Tina Fey isn’t done with Mean Girls. Last night, she announced that she will reprise her role as math teacher Ms. Norbury in the upcoming musical movie adaptation of the 2004 movie. Tim Meadows is joining the fun in a reprise of his role as Principal Duval. During her appearance last night on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Fey joked, “Teachers work forever. I want it to be like when Gilligan from Gilligan’s Island would be at a trade show and you’d be like, ‘Oh, he looks so old in his little hat.’ That’s my goal.” After writing the original film, Fey wrote the book for the stage musical version (accompanied by husband Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin), which made its Broadway debut in 2018. In the upcoming film adaptation of the musical, Angourie Rice plays Cady, Reneé Rapp plays Regina, Auli’i Cravalho plays Janis, and Jaquel Spivey plays Damian. Filming on the movie will begin on March 6, according to Fey.
When Meyers asked Fey if the musical score would change for the movie version, she said, “The songs are sounding really more kinda pop. In Broadway everything has to play to the back of the house and in movies everything can come back in and things can play really intimately.” When it closed on Broadway, the musical grossed $124 million. A total of 805 performances and 29 previews had taken place at Broadway’s August Wilson Theatre when the musical closed on March 11. Mean Girls had its world premiere run at the National Theatre in Washington D.C. in 2017 before opening on April 8, 2018. “We remain excited to bring this musical to the big screen, relaunch the tour and prepare for a London production,” said Lorne Michaels at the time, who produced the musical with Stuart Thompson, Sonia Friedman, and Paramount Pictures. “I look forward to the day, hopefully soon, when theaters can open their doors again.”
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Paramount Pictures is adapting the new film for Paramount+. Similar to the movie, the musical follows Cady Heron, who, after growing up on a savanna in Africa, returns to suburban Illinois for high school. How will she rise to the top of the popularity pecking order? By taking on The Plastics, a trio of lionized enemies led by Regina George, the charming but ruthless Regina George. In trying to end Regina’s rule, Cady learns the hard way that crossing a queen bee can lead to painful consequences.
