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★★★★★

“The performances are rich and joyous. It’s hard to take a part that’s so familiar and make it your own, but this cast does it.”

In case you’ve been living under a rock, this show is a Covid delayed U.K. premiere of the smash hit US musical, based on the hugely successful film of the same name.

The plot sticks closely to the film. Cady Heron (Charlie Burn) is a new kid at an American high school, having been home schooled in Kenya up until now. She must choose between authentic outsiders, Janis (Baylie Carson) and Damian (Tom Xander), or the poisoned chalice of popularity that comes with being one of ‘The Plastics’. The romance plot is more central than in the film, with Cady’s main motivation being her infatuation with fellow calculus student Aaron (Daniel Bravo).

Mean Girls marks another in a current trend of film to stage adaptations, which seem to be driven, at least in part, by the temptation of an existing fan base. Certainly, as I join a small army of pink clad women (it’s a Wednesday, so we’re all wearing pink) marching towards the theatre, this plan seems to have paid off.

There’s a worry it will feel like a soulless shell of the film. But it doesn’t. The book, written by Tina Fey, who wrote and acted in the film, is smart and witty. It’s updated, with fresh and current jokes (references to Ozempic and Get Ready with Me videos) but keeps the fan favourite one-liners from the film. With clever lyrics by Nell Benjamin and music written by Fey’s husband Jeff Richmond, the show delves further into these characters who are beloved by the fan base.

The performances are rich and joyous. It’s hard to take a part that’s so familiar and make it your own, but this cast does it. Each character has a different musical style which allows the actors to stand out, each thriving in their niche.

Tom Xander as Damian is wondrously campy and fun. Every moment with him is a scene stealer. At one point he steals a mobility scooter, which results in some glorious physical comedy. Baylie Carson smashes it as Janis, standing in for Elena Skye for this performance. It’s a tricky part and they own it, giving Janis her own flair amongst bigger more flamboyant characters. Georgina Castle as the iconic Regina George is fabulously evil, Disney villain meets Instagram influencer. She has a captivating stage presence. Grace Mouat as Karen has fabulous comic timing, and her physical comedy is on point. Also, Zoë Rainey as all three of the ‘grown up’ women dazzles in her multi rolling, turning each caricature up to the max.

Scott Pask’s set design combined with Finn Ross and Adam Young’s video design is as much a nod to the film as the plot. Settings are projected onto huge screens, calling into question that line between film and theatre. Sometimes it’s backdrops, sometimes photos of the cast, of the Burn Book, and sometimes (like in a brilliant evocation of a photocopier) it’s a theatrical wonder. It doesn’t do it for me, but it does feel fresh.

Under this show’s joyous silliness, there’s an important message about female solidarity. It would be interesting to know how it plays for people who don’t know the film. But for fans, and there are many, it’s a delicious night of fetch-y fun.

Back to the Future

Adelphi Theatre

Reviewed – 6th October 2021

★★★★

“It is sleek, well-oiled and will surely be burning bright for quite some time”

Even with the help of a 1.21 gigawatts flux capacitor and an unhealthy dose of radioactive plutonium, 88 mph seems a pretty modest speed required to propel a rear-engine ‘DeLorean’ through time. But this piece of eighties iconography has no trouble landing on the stage of the Adelphi Theatre in the twenty-first century, swept along by the sheer force of a gravity-defying publicity machine and the collective, kick-starting power of a couple of thousand fans a night, adding to the lightning bolts of energy that burst throughout the auditorium. To say “Back to the Future: The Musical” is spectacular is an understatement. It showers us with special effects, jaw-dropping sets and transitions, blurs of neon, CGI magic and a hi-wattage, fifties/eighties mash up of a soundtrack. It is sleek, well-oiled and will surely be burning bright for quite some time.

But listen closely and you hear some troublesome knocking in the engine. Not enough to stall it and too quiet to worry the crowd, the flaws are invariably swamped by the energy of the performances. It’s a bizarre adaptation of the film; simultaneously faithful to the original but adding quirks and eccentricities that don’t always sit comfortably with the source material. Doc Brown attracts an ensemble of backing singers and dancers like flies. It’s a lot of fun, is wonderfully appealing to the ears and eyes and it breaks the fourth wall. But you wonder why. The music and lyrics of Alan Silvestri and Glan Ballard are crowd pleasing pastiches, with words and rhymes full of witty observation and humour; but sometimes side-stepping into banality. The almost relentless breaking into song takes away from the narrative and the characterisation; we barely have time to take a breath (so how do the cast cope?) and we miss those moments when we can absorb the concepts of space, time and history that the film allowed us to contemplate.

Yet despite being stripped of at least one dimension of their characters, the cast give impeccable performances. Olly Dobson, as Marty McFly, is a dead ringer for Michael J. Fox and is a fireball of energy. When he arrives back in 1955, the moments when his teenage mother (Rosanna Hyland) has ‘the hots’ for him are played for real laughs. (It is bizarre to note that when the film was originally pitched to Disney, the appalled executives rejected it outright, declaring it to be a movie about incest). More emphasis is placed on Marty’s relationship with his dad, George. Hugh Coles gives one of the stand-out performances; lanky and geeky with angular awkwardness, and often hilarious in the way only a highly skilled mover can re-enact ‘bad dancing’. Roger Bart’s Doc Brown is a contagious concoction of quirks, marred only by his over playing to the audience at times.

The special effects, sets and lighting are as much a lead role as the protagonists. Tim Lutkin’s lighting, Finn Ross’ video design, coupled with Chris Fisher’s illusion design, Gareth Owen’s sound and The Twins FX animatronics cannot fail to produce a breath-taking show. Add on the extra layers of Chris Bailey’s sleek, though sometimes excessive, choreography; and musical director Jim Henson’s thirteen-piece band and you have a display that defies the laws of physics. Like the well-worn bumblebee flight myth (it is a scientific and aerodynamic impossibility that bumblebees can fly – yet fly they do) the unconventional components that make up this vehicle should leave it grounded. It shouldn’t do – but it flies. It soars even. Although not timeless, it will stand the test of time and we’ll still be seeing this show in the West End way back to the future.

MEAN GIRLS at the Savoy Theatre

★★★★★

“The performances are rich and joyous. It’s hard to take a part that’s so familiar and make it your own, but this cast does it.”

MEAN GIRLS at the Savoy Theatre

Reviewed on 10th July 2024

by Auriol Reddaway

Photography by Brinkhoff/Mögenburg

Last month’s top shows:

MEAN GIRLS

MEAN GIRLS

Adelphi Theatre

Reviewed – 6th October 2021

★★★★

“It is sleek, well-oiled and will surely be burning bright for quite some time”

Reviewed by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Sean Ebsworth Barnes

Back to the Future

Adelphi Theatre until July 2022

Shows we reviewed in September 2021:

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