History Theatre / MeanGirls

* SongStyleShift: Four times in "Meet the Plastics". Regina’s part is a BadGirlSong about how she's drunk with power, Gretchen's is a frantic PatterSong, and Karen’s is reminiscent of a Franchise/DisneyPrincesses song or a [[MusicBoxIntervals music box melody]]. The ending is a CounterpointDuet until the ending when the Plastics and Cady sing in unison.

* SongStyleShift: Four times in "Meet the Plastics". Regina’s part is a VillainSong/BadGirlSong about how she's drunk with power, Gretchen's is a frantic PatterSong, and Karen’s is reminiscent of a DisneyPrincess song or a [[MusicBoxIntervals music box melody]]. The ending is a CounterpartDuet until the ending when the Plastics and Cady sing in unison.

* MythologyGag: There are pages from the Burn Book projected onto the stage prior to the show. One page accuses a girl of masturbating with a hot dog. This is the original, raunchier draft of the [[MemeticMutation infamous gag]] that became "made out with a hot dog" in the film.

* NonPOVProtagonist: While Cady is also the narrator of her story in the film, the musical isn't told from her perspective.

* ReimaginingTheArtifact: The musical explains the absence of the Burn Book in [[TechnologyMarchesOn a setting dominated by social media]] by saying that it's something that the Plastics used to use and have since forgotten about.

* SettingIntroductionSong / WelcomingSong: "Where Do You Belong?" is Janis and Damian's official introduction to Cady.

* VillainSong: "World Burn" is Regina's most villainous moment in the show. She also has "Someone Gets Hurt" where she turns on Cady and takes Aaron back.

''Mean Girls'' is the [[AllMusicalsAreAdaptations musical adaptation]] of the [[Film/MeanGirls 2004 film of the same name]]. Creator/TinaFey, writer of the original film's screenplay, also wrote the book of the musical, while the music and lyrics are written by Jeff Richmond and Nell Benjamin, respectively. After five years of development and a test run in Washington, D.C., ''Mean Girls'' officially opened on Broadway in April 2018.

After its premiere, ''Mean Girls'' was nominated for a total of twelve Tony Awards, including Best Musical. In January 2020, it was announced that the musical would be adapted into a film

** Cady is portrayed with red hair in the film, but in the musical original cast member Erika Henningsen wears a straight light brown wig for the first part, and later switches to a curly blonde one as part of Cady's transformation into a plastic.

* AdaptationalIntelligence: This version of Aaron Samuels isn't as oblivious as his movie counterpart. He's roughly as smart as Cady, and his intelligence (or lack thereof) isn't remarked on. This is in stark contrast to his movie self, who struggles to understand basic math.

* AdaptationalSexuality: Unlike the movie, Janis's sexuality is left ambiguous. In this version, when Regina confronted Janis and asked what her sexuality was, Janis refused to say. Whether this was because she was so insulted that Regina maliciously disregarded her privacy, because she was struggling with her sexuality and wasn't sure how to define herself, because she is lesbian or bisexual and was too scared to reveal so, or a combination of any of the above is left up to the viewer to decide. Janis's actress Barrett Wilbert Weed said in an interview that while Fey left Janis's sexuality ambiguous, she also left it up to Weed to decide. Though there is no direct reference to it in the musical, Janis, at least Weed, the original actress's version, is a lesbian.
* BadassBoast: Regina frequently flaunts her status as attractive and popular, declaring herself to be a "massive deal". Her entire part of Meet The Plastics probably qualifies as this.

* CardboardBoxOfUnemployment: Seeing Ms. Norbury [[FiredTeacher escorted out of school with a Bankers Box]] is what finally prompts Cady to speak up and take responsibility for her behavior. Cady had written "Ms. Norbury is a sad old drug pusher" in the Burn Book when she was upset with Ms. Norbury for "pushing" her to do better in Calculus, thinking that no-one would ever read it. But once the pages of the Burn Book are published by Regina, the parents of students at the school demand that Ms. Norbury be fired in case there's any truth to the allegations. Cady takes credit for fabricating the entire Burn Book (not just the page she had written about Ms. Norbury). As a result, Cady receives a suspension from school, but Ms. Norbury gets her job back.

* CompositeCharacter: To some extent, Ms. Norbury, Mrs. George, and Mrs. Heron all represent a singular, older female perspective to the younger women. That they're all played by the same actor makes it a bit more obvious.

