‘MEAN,’ BUT MUSICAL

TOUR HITS THE CIVIC THEATRE, WITH CHOREOGRAPHY BY SAN DIEGO NATIVE NICHOLAW

Mean girls don’t turn nice. They just turn musical. It worked for Tina Fey nearly 20 years ago when she wrote the screenplay for the teen comedy “Mean Girls” based on Rosalind Wiseman’s how-to for parents “Queen Bees and Wannabes.” And it worked again when Fey wrote the book for the “Mean Girls” stage musical. Jeff Richmond (composer of the music for Fey’s “30 Rock” TV series) and Nell Benjamin (“Legally Blonde”) provided music and lyrics respectively for the show, which opened on Broadway in 2018.

A national tour that began a year later finally arrives in San Diego — following a long pandemic delay — on Tuesday with performances at the San Diego Civic Theatre through March 5.

The touring production is directed by

Casey Nicholaw, a former San Diegan (he attended Clairemont High School) whose Broadway credits include his Tony-winning direction of “The Book of Mormon,” as well as work “The Drowsy Chaperone,” “Aladdin” and the musical adaptation of “Some Like It Hot.” Nicholaw is also the “Mean Girls” musical’s choreographer.

“People like the show because it has the spirit of the movie,” said Nicholaw, “but we made it theatrical. They also get to hear some of their favorite characters sing.”

Those characters familiar to fans of the film include the bullied high school student Cady Heron, her BFFs Janis and Damian, and the trio of “Plastics” led by the vengeful Regina George, also known as the “Queen Bee.”

In the movie, Cady was played by then-18-year-old Lindsay Lohan, and the cast included several other young actors who would go on to make names for

JENNY ANDERSON PHOTOS English Bernhardt as Cady Heron (right) meets the “Plastics” in the national touring production of the musical “Mean Girls.”

The musical’s creative team (from left): directorchoreographer Casey Nicholaw, bookwriter Tina Fey, composer Jeff Richmond and lyricist Nell Benjamin.