This past weekend, April 10-13, Liberty performed the famous musical “Mean Girls” as the final theater show for the 2024-25 school year. The musical follows the 2004 worldwide hit movie, which features stars like Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams. The performance balances dramatized comedy and deeper themes like finding identity, bullying and standing up for what’s right while making it applicable to high schoolers.
The show starts with Cady Heron’s (Lilly Vogts, 12) first day at her new American public high school. Originally homeschooled in Africa, Cady feels she sticks out from her new classmates, but Janis Ian (Savannah Page, 11) and Damien Hubbard (Lucas Acas, 12) become fast friends with her. They start by showing her what the new, foreign environment entails. As they show Cady the cliques and different rules, Cady is most interested in the three popular girls, the ones that Janis and Damien hold a strong, unknown dislike to, calling them “The Plastics.”
(photo given with permission from Molly Krogh) (Molly Krogh)
“The Plastics” include Regina George (Madeline Austin, 12), Gretchen Weiners (Miriam Terwilleger, 12) and Karen Smith (Nora Yates, 11), who are described as “hard, plastic and shiny”; the classic mean girls who look down on others and do what they please, whenever they please. After a brief introduction and invitation to sit at their table, Cady, Damien and Janis create a master plan that involves Cady spying on “The Plastics”.
The plan included Cady starting to dress, talk and act like the other three, changing her appearance into that of a “Plastic” while constantly reporting back to Janis and Damien. Their main target is to embarrass and humiliate the “leader” of the trio, Regina, who has a history with Janis. Together, they give her bars to “lose weight” that help malnourished people gain weight, replace her moisturizer with foot cream, expose Regina’s cheating on her boyfriend and tell Gretchen and Karen all the horrible things Regina says about them behind their backs.
As the plan is put into action, Cady starts to become more like the trio, adapting to their actions, way of speaking and styles. As she starts hanging out with them, she dumbs herself down in classes and hides any evidence of her past life and true personality.
Cady starts to develop a crush on Regina’s ex-boyfriend, Aaron Samuels (Austin Anderson, 12), who is in her calculus class. When Gretchen tells Regina about Cady’s crush, though, Regina goes behind Cady’s back to get back together with Aaron, whom she cheats on. This only fuels Janis, Damien and Cady’s anger towards her and pushes them to continue messing with Regina.
Around this time, the plan was going smoothly, as the three of them got Karen and Gretchen to also turn against Regina and embarrass her in front of the entire school a couple of times. It is also revealed that Janis and Regina used to be best friends in middle school, where Regina purposely didn’t invite her to a pool party because she thought Janis was a lesbian. Regina spread the rumor around school, causing Janis to be ostracized and fueling her hatred towards her.
But, as time progresses, Cady’s plan turns less from acting like a “Plastic” to becoming one, pushing Damien and Janis away from her after throwing a massive party without inviting them. The party was originally only supposed to be a get-together to impress the newly single (again) Aaron, but Gretchen and Karen turned it into a rager. When Janis and Damien confront her, Cady says hurtful things that have Janis retaliating and pointing out how Cady is no longer their friend, but just as “plastic” as Regina.
Once Regina catches word of the plan and everything Janis, Damien and Cady had done to ruin her life, Regina takes it upon herself to publish the pages of her, Gretchen and Karen’s old “Burn Book.” The journal has cut-out pictures of everyone in the school, with nasty gossip written about them. Regina then does the same, writing terrible things about herself into the book and taking it to the principal, who is angered beyond belief. As Regina reminds him, only three girls aren’t in the book: Cady, Gretchen and Karen.
The pages had been duplicated en masse and thrown around the school, causing chaos amongst the students. This causes the faculty to host an assembly to try and clear the air. Eventually, Cady takes the blame for the journal and is banished from the spring fling. Right after Cady confesses, Regina gets hit by a school bus, and her classmates start a rumor that Cady shoved Regina in front of it.
Yet, her calculus teacher, Ms. Norbury (Ivy Reske, 12), says that if Cady joins the mathletes at All-State, she will be able to go to the spring fling, an option she immediately takes up. After they win, Cady shows up to the spring fling and wins the crown to be queen. She then addresses the school about the false rumor and how everyone only voted for her because they believed Cady pushed Regina in front of the bus.
By the end of the play, Cady figures out that she needs to be her true self and not try to fit the norm of her new school. Eventually, she clears the air with Janis, Damien, Regina, Gretchen and Karen, and the show ends on a thoughtful note about how people should never have to change who they are to fit in with others.
The technical crew and the actors/ singers of Liberty’s theater department did an amazing job recreating the famous “Mean Girls”. The show was an exceptional way to end the 2024-25 school year, showcasing the hardworking talent of everyone involved.
