A brand new Mean Girls came out this year. As a musical reimagined into a movie reimagined back into a musical, the latest Mean Girls has caused some mixed feelings.

For some the original movie was a better experience than this musical. The musical holds an IMDb rating of 6.3/10 stars while the original sits at 7.1/10. 

“It just felt like they couldn’t figure out what they wanted the vibe of the music to be in the first place,” sophomore Paige McConnell said. “In the original musical, the ‘Stupid with Love’ song was a very upbeat, in-your-face song. But, the new ‘Stupid with Love’’ song is just like, what?”

Mean Girls includes songs from the original Broadway show, but they have seemingly been adjusted. While this can be a good thing in some cases, it can also be a bad thing if not done correctly. The essence and message of the original song can be lost through adaptation. Changes in lyrics and tone can change the intended meaning and confuse listeners.

“They also made a lot of changes that I wasn’t sure about. In the original, ‘Meet the Plastics’ song, both Karen and the third girl had a part in the song where they sing about themselves and stuff, but then in the new version that part is gone,” McConnell said, ”There’s a bad main focus only on Regina which like yeah she’s the main villain, but these other characters are still important.”

The trailer for the musical did not contain anything that would even hint at the fact that it was such. This caused confusion online since the main difference between the original movie and this newer one is the songs. This can understandably cause people to walk into the movie without knowing its singing properties. 

“I thought the original Mean Girls was alright,” senior Wyatt Blackmore said. “I thought it was gonna be a remake, I missed the whole ‘it’s a musical’ part.”

Musicals aren’t suited to everyone’s tastes, even if it’s a classic like Mean Girls. Some people just prefer regular movies without all the theatrics. The constant breaking out in song and dance can be found as a distraction from the plot. Musicals may also make it hard to connect with the characters and story due to being over-the-top and exaggerated.

“I was in there and everyone was singing,” Blackmore said. “I was like: I don’t know what I’m doing here, this isn’t my type of movie.”

The Mean Girls musical is quite criticized but there are quite a few people who genuinely enjoy the movie. Balancing its questionable plot with iconic humor and songs, Mean Girls is sensational whether it’s in a musical format or not.