By: Hannah Devlin
The release of Mean Girls (2024) this past January sparked discussion over the movie as a musical adaptation. The film aimed to combine the original 2004 classic with the 2018 Mean Girls Broadway Musical, while adding a modern spin on the plot with incorporations of current fashion trends and social media. However, considering the 6/10 rating on IMDb.com, it is fair to say that audiences didn’t appreciate the efforts.
One of the biggest qualms with the movie—from both those who loved it and hated it—is the misleading advertising. For fans of the Broadway musical, audiences were initially shocked that the trailer used Olivia Rodrigo’s “Get Him Back” as its soundtrack instead of its own original score. The vague references of “Not your mother’s Mean Girls” and “A new twist from Tina Fey” may have alluded to the new musical aspect, but seemed unclear. In the weeks following the movie’s release, commenters on all social media platforms shared their experiences seeing the film, and many admitted that they were not aware that it was a musical to begin with. This lack of clarity from audiences points towards a big mistake in the movie’s publicity.
Not only was the musical aspect a surprise to many, but it failed to capture the essence of the Broadway score. The original musical is composed of 21 songs, and Mean Girls (2024) cut nearly half of them, leaving 12 in the film. The decision to cut so many songs from the Broadway musical was confusing to fans who had followed the 2018 adaptation, especially considering the exclusion of fan favorites like “Where Do You Belong” and “Stop.” If the point of the film was to bring the stage musical to screen, the exclusion of so many songs failed to do so successfully.
Moreover, some of the songs that were included, such as “Meet the Plastics” and “Stupid with Love” were significantly changed. “Meet the Plastics,” which initially serves as an introduction to Regina, Gretchen, and Karen, excluded both Gretchen and Karen’s parts in the 2024 film. The fun and energetic “Stupid with Love” was changed significantly in the movie, and it was turned into a slow (and honestly, boring) track. On top of all these changes, the score cut all of Aaron’s singing, which changes the balance of the musical.
The choice to alter the score in the new film may have been done in hopes that new audiences would come to appreciate the magic of musical theater; unfamiliar audiences may not want to sit through a movie with 21 tracks, they might be more inclined to do so with 12. However, while making this form of content more accessible to non-theatergoers seems like a good idea in theory, the execution of Mean Girls (2024) leaves much to be desired.
Not only did their advertising make it unclear that it was a movie musical in the first place, but the song production was lackluster and the placement of the songs were uneven and ill-timed. The songs were so unevenly dispersed that while watching the movie, audiences could almost forget it was a musical until the introduction of a new one. For audience members who weren’t expecting songs and dances, the beginning of a song felt uncomfortable and strange. For audiences who were excited for a musical adaptation, the lack of song felt just as strange and disappointing.
The Mean Girls (2024) movie ultimately needed to decide whether or not it wanted to be a musical or not. The inability to fully commit to the adaptation as a musical was disappointing for both fans of the 2018 musical and fans of the 2004 film. If the movie were more direct with its advertising, as well as more committed to the original subject material, audiences would have been more prepared for what was in store. However, the movie suffered from a lack of direction, which led to an unsatisfying final product.
