Energetic, laugh out loud hilarious and definitely fetch! Mean Girls has hit the West End and it’s taking audiences by storm! I had the pleasure of going to see Mean Girls last week now and wow, it did not disappoint!

As soon as we arrived in the theatre we were engulfed by the Mean Girls world! There were loads of amazing photo opportunities, merchandise stands and many of the audience members were rocking their best pink outfits. There was even a special little moons stand as well which I thought was a great fun touch. There was a great overall sensation of joy and excitement in the theatre!

The show kickstarts full of energy with the song “Cautionary Tale” which introduces us to Janet and Damien who as well as being in the story will act as the storytellers for the audience. These two were a great duo and the parts are fabulous written. They still have their incredible charm and witty humour but now on top of that they have catchy bouncy songs as well so what is not to love! They probably had my favourite song of the night which was the astounding rendition of Revenge Party at the end of the first act.

Tom Xander (Damien) and Elena Skye (Janet ) worked off each other excellently and clearly had great chemistry and friendship it was a great refreshing take on the roles. Both of them were vocally faultless and Xander was truly a bundle of laughs. I was glued to him any time he was on the stage. I saw an interview last week on Instagram where he said “ I told my agent since the start this was the only job I really care about” and I can see why… HE WAS MADE FOR THIS!

However, unfortunately, I didn’t resonate with Skye’s acting choices as Janet. It felt a little tired and often didn’t feel like there was any truthfulness or great sense of characterisation in her performance the however her vocals were absolutely first class I just wished I got a sense of who Janet was through her choices with the character.

The soundtrack was magnetising, it was consistently full of character throughout, ranging from strong comedic numbers like “Sexy” to more emotionally driven, hard hitting ballads that allowed us to see the rawness behind the masks that these characters hold, to survive the jungle that is high school.

Cady Heron was played by Charlie Burn and she was another huge stand-out performance. She completely embodied Cady in such a magical way. Having watched and been disappointed by the portrayal of Cady in the Mean Girls movie musical earlier this year it was so refreshing to to see character be brought to life and shine throughout the story. Having watched the other versions of Mean Girls I really struggled to understand and resonate with Cady’s character especially in the second act however I was obsessed with Burn’s take on the character.

Additionally she was vocally amazing and I’m not always particularly a fan of Cady’s songs, especially after listening to them in the movie musical however they were some of my favourites of the night! As well I must say her dancing was incredible, she really stood out on the whole ensemble… I’ve never seen her perform before, but wow, I’ll be keeping my eye what she does next, it was like Lindsay Lohan was on stage in front of me!

Furthermore, as a René Rapp super fan Georgina Castle had big shoes to fill but I was really impressed with her performance. It really shifted the way that I see Regina as a character. I feel like it’s so easy to play her as this stereotypical mean girl (pardon the pun,) and I know she is the ‘mean girl’ of the story but Castle’s performance really breathed a lot of life and depth into Regina that I feel like it’s often ignored by performers.

She made some really great comedic choices and it was a lovely performance that humanised Regina perfectly, Castle seemed like she was having a lot of fun and this added a really nice playful side to Regina as well.

It was a really refreshing performance and her rendition of “World Burn” and “Till Someone Gets Hurt” were absolutely iconic… The way that she delivered the line “my name is Regina George” was just so perfect it has been imprinted in my head since I have watched it!

Whilst on the topic of Regina, I must mention Zoë Rainey as Mrs. George and Ms Heron AND Ms Norbury! Obviously all three of these characters are slightly smaller characters but I did not expect them to be played by the same actress! Rainey was absolutely perfect in all three of the rules. It took me to the last moment of the second act to actually realise they were all been played by the same person. The production also made comedy out of this when she had to quickly change characters they did it behind a wall on stage, it was really fun and a unique way of playing around with these characters.

Additionally, I thoroughly enjoyed Grace Mouat’s performances Karen. I was really impressed to see a completely different side to her, Having last watched her as Juliet in & Juliet. I thought her rendition of “Sexy” was great. Her performance didn’t feel particularly revolutionary. It felt very similar to the other versions of the character however she did a great job. I think just as a fan of the musical I would’ve liked to see her take more of a risk and make some unique choices instead of performing the same version we have already seen! However with such an iconic role a lot of people like to see them exactly like they were in the film so that could just be my personal preference.

The musical on a whole was really nicely paced it felt fun and energetic without ever missing any details from the film. The film has such a huge reputation that I was worried how the musical would live up to it but I really enjoyed it. It vibrant throughout and the plot moved quick enough for us to understand what was going on but also never have a dull moment.

The ensemble had heaps of energy, I wouldn’t say it’s the strongest cast of dancers on the West End right now but the main standout for me was that they were all excellent actors!

I feel like sometimes with heavy ensemble shows you see really strong dancing but not strong characters or individualism existing inside the ensemble, but this ensemble was so magnetising to watch in the scenes they were in, they all had such clear characters, uniqueness and were all a joy to watch!

I overall had an amazing night and any notes that I have had were very nit picky to my own preference. It does the whole franchise justice and was a great breath of fresh air to watch! The audience loved it and it was amazing to see such a huge age range together in a theatre everyone from young children to teenagers to the older generations was having a blast!