** "World Burn" has Regina reprising her section of "Meet The Plastics" throughout the song. However, originally Regina was singing about how she ruled the school, now she's singing about her plan to destroy every relationship in the school.
** "Fearless" gets a rather depressing reprise where Cady has lost everything. Before the characters were singing about being fearless, now Cady is singing it about how she isn't fearless.

-->'''Janis''': Imagine a party with dresses and cake. And singing and dancing and ''cake.''

* EEqualsMCHammer: Miss Norbury's calculus class in the professionally taped version of "Stupid With Love." The board reads lim(x+1) as x=>2, but out loud Miss Norbury says "if I write out the function the limit as x approaches 2 of x plus 1, the function is what we're taking the limit of." Not only does this not match what is written on the board, the statement itself is utter nonsense. Cady then gives the random answer of "x=3," which makes no sense in context because she was asked about a limit, not a value of x. Miss Norbury then tells the class to "find the value of k for which the limit exists," and that they must cancel x-3 from the denominator for it to exist. She does this all without giving the class the limit in question, only writing "k= " on the board. Cady then answers "x=-3," and her random answer is apparently correct.

** "I'd Rather Be Me" also qualifies
* FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator: Janis and Damian are the narrators of the musical, rather than Cady as in the film.

* IncestuousCasting: In universe. In "Stop," Damian tells Cady about how he became jealous when a girl played a romantic part opposite of a guy he liked, and that he spent four weeks trolling her online via an array of alternative accounts. He later found of that the girl was the guy's sister.
* InevitableMutualBetrayal: Sung about in "What's Wrong With Me."

* IWantSong: "Stupid With Love" is about Cady's longing for Aaron.

* MythologyGag: There are pages from the Burn Book projected onto the stage prior to the show. One page accuses a girl of masturbating with a hot dog. This is the original, raunchier draft of the [[MemeticMutation infamous gag]] that became "made out with a hot dog" in the original movie.

** Ashley Park had her last night as Gretchen on March 10, 2019. Krystina Alabado, a Lebanese/Mexican actor, [[https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu6zs83HdQC/ took over]] on March 13.
** Grey Henson (Damian) has Demarcus Copes as HIS African-American understudy.

-->'''12-Year Old Janis''': [[spoiler: I... am a '''''SPACE ALIEN''''' and I have '''''FOUR BUTTS!''''']]

* SettingUpdate: From early 2000s to late 2010s. This leads to the major change of social media and cyberbullying be integrated into the plot.

-->'''Karen:''' I can be a sexy doctor, and cure some sexy cancer! [beat] That's not right, is it?
-->'''Gretchen:''' No.
-->'''Karen:''' I can sexy cure some cancer!
-->'''Gretchen:''' No!
* SongStyleShift: Four times in Meet The Plastics. Regina’s part is a VillainSong/BadGirlSong about how she's drunk with power, Gretchen's part is a frantic PatterSong, and Karen’s is reminiscent of a DisneyPrincess song or a [[MusicBoxIntervals music box melody]]. The ending is a CounterpartDuet until the ending when the Plastics and Cady sing in unison.
* TriumphantReprise: The finale "I See Stars" reprises a part of "More Is Better", the original song is about Cady losing herself while the reprise is about how Cady has learned that people should be themselves.
* VillainSong: "World Burn" is Regina's most villainous moment in the show. She also has the song "Someone Gets Hurt" where she turns on Cady and takes Aaron back.
* WardrobeMalfunction: Happens to [[spoiler: Regina during that talent show number, due to the fact that (thanks to the Kalteen bars) her skirt no longer fits and the makeshift holders she created for it failed mid performance. This incident goes viral on instagram, and causes Regina to begin falling out of favor with the student body.]]

** Krystina Alabado, who as of March 13, 2019, replaces Ashley Park, is Hispanic.

** Ashley Park had her last night as Gretchen on March 10, 2019. Krystina Alabado, a Hispanic, [[https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu6zs83HdQC/ took over]] on March 13.

After its premiere, ''Mean Girls'' was nominated for a total of twelve Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

* AdaptationalDumbass: Granted, Karen was always pretty stupid, but her obliviousness is [[UpToEleven upped to eleven]] in this version. In particular, she's much worse at keeping secrets than her movie persona was.

* AdaptionalDumbass: Granted, Karen was always pretty stupid, but her obliviousness is [[UpToEleven upped to eleven]] in this version. In particular, she's much worse at keeping secrets than her movie persona was.

