how pure-fun musicals should look like, great entertainment, awesome performances, really good score and choreography, very funny. Set was not the best, but I think for this type of show and the way how they've used the LEDs was still OK and didn't bother me that much. I wasn't expecting too much out of it and I was pleasantly surprised, recommended!

Any news of a cast recording happening by any chance?