Theater Review: "Mean Girls" Tour at the Bushnell

Hartford - The current tour of the musical “Mean Girls” has stopped at the Bushnell for the start of the theater’s 2022/2023 Broadway Season. With a book written by Tina Fey ( “30 Rock,”) music by her husband Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin, this is a show that will appeal to fans of the 2004 Paramount Pictures cult classic film of the same name. Fey, who is co-executive producer of season two of “Girls5Eva” and several other series, is simultaneously adapting the Broadway version of “Mean Girls” into a feature film for Paramount.

The “Mean Girls’” is a tale about “a naïve newbie to high school who falls prey to a trio of lionized frenemies.” The coming-of-age story that debuted on Broadway in 2018 marked Fey’s Broadway debut and she writes that she is thrilled to be taking the show nationwide.

The opening night performance was paused after “Stupid with Love” for almost twenty minutes for technical reasons, which made the performance run over three hours. (The normal run time is two and a half hours.) The sound in the venue before the hold was awful, making it next to impossible to understand both the lines and the lyrics of the songs. After the unscheduled intermission, this improved a bit, but I must admit that I still missed large chunks of the script and mostly followed the scenes with the visuals. I know that the opening night audience missed a large amount of the comedic lines.

Set design by Scott Pask is modern, as are the contemporary costumes designed by Gregg Barnes, which include some interesting Halloween costumes. The lighting by Kenneth Posner adds to the look of the Bushnell stage

Casey Nicholaw directed and choreographed the show. The impressive video designs by Finn Ross and Adam Young change the setting or not-so-simply set the mood. The lead character Cady first appears on the continent of Africa, and a “Lion King” background soon crashes into a high school in Illinois. The props include rolling desks and cafeteria tables (and plastic red trays) that are integrated into the strong choreography by Nicholaw. The excellent dancing was a highlight of the performance for me.

The orchestra, under the direction of Chris Kong, contains five musicians that travel with the tour as well as eight Hartford musicians. All of the wonderful instrumentalists make the score, with orchestrations by John Clancy, sound excellent.

Eric Huffman (“The Book of Mormon” national tour) opens the first act in the role of Damien Hubbard, with Linday Heather Pearce (“Wicked” on Broadway) playing the role of Janis Sarkisian in her national tour debut. Huffman brings a wonderfully powerful singing voice to her performance and Huffman is delightful in every way, including his tap dancing for the second act opener “Stop.” The actor credits his grandmother for inspiring him to tap in his program bio.

Cady Heron, the new kid at North Shore is played well by the young actress English Bernhardt (who appeared in the first national tour of “If/Then.”) Nadina Hassan is appropriately catty in her national tour debut as the “Apex Predator” Regina George, Jasmine Rogers is the self-doubting Gretchen Wieners and Morgan Ashley Bryant is delightfully ditzy as Karen Smith.

April Josephine stands out as she covers the roles of Cady’s mother, Ms. Norbury and Mrs. George. In the Tina Fey role of calculus teacher Ms. Norbury, she could be heard relating Cady’s homeschooling to “stealing money from my union.” Iain Young performs the role of Cady’s father, Coach Carr and the Mathletes Moderator.

The inclusive cast also has Kabir Bery, who plays Kevin G, Wesley J. Barnes as Martin J, and Sky Flaherty as Tyler K. Cady’s crush Aaron Samuels is played by Adante Carter. Lawrence E. Street plays the high school principal Mr. Duvall.

Performances continue at the Bushnell in Hartford through Oct. 2. The theater is located at 166 Capitol Avenue.

Daniel Franzese, who played the role of Damien in the film “Mean Girls,” will return to the Seven Angels Theatre in Waterbury to reprise his role of a very Italian mom in a new comedy “Italian Mom Loves You” Oct. 6 through 23. The tag-line “She’s too Italian to function” has been added to the advertisement in the Bushnell printed program, as well as the caption “His performance is totally fetch!” next to a photo of Franzese from the movie.

Nancy Sasso Janis has been writing theatre reviews since 2012 as a way to support local theatre venues. She posts reviews of well over 100 productions each year. In 2016, she became a member of the Connecticut Critics Circle. She continues to contribute theatre news, previews, and audition notices to local Patch sites. Reviews of all levels of theatrical productions are posted on Naugatuck Patch and the Patch sites closest to the venue. She recently became a contributor to the Waterbury Republican-American newspaper. Her weekly column and theatre reviews appear in the Thursday Weekend section of the paper.

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