(in the center) Katie Yeomans, Joshua Morrisey, Alexys Morera, and Cast Photo by Jeremy Daniel

I mean, they think they are superior to everyone else even though they contribute zilch. At least the other cliques have a purpose: the jocks bring glory to North Shore High School through athletics, the math nerds through academic prowess, the art crowd create works of beauty, even the show chorus kids lift everyone's spirits with thumping harmonies and jazz hands. To be perfectly honest, the mean girls do nothing but shop–even their sobriquet attests to it: the Plastics, clearly a reference to their daddy's charge cards. Fact is, they can pass around the dirt on anyone, and they do, but what harm can they actually inflict on students who have a secure nest of their own?

That's why they hone in like vultures to roadkill when they spot new student Cady Heron, who not only bears the burden of any new student, not knowing other kids and being unaware of the unique traditions of her new school, but knows nothing about being an American teenager at all. Cady has arrived from Kenya, where she was raised and homeschooled by her parents, American scientists working in Africa. Recognizing that Cady is now a teenager and needs to make friends and associate with peers (other than chimpanzees and the like), they decide it's time to bring her back to their homeland so she can learn to be a "normal" kid. Their landing place is the north shore suburbs of Chicago, where affluence puts a particular slant on what it means to be normal.

The musical Mean Girls is based on the smash 2004 movie of the same name with a hilarious screenplay by Tina Fey. The movie was adapted from the 2002 self-help book, "Queen Bees and Wannabes," by Rosalind Wiseman, intended to explain to teenage girls and their parents high school girl cliques and how to deal with the aggressive behaviors they can provoke. A serious topic, to be sure, but Fey seized on the deep well of its humorous aspects for her screenplay, and then set about adapting the movie into a stage musical. Fey wrote the musical's book, her composer husband Jeff Richmond wrote the score, and Nell Benjamin, who'd had success working on another show that shed light on school cliques, Legally Blonde, wrote the lyrics. The musical opened on Broadway in spring of 2018 and was a hit, though by the time COVID-19 shut Broadway down two years later it had sufficiently lost steam and announced a closing without plans to re-open.

Mean Girls has visited the Twin Cities before, making the second stop of its first national tour in November 2019. It's great to have the team back for a class reunion by a non-Equity touring company. The show retains Fey's sharp-toothed wit, and the comedic targets seem to remain apropos–many things in our world have changed, but has high school life? Richman and Benjamin's songs, while not memorable stand-alone pieces, incorporate Fey's fiendish humor and serve to move the plot forward.

Moreover, the songs provide frequent occasions for these highly energized teens to break out in dance. These are not the sleep-deprived students I have read about who drag themselves through school corridors. This gang repeatedly goes wild, executing the show's original inventive and athletic choreography by Casey Nicholaw, recreated for the tour by John MacInnis. Nicholaw is also Mean Girls' original director; Casey Hushion recreates as tour director.

The touring company is rife with talent. There are many strong-featured roles, but Cady is clearly the central part, and Katie Yeoman gives a knock-out performance, ricocheting from an innocent and good-hearted fish out of water to developing her inner brat as an acolyte of the Plastics to learning to accept responsibility for her errors and step up to leadership, while delivering songs like "It Roars," "Stupid with Love" (one of the show's best songs)," "Fearless," "More Is Better," and "I See Stars" with a rich, full voice. Cady's chief nemesis, the Plastic's queen-bee, is Regina George, played with precisely the right level of contempt for those she views as inferiors–which is everyone, including her mother. Maya Petropoulos has a field day as Regina. She delivers the faux torch song, "Someone Gets Hurt," with sultry gravitas, and brings nightmare intensity to her wild epiphany, "World Burn."

The very first friends Cady makes at North Shore High are students who, like herself, are outside of the established cliques, though in the case of Janis and Damian, it's not because they are new. Janis is an iconoclast (actually, if the school had a political activist clique, that's where I would peg her) who nudges Cady toward deceitful actions based on her own hurtful history with Regina. Alexys Morera delivers Janis's stubborn independence with a large dose of anger, and sings with a ferocity befitting the character. Damian is an openly gay boy who appears to suffer no harassment from his classmates–hooray for depicting a gay teen who is not made a victim. He has a preternaturally healthy and mature outlook, which others usually ignore. Played by Joshua Morrisey with panache, Damian is a joy–easily my favorite character–and Morrisey shines like a rocket, especially singing and dancing the wonderful second act opener "Stop."

