When Cady Heron (Erika Henningsen) wins Spring Fling Queen in the final scene of Mean Girls on Broadway, Regina George, played by Taylor Louderman, makes a quip that only Tina Fey could write about potential Russian meddling in the ‘dance elections’ at North Shore High. Of course, knowing Tina in all her SNL glory, that’s not the only Donald Trump reference in the updated production, based on the 2004 hit film. The Queen Bee of Broadway, Taylor, revealed to HollywoodLife.com that if it came down to her character sizing up the President of the United States, there’s no doubt, Regina would come out victor. “Regina George, of course!” Taylor told us at Variety’s Power Of Women event, adding, “I bet it’d be pretty close.” Her co-star, and on-stage nemesis Barrett Wilbert Weed, who plays Janis, was also Team Regina, telling HL, “I’m going to go with Regina because she’s pretty spry. I think she’d also be good at faking everyone out. She’s good at escaping from testy situations.” Of course, as a loyal Plastic, Kate Rockwell, who has mastered the aloof role of Karen in the show, gave Regina the W in the Trump vs. George bully battle. “I’d love to see him come for her, I’d love to see him try,” she laughed.
Mean Girls is the perfect combination of both Fey’s comic genius and Casey Nicholaw‘s (“Book of Mormon”) direction and choreography. Instead of just being a show about young women tearing each other down, its’ storyline parallels the heartbreaking reality of our world since Nov. 8, 2016, and that correlation is not lost on the cast. Barrett, Kate, Taylor and Erika have not only been outspoken in recent interviews about the grueling (grool-ing?) effects of bullying on young women and men, but also about how the Mean Girls narrative sickly relates to our current presidential administration. “I think that, in 2004, [Mean Girls] was important when the movie came out. I think it was really important for us to talk about an honest, but also a laughing way, about how we, women, treat each other, particularly when we’re younger,” Kate explained. “But, 15 years later, the climate has changed, and it hasn’t changed for the better. We have a lot of leadership that isn’t particularly respectful of women, so I think it’s ultra important for us to learn to be respectful of each other, and so that we can teach, not only ourselves but the people, the generation coming after us, that that is the norm.”
Barrett, who is an outspoken advocate for gun control and women’s rights, among other things, (just check out her Insta feed, and prepare to be empowered), added to Kate’s sentiments, telling HollywoodLife.com, “I think a lot of people in this country feel kind of bullied by our government right now. I know I do and there’s some really beautiful push back happening. But I think being bullied or being ostracized or having social difficulty is applicable to like anybody who has ever been alive.”
HollywoodLifers, stay tuned for our full sit-down interview with Barrett and our convo with the woman who shakes up everything at North Shore High (at the August Wilson Theatre) Erika Henningsen! Oh, and go see Mean Girls on Broadway… if fetch didn’t happen in 2004, it’s happening now.