The Mean Girls musical production by the Milpitas Community Theater was a flawlessly executed play with surprisingly professional quality production. Lasting about two and a half hours long, the musical was an amazing rendition of the movie. The musical was written by Tina Fey and directed by Salim Razawi.
I attended their last showing, on March 10th, at the Milpitas Community Center. There was a large cast with students ranging from 12 to 18 years old, including many students from our school.
The story followed the plotline of the original movie, with many iconic lines included in the musical although the writers took some creative liberties which enhanced the experience of the production as a musical.
There were also many important messages made clear throughout the play, like the detrimental effects of social media. The play also included relevant pop culture references throughout the production, making it that much more enjoyable for the audience.
The actors all demonstrated strong voices throughout the entire two hours. The main characters all performed two to five songs with supporting acappella from background characters. The adaptation of the scenes in the movie into song form was seamlessly done, and it was very well-written.
All the actors were excellent, but some mentionable actors were Rachelle Liezel (Gretchen Wieners), Hayden Torres (Cady), and Camille Fuqua (Janis). Their perfor+mances were all incredible, and they really embodied their characters well.
The costume design was also ingenious, with multiple costume changes throughout the play. A costume design that stood out to me was Janis’s dress at the end of the musical. It was a handmade dress with a corset top and a billowy bottom, representative of the character throughout the musical. Cady’s costume design was also very thought-out, as it was a representation of her development throughout the story.
At the beginning, she had two braids which were tied up in the back, and as she became more influenced by the plastics, she started to care for her appearance more, letting her braids out.
From the lights to the acting, the play was strong all around and had a masterful production, exceeding my expectations. The other viewers also shared the same sentiment as there was a standing ovation at the end of the musical.
There definitely needs to be more community support for the Milpitas Community Theater prod uctions, because this play was very well done, and there were not nearly enough people in the audience as there should have been for such a well crafted play.