Mean Girls on Broadway

On Wednesdays we wear pink. And we also go see Mean Girls on Broadway. Let me tell you it was SO FETCH. It was probably my favorite day of the year so far. And that’s only because October 3^rd hasn’t happened yet.

For those of you who are lost, you should really brush up on your Mean Girls movie quotes. From here on out, I promise to tell you about my experience and not just quote the movie. My experience was AWESOME. Really. You guys know I set annual goals for myself, and the best way to make your goals a reality is by telling people so you stay accountable. In this case, I told all of my friends that I wanted to see 3 Broadway shows so they would invite me with them. TADAA my plan worked! Well, sort of.

My good friend has a way better memory than me (or is better at setting alarms on her phone), so she remembers to enter the lottery online to win tickets to Broadway shows almost every week. She even enters for shows she has already been to. Two weeks ago, she won tickets to see Mean Girls on Tuesday. Unfortunately, she asked me if I wanted to see it, and also asked her coworker, and we both said yes. I told her it was fine and I could go another day. Little did I know, another day would be THE NEXT DAY. And better yet, it was WEDNESDAY!

The way the Broadway Lottery works, for the non-New-Yorkers among us, is that you enter online, and then you find out the day before if you won. The tickets aren’t free, but they are drastically reduced. In this case, they were $47.50 each. The main drawback is, you never know where the seats will be, or if they will be together. Also, the person who wins the tickets needs to be present with their ID to pick them up. My friend, even though she won the lottery, said I could pick someone else to go with since she had already seen it. I picked my sister, and she was thrilled to join me even though she hadn’t even seen the movie. (She doesn’t even go here!!) My friend went to the theater to pick up the tickets and be my sister’s and my official Mean Girls photographer, and then left to go home. What a good friend, amirite??? She’s no Regina George. Plus, we got lucky. The seats were together and they were orchestra row R.

Even though my sister hadn’t seen the movie, she had me, Mean Girls trivia extraordinaire, to coach her through the experience. I explained how OBVIOUSLY we needed to wear pink. I took out all of the pink in my dresser (literally, I laid my shirts out on my bed and sent pics to my sister) and asked her which I should wear so we could match. True to her word, my sister showed up in a bright pink dress and a light pink, sparkly scarf in her hair. We both had packed snacks, like professional show-goers. In my sister’s bag – chocolate covered raisins (in a Ziplock bag so they didn’t make noise, duh), and a bottle of water. In my bag – cut up pieces of apple, lifesaver gummies, and chocolate mint bark thins. We were ready for show time.

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It was SO GOOD. Like… one of my favorite shows in the past few years, and I have seen a LOT! And better yet, my sister loved it and she didn’t even know the story beforehand! She said it reminded her a lot of real high school dynamics (she works in a school), and she especially liked Damien, both the character and the actor, who she recognized from when he played one of the elders in Book of Mormon.

It was a fun experience for me to see a familiar story acted out in real life, and I loved the addition of the musical numbers. I had a bit of trouble understanding the words when Regina sang, and when I said that at intermission to my sister, she said the same thing. Actually, she may have said it first and then I said, “omg me too.”

But by far, the funniest part of the show was Aaron Samuels, the main character’s love interest. I am pretty sure that they didn’t cast him thinking he would be the funniest part, but… let me explain. On any given day, it doesn’t really matter if you can sing. And most of the time, you can’t even tell if someone isn’t a fantastic vocalist. But when you’re on the stage of a Broadway production, surrounded by amazing vocalists, it should be a prerequisite. And if you CAN’T sing? Let’s just say, people notice.

Poor Aaron Samuels, though, or I should say, poor Cameron Dallas… he was TERRIBLE. I mean really really bad. In the first Act, he only sang a few lines. And at intermission I said to my sister, “what is going on with him? Is he sick? Is he really bad? Did you hear that?” So, we did some research in the Playbill. Usually, the playbill is filled with paragraphs of stage credits for each leading person. Shows in high school, shows on Broadway, traveling productions in the US and abroad… this guy? He has 20 million Instagram followers. And zero stage credits. We had a serious a-ha moment. He was cast because he is an influencer!! It made so much sense. There were screaming girls in the audience, all in attendance to see their favorite YouTube sensation. No matter at all that he couldn’t carry a tune to save his life and there are thousands of starving actors in NYC dying for their big break. Honestly, it pissed me off. But also, it cracked me up.

In Act 2, he sang a lot more. There was even a scene that was supposed to be a quiet scene in a bedroom, but it was difficult not to gawk at how bad of a singer he was. The entire theater was tittering and talking, and at first I thought people were making fun of him, but NOPE. It was his teeny bopper fans fawning over him! When the show ended, they jumped out of their seats to give him a standing ovation and rushed the stage door to try and grab selfies with him. Meanwhile, I googled him to figure out what his talents were that got him 20 million followers. They were definitely not singing or dancing. (Spoiler alert: they don’t exist. But he did struggle with addiction and started a charity about that.)

UPDATE! I saw it again! I was saving this blog to make sure I posted it on a Wednesday, and in the interim, I actually saw the show AGAIN! After attending the show, my sweet emoji-bf who was out of town told me he was so jealous. To my surprise, he said he had always wanted to see it. I knew he loved the movie but I didn’t think he would be interested in the showtunes version, but I was wrong. 6 days later, my friend won lottery tickets AGAIN and of course I said yes!! And I attended the show with him and he loved it.

Overall, the show was a GREAT time and I would recommend it 100%. Take yourself, take your boyfriend, or take your kids, especially if you don’t want to be a regular mom, you want to be a COOL mom!

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