Kristen Amanda Smith goes a little overboard with her character Gretchen's neurosis, but otherwise gives a strong performance as one of Queen Bee Regina's "ladies in waiting," who uses her penchant for gossip as a way to give herself value in the clique. Smith gets great mileage from her solo turn "What's Wrong With Me?" MaryRose Brendel is delightful as Karen, a girl who happily admits that she's stupid, though we come to see a native intelligence that tells us otherwise. Her solo spotlight, "Sexy," is just that, but delivered in a tongue-in-cheek vein. José Raúl could barely be more likeable as Cady's love interest Aaron. Manipulated by both Regina and Cady, Raúl's sweet nature has us definitely rooting for him. Kristen Seggio plays several roles, most notably a math teacher with a sarcastic streak who sees through the fog that clouds her students from making good choices, and pushes them to do better, though she comes to regret using the refrain "I'm a pusher."

Gregg Barnes's costume designs dress these high schoolers in bright colors and styles that accentuate their youth (though look closely and you will suspect that some of these "high school students" have been held back at least ten years). Scott Pask's set design has the versatility to easily transform from school corridor to classroom to lunchroom to Regina's drenched-in-pink bedroom, and other scenes. The color palette is reminiscent of high school walls. If you have been in a high school recently, you know that this is not necessarily pleasing, but it is right for the show. All the other design elements are well honed to bring luster to the production. Music director Julius LaFlamme leads a nine-member orchestra that gives the score the brassy sound of a bona fide Broadway musical.

Mean Girls accomplishes what it sets out to do: entertain while delivering the message that, at the end of the day, it is always best to be true to yourself. Unless you are Regina George, in which case it is best to look for a better version of yourself. Whatever, right? These are high school kids. But go, enjoy their energy, and be glad–if it applies to you–that those tempest-tossed years are far behind you.

Mean Girls runs through April 13, 2025, at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, 345 Washington Street, Saint Paul MN. For tickets and information, please call 651-224-4222 or visit www.ordway.org. For information on the national tour, visit meangirlsontour.com.

Book: Tina Fey, based on the Paramount Pictures film Mean Girls; Music: Jeff Richmond; Lyrics: Nell Benjamin; Original Direction and Choreography: Casey Nicholaw; Tour Direction: Casey Hushion; Tour Choreography: Jon MacInnis; Scenic Design: Scott Pask; Costume Design: Gregg Barnes; Lighting Design: Kenneth Posner; Sound Design: Brian Ronan; Hair Design: Josh Marquette:, Makeup Design: Milagros Medina-Cerdeira; Orchestrations: John Clancy; Dance and Incidental Music Arrangements: Glen Kelly; Vocal Arrangements: Mary-Mitchell Campbell, Jeff Richmond, Natalie Tenenbaum; Music Director: Julius LaFlamme; Music Coordinator: John Mezzio; Music Supervision: Mary-Mitchell Campbell; Electronic Music Design: Billy Jay Stein; Fight Director: Thomas Schall; Casting: The Telsey Office, Bethany Knox, CSA; Production Stage Manager: Kathleen Carragee; Executive Producer: Mimi Intagliata.

Cast: Megan Arseneau (swing), Gino Bloomberg (ensemble), MaryRose Brendel (Karen Smith), Armani Brown (ensemble), Tym Brown (Mr. Duvall), Connor Buonaccorsi (swing), Paloma D'Auria (ensemble), Kabir Ghandi (Kevin G.), Kayla Goins (ensemble), Owen Kent Ing (ensemble), Madeline Kendall (ensemble), Giulia Marolda (ensemble), Tay Marquise (ensemble), Brandon Moreno (ensemble), Alexys Morera (Janis Sarkisian), Joshua Morrissey (Damian Hubbard), Kevin Ivey Morrison (swing), Michael Mottram (Mr. Heron/Coach Carr/Mathletes Moderator/ensemble), Maya Petropoulos (Regina George), José Raúl (Aaron Samuels), Lucy Rhoades (swing), Kristin Seggio (Mrs. Heron/Ms. Norbury/Mrs. George), Ariel Shani (ensemble), Kristen Amanda Smith (Gretchen Wieners), Jocelyn Darci Trimmer (ensemble), Katie Yeomans (Cady Heron).