Mean Girls (musical)

Act One

High school students Janis Sarkisian and Damian Hubbard warn the audience of the dangers of becoming popular. To illustrate their point, they begin to tell a tale of a girl named Cady ("A Cautionary Tale"). Cady lives in Kenya with her family. When their family's research funding is pulled, they must move to Chicago and start a new life. Cady is tasked with starting public high school where realizes High School pupils are not as accepting as animals in the safari ("It Roars"). She is very excited to make new friends but no one seems to like her ("It Roars (Reprise)"). Janis and Damian, who are two social outcasts at the school, meet Cady and help her find her social clique in the school. They show her around the cafeteria before asking her to join their clique of "the greatest people you will ever meet" in which she agrees ("Where Do You Belong?"). Suddenly, three beautiful girls enter the cafeteria leaving Cady confused as to who they are. Janis and Damian tell her they are dubbed "the Plastics". Regina George is the "Queen Bee"; Gretchen Wieners is Regina's second in command; and Karen Smith is the dumb blonde. Just as Cady goes to eat lunch with Janis and Damian, Regina and her fellow Plastics invite Cady over to sit with them. They take a liking to Cady and decide that she will eat lunch with them for the rest of the week ("Meet the Plastics").

Cady takes 12th grade calculus and in her first class, Cady meets the dreamy Aaron Samuels and she immediately falls in love with him ("Stupid with Love"). Janis tells Cady that she wants Cady to keep pretending to be plastic and learn their secrets. Cady thinks Regina is genuinely nice but Janis tells her not to fall for it. The Plastics and Cady go to the mall ("Apex Predator"). Afterward they all go to hang out at Regina's house. There, they meet her "cool mom," and Gretchen confides in Cady that, because of the state of her friendship with Regina, she has lost all self-confidence in herself. Gretchen reflects on who she is ("What's Wrong With Me?").

The next day in math class, Aaron discusses his previous relationship with Regina, and how she made him feel like not-himself, so he has sworn off dating. Meanwhile, Cady believes that if she acts stupid, Aaron will help her with her work, and therefore talk to her more ("Stupid With Love (Reprise)").

Later, Karen explains that in high school, Halloween is the perfect time to be someone else. She is the "hot one" after all so she still needs to be hot in costume. ("Sexy"). Later, at Aaron's Halloween party, Regina discovers Cady's crush on Aaron. Regina offers to talk to him for Cady but Regina spitefully decides to flirt with him until he agrees to get back together with her, much to Cady's chagrin ("Someone Gets Hurt").

Furious, Cady goes home to Janis and Damian for advice. Damian reveals that Janis and Regina had been best friends in middle school until Regina refused to invite Janis to her pool party because Regina was convinced Janis was a lesbian. They decide that they will work together to get revenge on Regina, giving her Kälteen Bars to help her gain weight (though she thinks they are diet bars used to lose weight). They also convince Gretchen that Regina is mad at her by sending a fake Candy Cane Gram to Cady from "Regina" saying that they are now best friends - causing her to reveal Regina's secret hook-ups with Shane Oman in the North Shore Lion's mascot costume, among other vengeful acts ("Revenge Party"). After failing their "Rockin' Around the Pole" dance at the school talent show, people start noticing Regina's weight gain. Later, when Regina breaks one of the Plastics' rules, Cady stands up to her, banning her from sitting at their table. Everyone is relieved to be freed from Regina's rule ("Fearless"). Cady tries to apologize to Regina for kicking her from the lunch table, but Regina insinuates that her reign is far from over ("Someone Gets Hurt (Reprise)").

Act Two

After winter break at North Shore High School, Cady has undergone a complete makeover befitting of her new "Queen Bee" status leading Karen and Gretchen. ("A Cautionary Tale (Reprise)"). Damian, Janis, and the other girls of North Shore High try to hamper Cady's ever-growing social obsessions and to stop acting dumb for Aaron by telling her about their own negative past experiences with obsessive behavior ("Stop"). Gretchen starts to notice similarities between her friendship with Regina, and her friendship with the new Queen Bee Cady, while Regina's mother wonders why her daughter won't confide in her. She reminisces the old days whilst Regina was a child whilst Gretchen is contemplating being friends with Cady. ("What's Wrong With Me (Reprise)").

Cady throws a house party in an attempt to get Aaron to her house - despite telling her parents that Janis had an art show, so she couldn't go on their family trip (when, in fact, Janis did have an art show, and Cady just chose not to go, therefore lying to her parents and Janis). She becomes drunker and drunker as the party goes on and gets crazier ("Whose House is This?"). When Aaron shows up to a drunk Cady's party, they sneak off to her bedroom. There, Aaron explains that he really liked who Cady was before she became a Plastic, whereas Cady tries, unsuccessfully, to convince him that since she has more now, she is, therefore, better whilst Aaron is trying to make her think about her actions deeply. ("More is Better"). After the party, Janis and Damian show up at Cady's house, angry she missed Janis's art show. They tell Cady that she betrayed their trust, and has gone full Plastic, but Janis is fine because it had happened before and knew an event like this would repeat itself. ("Someone Gets Hurt (Reprise 2)").

When Regina discovers that she was not invited to this party and that the Kälteen Bars are what made her gain weight, she decides to get revenge by releasing the Burn Book - a book full of insults to each and every girl (as well as Aaron and Damian) in the school - later adding "Regina is a Fugly Cow" to the book in order to take the blame off of herself, there are insults about everyone they know, except Karen, Gretchen and of course Cady. During the song, Janis and Damian find out that Cady had written in it as Janis told Cady ‘Damian is too gay to function’ whilst Regina is onlooking making the world burn. ("World Burn"). At a required assembly about the Burn Book, Ms. Norbury tries to bring the girls together. Janis explains her philosophy of "I'd rather be me than be with you" to the school, referencing her failed friendships with both Cady and Regina empowering the girls to stand up for themselves. ("I'd Rather Be Me"). Regina storms out of the building in anger and disbelief. Cady follows her, trying to apologize, but Regina is so distracted that she walks in front of a bus and gets hit. Luckily, she survives.

Regina's bus accident prompts Cady to reevaluate herself and realize what a monster she has become. Cady decides to take the full blame for the Burn Book, despite having not written the entire thing herself. She is suspended for three weeks and banned from the Spring Fling ("Fearless (Reprise)").

After returning to school, Ms. Norbury offers Cady a way to earn some extra credit and save her grade: Cady must join the Mathletes in the state championships. After being put up against the only other girl in the competition and succeeding, the team wins, and Cady feels redeemed ("Do This Thing"). She then sneaks into Spring Fling with Aaron's help, after kissing him. There, she runs into Regina, and they have a heart-to-heart conversation and make up.

Cady is elected as Spring Fling Queen but notices how fragile and cheap the plastic crown is, and how ridiculous it is that things can get so ugly for such stupid, insignificant reasons. She takes the crown, breaks it into many pieces, and gives a piece to each girl at Spring Fling while complimenting each one - telling them they are all "real, and rare". She apologizes to Janis and Damian, and they move forward as friends once more. Cady, Damian, Janis, Gretchen, Karen, Aaron, and Regina join together, finally accepting each other ("I See Stars").

Original cast

• Mrs. Heron/Ms. Norbury/Mrs. George: Jennifer Simard^[11]

Creative team

Original Washington, D.C. production (2017)

Original Broadway production (2018)