Reneé Rapp, Jaquel Spivey, Auli’i Cravalho & More Set for Mean Girls Movie Musical
(Photos by Caitlin McNaney and Emilio Madrid for Broadway.com/c/o the Kennedy Center)
This news is totally fetch! The upcoming film adaptation of the Broadway musical Mean Girls, based on the 2004 teen comedy of the same name, has found its cast, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The movie musical is set to debut on Paramount+ with a release date to be announced.
Reneé Rapp, who made her Broadway debut as Regina George in the musical, will reprise her performance as the leader of the Plastics. A Strange Loop Tony nominee Jaquel Spivey will play Damian with Auli’i Cravalho as Janis Ian. Angourie Rice will star as Cady Heron. Additional casting is to come.
Rapp is known for winning the 2018 Jimmy Awards and quickly making her Broadway debut in Mean Girls. She can currently be seen on HBO's The Sex Lives of College Girls and on tour for her recently released debut EP. Spivey is starring in the Tony-winning A Strange Loop as Usher. Cravalho earned fame for voicing the title character in Moana and is known for Rise and Crush. Rice is known for playing Betty Brant in the Spider-Man films.
Lorne Michaels will return to produce with original Mean Girls writer Tina Fey, who also wrote the book for the Broadway show. Fey is writing the movie musical’s script, which features music by her husband Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin. Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. are set to direct.
Mean Girls centers on Cady Heron, a high-schooler who moves to Illinois after years of living with her zoologist parents in Africa. A naive newbie, Cady quickly attracts the attention of The Plastics, a trio of popular girls led by the vicious Regina George. When Cady devises a plan to end Regina’s reign, she learns that you can’t cross a Queen Bee without getting stung.
Directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, Broadway's Mean Girls began previews on March 12, 2018 and opened on April 8 at the August Wilson Theatre. The production received 12 Tony nominations and won the Broadway.com Audience Choice Award for Favorite New Musical. It closed in March 2020 due to the theater shutdown.
