The Mean Girls musical—which is still happening—will be updated for “the present time,” because 2004 is now as far distant as the 1950s. The Victorian era. The time of the Romans!
The New York Times provides the latest update on the production, which opens in Washington DC in late October before moving to Broadway, with previews beginning in March. Tina Fey wrote the book and her husband Jeff Richmond is doing the music, with Nell Benjamin of Legally Blonde on lyrics. Lorne Michaels is producing. “There are lots of things you can do better in a musical,” he told the Times, adding that, “The characters are fuller.”
Most importantly, “the adaptation is set in the present time. That means the Plastics have Snapchat and Instagram in their arsenal.” I’m not sure what’s more terrifying—the prospect of facing high school when everybody is toting smartphones, or the idea of a splashy, flashy musical number about Snapchat. Probably it’s the fact that 2004 is now so far in the past that it can only be the setting for a period piece.