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That is so fetch!
After years on and off the developmental track, a stage musical based on the hit 2004 teen screen comedy Mean Girls is finally getting closer to fruition, with a world premiere scheduled for Oct. 31 at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C.
Directed by Mark Waters and written by Tina Fey, the movie centers on a home-schooled girl played by Lindsay Lohan, who returns to America after 15 years with her family in Africa, clueless about the social mores of the high school caste system. She gets drawn into the imperious popular female clique known as the Plastics and engineers their downfall from the inside, but not before becoming corrupted herself.
In addition to Lohan, the movie starred Rachel McAdams as Regina George, the vicious Queen Bee of the group, with Amanda Seyfried and Lacey Chabert as her ladies-in-waiting, and Lizzy Caplan as a frequent target of the Plastics’ scorn.
Fey is working on the musical version with her husband Jeff Richmond, who will compose the score, with Nell Benjamin (Legally Blonde) writing the lyrics.
At the Tribeca Film Festival in April, Fey told a Q&A audience that the pregnancy of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt star Ellie Kemper, who welcomed her first child in August, had given her and Richmond the whole summer to work on the long-gestating musical project. Fey is the co-creator of Kimmy Schmidt, and both she and Richmond serve as executive producers on the Netflix show.
The Mean Girls movie was produced by Lorne Michaels, who will fill the same role on the stage show, working alongside veteran Broadway producer Stuart Thompson (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time). Casey Nicholaw, a Tony winner for The Book of Mormon, whose Broadway credits also include Something Rotten! and Aladdin, will direct.
No casting has been announced for the musical, which will have a development workshop in the spring. While Broadway plans have not been set, the pedigree of the creative team indicates the strong likelihood of a jump to New York if the D.C. run proves a success.
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