Review: A musical 'Mean Girls' hits the high notes when Reneé Rapp enters as queen bee Regina George

The new iteration of “Mean Girls” — a movie adaptation of the Broadway musical based on the 2004 movie, all with words written by Tina Fey — bubbles along nicely as it begins, hitting its marks pleasantly but unspectacularly.

Then Reneé Rapp, reprising her role from Broadway, makes her entrance, declaring her character’s name and status — “My name is Regina George, and I’m a massive deal — and this musical kicks into a higher gear.

Regina, the leader of a dominating high school clique known as the Plastics, is the hottest girl in school and knows it — and is aptly described in one of the songs (music by Jeff Richmond, lyrics by Nell Benjamin) as a “apex predator.” When Rapp makes her entrance, the new girl, Cady Heron (Angourie Rice), stares and gawks, and the audience does the same.

Rapp commands this rendition of the story, which Fey based on Rosalind Wiseman’s “Queen Bees and Wannabes,” dissecting the social structure of fictional North Shore High School. Cady, having lived in Kenya with her scientist mom (Jenna Fischer), studies the system as an outsider, like a biologist looking at the animals on the savanna. 

Cady is first treated as an outsider, shunned by everyone except the school’s outcasts, Janis ‘Imi’ike (played by “Moana” star Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian Hubbard (Jaquel Spivey, in his first movie role). It’s Janis who warns Cady about Regina’s double-crossing ways, and engineers a revenge plot in which Cady infiltrates the Plastics, befriending its beta members — insecure Gretchen Wieners (Bebe Wood) and not-too-bright Karen Shetty (Avantika) — and reporting back on what secrets she learns. The hitch in the plan comes when Cady starts to crush a hot boy, Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney), and learns too late that Aaron is Regina’s ex.

The directing team of Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. create some neon-bright musical sequences to push along Fey’s story. And Fey, who reprises her role as the no-nonsense teacher Ms. Norbury, brings along some of her regulars — Tim Meadows returning as the school’s principal, Busy Phillips as Regina’s trying-to-be-cool mom, Ashley Park as the school’s French teacher, and Jon Hamm as a boorish health teacher — for some undeniable laughs.

Besides Rapp, the standout among the young cast is Cravalho, who imbues the prickly Janis with a strong sense of outrage and vengeance over slights dating back to elementary school.

As good as some moments of this “Mean Girls” are, one wishes it didn’t stick too close to the original’s template in other areas — such as the iconic Christmas talent show scene, or the way Regina deploys the famous “Burn Book.” Even set to music, there’s not much happening in those passages that outshines the original.

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‘Mean Girls’

★★★

Opens Friday, January 12, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG-13 for sexual material, strong language and teen drinking. Running time: 112 minutes.