Arriving a few weeks past Oct. 3, the Marquis Players announced its spring musical, “Mean Girls” (2017), setting the stage for a performance that is “so fetch.”
“I feel like it’s one of those pop culture just things where everyone knows it,” said Kelsie Bouyer ‘26, the president of the group.
Based on the iconic 2004 movie starring Lindsey Lohan and Rachel McAdams, “Mean Girls” follows high school transfer student Cady Heron as she navigates friendships, romance and her relationship with “the Plastics,” the intimidating and popular girls who try to recruit her into their ranks.
“We have a super strong female talent right now on campus,” co-music director Chris Murphy ‘27 said. “We wanted to highlight the talent we have and just showcase how awesome they are.”
The announcement of the show comes weeks later than their typical announcement — the group’s annual fall showcase on Oct. 3 — which was attributed to content rights issues.
As director Juliet Minadeo ‘27 explained, “Mean Girls” was hardly even up for consideration since it seemed an impossible pipe dream.
“We had a lot of trouble with show selection,” Minadeo said. “A bunch of the shows that we put in requests for got denied.”
That was until, seemingly overnight, an opportunity sprang into the digisphere.
“A couple weeks ago, we just happened to check the site and saw that the rights to ‘Mean Girls’ was released, and we weren’t really hearing back from our other sources,” Minadeo said. “We were like, why not?”
With this development, the Marquis Players have shifted into full preparation mode as stress and anticipation melted into excitement and relief.
“Once you have that show, you can really go ahead and start really gathering things together,” Bouyer said. “How we want to style it, how it’s going to look, how it’s going to sound, is going to be a super exciting part of the process.”
The adaptation will vary from the early 2000s source material, as placing it in a 2025 setting will lead to some more “modern” elements.
“Instead of talking about a four-way call, like on a rotary phone, which doesn’t really happen anymore, it’s more so, ‘Oh, who tweeted that?’” Minadeo said. “We’re spreading rumors via the internet, which is a more refreshing take for this climate.”
For those hoping to get involved with this production, auditions will start in the spring semester, and the Players are still looking for set and props designers.