Broadway NewsMean Girls Musical Finds Its Plastics in Taylor Louderman and Ashley Park; Additional Casting AnnouncedThe musical from Tina Fey and husband Jeff Richmond will make its world premiere in Washington, D.C., beginning in October.
By
Ryan McPhee
July 27, 2017
Taylor Louderman and Ashley Park
Casting is now set for the world premiere of the Broadway-bound Mean Girls musical, which begins performances October 31 at Washington, D.C's National Theatre.
Erika Henningsen
Matthew Murphy
Taylor Louderman (currently in Kinky Boots on Broadway) will take on the role of queen bee Regina George, with Ashley Park (The King and I) and Kate Rockwell (Bring It On) as her fellow "Plastics" Gretchen Wieners and Karen Smith, respectively. Erika Henningsen, who made her Broadway debut as the youngest Fantine in Les Misérables history in the recent revival, will play the central role of Cady Heron.
The musical, featuring a book by Emmy winner Tina Fey (who wrote the screenplay for and appeared in the original 2004 film), music by her husband Jeff Richmond, and lyrics by Tony nominee Nell Benjamin, will run through December 3 at the D.C. venue. Tony winner Casey Nicholaw directs and choreographs. A Broadway bow is expected in 2018, though no official dates have been announced.
The cast will also include Barrett Wilbert Weed (Heathers) as Janis Sarkisian, Grey Henson (The Book of Mormon) as Damian Hubbard, Tony nominee Kerry Butler (Catch Me If You Can) as Ms. Norbury, Kyle Selig (The Book of Mormon) as Aaron Samuels, recent Syracuse University grad Cheech Manohar as Kevin Gnapoor, and stand-up comedian Rick Younger as Mr. Duvall.
Rounding out the company are Stephanie Lynn Bissonnette, Tee Boyich, Collins Conley, Ben Cook, DeMarius Copes, Kevin Csolak, Devon Hadsell, Curtis Edwin Holland, Myles McHale, Chris Medlin, Brittany Nicholas, Becca Petersen, Nikhil Saboo, Jonalyn Saxer, Brendon Stimson, Kamille Upshaw, Zurin Villanueva, Gianna Yanelli, Iain Young.
Like the movie(which in turn was inspired by the self-help book Queen Bees and Wannabes), the musical will follow Cady, who gets her first exposure to the social gymnastics of high school after living in Africa. Now in Illinois with her parents, she gets the attention of a clique known as the "Plastics," led by the vicious Regina George. Cady sets out to end Regina's reign, though her plan comes at a cost.
Mean Girls will feature set design by Scott Pask, costumes by Gregg Barnes, lighting design by Kenneth Posner, sound design by Brian Ronan, video design by inn Ross and Adam Young, hair design by Josh Marquette, and make-up design by Milagros Medina-Cerdeira.
The creative team also includes orchestrator John Clancy, music director Mary-Mitchell Campbell, and music coordinator Howard Joines. Glen Kelly will provide additional music arrangements. Castiung was by Telsey + Company/Bethany Knox, CSA.
