“Mean Girls” the musical is coming to the Mid City Civic Theatre, featuring comedy-driven drama, cast members from the LSU Musical Theatre Club, and an audience filled with laughter.
The musical features Summer Riche, a digital art and animation junior, as Cady Heron. The audience follows Cady as she navigates public school for the first time after living abroad in Africa with her researcher parents. Her main goal is to just fit in, no matter the cost, landing herself in the most notorious clique of the high school: the Plastics.
Cady doesn’t exactly make the best decisions throughout the musical. She gets herself into quite the pickle, and the audience gets to see all this high school drama play out. It may seem dramatic and silly, but it still holds important messages.
The story of Cady Heron is a “cautionary tale” for students entering a new school for the first time. It might be tempting to change yourself to fit in, but it won’t benefit you in the long run.
“It’s about staying optimistic, but it’s also about holding yourself accountable, reflecting on your choices and staying true to who you are,” Riche said.
Regina George, the queen bee of Cady’s new high school, is played by Ava Reyer, a junior natural resources ecology management major. Her portrayal of the character is unique. For instance, she isn’t blonde and she doesn’t really wear pink.
“I never really saw myself as playing a mean girl, but now that I am playing Regina, it’s definitely a lot of fun,” Reyer said. “I enjoy making a lot of different choices with her character.”
Regina may be a notorious bully, but she’s still a human on the inside who just wants to feel accepted.
“She definitely realizes that her actions have led to where she ended up,” Reyer explained.
Her character shows us that it isn’t right to put others down to satisfy our own cravings for love and attention.
“We’re in college,” Reyer said. “We’re going to make a lot of new friends. Some of them we’ll like. Some of them we won’t like. But there’s really no reason to judge people or hate them for where they come from or what they’re involved in.”
Anyone who watches the show will learn a thing or two from these characters. Besides this, it’s also a great chance to sit back and enjoy the performance from talented LSU students. Many of them have been working toward this moment for some time now.
“Cady Heron has been a dream role of mine since I was a freshman in high school, and when I found out I got the role, I was just so beyond stoked,” Riche said. “I was willing to put in any time. Anything they needed, I was willing to do.”
Riche likes the character not only because of her story, but because of how much she sees her own positive mindset in the character.
“It’s about being able to adapt to a new environment while staying positive,” Riche said. “That’s one thing she kind of is good at. Even when she’s being bullied, excluded and outcasted, she still has hope.”
Co-director Don Fields, a theatre performance and kinesiology double major, was amazed that in just weeks, the actors not only pulled the show together, but were able to ensure these messages were getting through to the audience.
“It’s been really nice to see how hard they’ve been working, especially coming back off book, coming in before rehearsals, staying after, meeting up outside of rehearsal hours to rehearse,” Fields said. “It’s been really great watching them put the show together. It’s been a really rewarding experience.”
The community that has built the Musical Theatre Club of LSU is made through the actors and their friendships. Dyllyn Scranton, a freshman music education major who is cast as Aaron Samuels, is a part of the club for the experience and the friendship.
“Navigating college with a group like this has been phenomenal,” Scranton said. “You never feel isolated. You never feel like there isn’t someone you can lean on for things. We’ve sat on the sides when we’re not in the number, we’ve done homework together and we get food together all the time after shows.”
MTC will be performing “Mean Girls” on Feb. 6 and 7 at 7 p.m. and Feb. 8 at 2 p.m. Tickets can be purchased on Ludus, and the cost is $25 for general admission tickets. However, LSU students with a valid Tiger Card get in for free.
Any LSU student who dreams of finding themselves center stage can join the Musical Theatre Club. The organization can be found on TigerLink and Instagram.
“If it’s something you even have a sliver of curiosity about, just try it,” Riche said. “At the end of the day, it’s better to try and say you did than not try, and not know what could have happened.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source lsureveille.com ’