* AdaptationalIntelligence: This version of Aaron Samuels isn't as oblivious as his movie counterpart. He's roughly as smart as Cady, and his intelligence (or lack thereof) isn't remarked on.

* EEqualsMCHammer: Miss Norbury's calculus class in the professionally taped version of "Stupid With Love." The board reads lim(x+1) as x=>2, but out loud Miss Norbury says "if I write out the fuction the limit as x approaches 2 of x plus 1, the function is what we're taking the limit of." Not only does this not match what is written on the board, the statement itself is utter nonsense. Cady then gives the random answer of "x=3," which makes no sense in context because she was asked about a limit, not a value of x. Miss Norbury then tells the class to "find the value of k for which the limit exists," and that they must cancel x-3 from the denominator for it to exist. She does this all without giving the class the limit in question, only writing "k= " on the board. Cady then answers "x=-3," and her random answer is apparently correct.

* PainfulRhyme: This gem from Kevin, when Cady's forced to join the Mathletes. [[InUniverse Lampshaded immediately, of course.]]

* AdaptationalSexuality: Unlike the movie, Janis's sexuality is left ambiguous. In this version, when Regina confronted Janis and asked what her sexuality was, Janis refused to say. Whether this was because she was so insulted that Regina maliciously disregarded her privacy, because she was struggling with her sexuality and wasn't sure how to define herself, because she is lesbian or bisexual and was too scared to reveal so, or a combination of any of the above is left up to the viewer to decide.
** Actually Janis's actress Barrett Wilbert Weed said in an interview that while Fey left Janis's sexuality ambiguous, she also left it up to Weed to decide. Though there is no direct reference to it in the musical, Janis, at least Weed, the original actress's version, is a lesbian.

* ColorblindCasting: An East Asian actress portrays Gretchen in the original Broadway cast, but the character is still referred to as Jewish. Could potentially be intentional, as it is obviously possible for someone to have both East Asian and Jewish heritage (or for an Asian family to have adopted the Jewish faith), and Gretchen did join the "cool Asians" clique at the end of the film.

* TheElevenOClockNumber: "Do This Thing" is the climax of Cady's character development before the finale. "I'd Rather Be Me" also qualifies

The musical more or less follows the plot of the film, with certain changes made to the setting and its characters. Most notably, its story is brought into the UsefulNotes/TheNewTens, with social media playing a substantial role that didn't exist in the film (which predates UsefulNotes/{{Twitter}} and the like), and updated cultural references, such as [[UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump the POTUS in office]] when it debuted.

** At least in the original Broadway cast, Gretchen is played by an Asian actress, Ashley Park, rather than the white Lacey Chabert. The character retains her Jewish heritage, though. One of Ashley's understudies, Zurin Villanueva, is African-American with a bit of Hispanic. Another, Ashley De La Rosa, is Hispanic.

* EEqualsMCHammer: Miss Norbury's math calculus class in the professionally taped version of "Stupid With Love." The board reads lim(x+1) as x=>2, but out loud Miss Norbury says "if I write out the fuction the limit as x approaches 2 of x plus 1, the function is what we're taking the limit of." Not only does this not match what is written on the board, the statement itself is utter nonsense. Cady then gives the random answer of "x=3," which makes no sense in context because she was asked about a limit, not a value of x. Miss Norbury then tells the class to "find the value of k for which the limit exists," and that they must cancel x-3 from the denominator for it to exist. She does this all without giving the class the limit in question, only writing "k= " on the board. Cady then answers "x=-3," and her random answer is apparently correct.

** At least in the original Broadway cast, Gretchen is played by an Asian actress, Ashley Park, rather than the white Lacey Chabert. The character retains her Jewish heritage, though. Ashley's understudy, Zurin Villanueva, is African-American with a bit of Hispanic.

After its premiere, ''Mean Girls'' was nominated for a total of twelve Tony Award, including Best Musical.

* RaceLift: At least in the original Broadway cast, Gretchen is played by an Asian actress, Ashley Park, rather than the white Lacey Chabert. The character retains her Jewish heritage, though.
** Gretchen's understudy, Zurin Villanueva, is Hispanic.

* RaceLift: At least in the original Broadway cast, Gretchen is played by an Asian actress, rather than the white Lacey Chabert. The character retains her Jewish heritage, though.