'Mean Girls' To Make Its Denver Debut
On March 13, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock announced the closure of all Denver-owned and operated facilities through April 12 due to the coronavirus outbreak. DCPA announced the cancellation of this show, and four others, on April 2.
Those facilities include:
- Red Rocks Amphitheatre (and visitor's center)
- Denver Center for the Performing Arts
- Denver Coliseum
- McNichols Civic Center Building
- Colorado Convention Center
DENVER (CBS4) – "Mean Girls" is a hilarious look at the hierarchy of high school. The book was written by Tina Fey, who is best known for her work on "Saturday Night Live" and "30 Rock." The musical opened on Broadway in 2018. "Mean Girls" is playing at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts from March 25th through April 12, 2020.
LINK: For Tickets & Information for "Mean Girls"
The musical is based on the 2004 comedy movie of the same name, which was also written by Fey. It tells the story of Cady Heron, who goes to a public high school for the first time. Heron is embraced and then rejected by the popular clique of girls. She then devises a plan for revenge, and must suffer the consequences of that plan. All on a fast paced roller coaster of comedy.
"The show is designed to keep going forward. The plot is always thickening and changing. I mean it propels forward very quickly, and we are basically running and keeping that momentum the whole time," said Danielle Wade, who plays "Cady."
"It's also just keeping up with the story ourselves. It's almost, we naturally have to have that energy or we won't make it on stage," said Mariah Rose Faith, who plays "Regina."
"Mean Girls" was created by an award winning team with Fey writing the book, Jeff Richmond composing the music, Nell Benjamin writing the lyrics, and Casey Nicholaw directing. The show is hilariously funny.
"The creative team is so good at directing us, and Tina's writing is so good, you kind of just have to say the words. You don't really have to do too much. You have the basis of your character and your intention, and if you just say the words, the writing just kind of does it for you," said Jonalyn Saxer, who plays "Karen."
"In the rehearsal process, they were really great about just letting us go and not giving us too many parameters. And so we've kind of been able to by process of elimination, kind of find what works, what makes the comedy best…the timing. All of that was really fun to figure out," said Megan Masako Haley, who plays "Gretchen"
Just about every character in "Mean Girls" is a comic character, but none more so than "Damian" and "Janis" who are "Cady Heron's" outsider friends. In the touring production, "Damian" is played by Eric Hufffman and "Janis" is played by Mary Kate Morrissey, and they play off each other perfectly.
"I love being on stage with you most of all," Huffman laughed as he indicated Morrissey.
"Same," Morrissey responded.
"It's a wonderful, wonderful cast," Huffman continued. "But the two of us just like… we literally get to enter together and have fun on stage. Mess around in the best way possible, and just laugh. It's a gift."
"I came to the show in kind of a bad mood, just annoyed and frustrated. And I got to the show and we started doing the show, and you just have so much fun that by the time we're in the spring fling at the end of the show I hugged Eric and I was like 'I'm so happy right now. I feel so cheerful.' I just have the best time doing the show. It's like the best time of the day," Morrissey explained.
