Say the name Regina George to any millennial and they will likely respond back a variety of quotes from the 2004 Mean Girls movie. Launching itself into a permanent fixture of the pop culture zeitgeist, Tina Fey’s cult classic was adapted for the stage by Fey herself in 2017, with music by Jeff Richmond lyrics by Nell Benjamin. After a successful pre Broadway tryout in Washington D.C, the Broadway production received a total of 12 Tony Award nominations. With a global pandemic ending the show on Broadway, and a lukewarm response to the movie adaptation of the musical, it finally is open in the West End to the delight of theatre fans on this side of the Atlantic.
After a long wait for the show to transfer, fans waited with bated breath to see which West End actors would take on these iconic characters. Luckily for UK audiences, Georgina Castle — whose impressive CV includes Mamma Mia, Elf, and Cinderella to name a few — is the West End’s Regina. With sharp wit, effortless vocals and fantastic comic timing, she has brought the character to life and has had audiences wowed from the first public performance of the show.
1883 catches up with Georgina Castle to discuss playing the iconic Regina George in the Mean Girls musical, what it was like to add complexity to an already iconic character, finding her footing in a musical beloved by so many, and the bonds and friendship formed between the women behind ‘The Plastics.’
Firstly, congratulations on such a well received preview period, and opening. Regina is such a formidable character, and I think you’ve done such a brilliant job with humanising her, it could have been easy to turn her into a caricature but this iteration of Regina has some real human moments. What was your initial approach to the character?
Thank you. I really appreciate you saying that because that was something going in that I really wanted to try and avoid. I didn’t want to be playing a one note villain because that isn’t her at all. Yes, she’s calculating and she’s mean and she’s ruthless, but she’s also very, very smart, and very hyper aware of what’s going on. I would also say she’s sensitive — she’s also a victim of this hierarchy in the sense that she doesn’t want to be at the bottom either because girls can be mean at every sort of level of it. I wanted to sort of show that even though she’s the villain, she does it with charm. The amazing thing about Tina’s writing is that she never completely condemns any one character. Cady is good and lovely and sweet, but also gets led astray. There’s Karen who is superficial and quite dumb, but also has some really lovely, profound moments where you think, “Oh my gosh, she knows so much more than she lets on!” I think that’s what makes Tina’s writing so special.
It actually does feel like the audience are rooting for Regina, there’s so many moments where Regina is just funny, and they writing really allows for the audience to be alongside her and laugh with her
I do hope so. Especially when she comes out to do the song “World Burn,” in a really unsettling way, you’re sort of rooting for her but also not so I think it’s quite a complicated, a confusing feeling to have.
It definitely shows how much the writing and your acting have allowed for her to have light and shade with the character. She’s so much fun to watch as an audience member. Speaking of watching, obviously the show had quite a long preview period to allow for any changes to be made to the show. How much did the show change during your previews?
We now have a mega mix! That was just born out of Casey Nicholaw (Director and choreographer) and his amazing brain. One afternoon he just said, “Actually, we need to do this!” [Laughs] The way that he can structure a show and put it together, his vision is so lateral, he sees the whole picture and it’s amazing. He just hummed it to a musical supervisor that came in and said, “This is what I want our megamix to sound like — it’s going to be a talent show” and that’s what it is! We have Regina rolling on Janice on in a wheelchair waving a lesbian pride flag, and we’ve got tap dancing! It’s absolutely mental! The first night that we did it, it was after about an hour of rehearsal, and all of us were just in fits of giggles at the side. It feels like a really nice way to end the show, it’s just so fun and celebratory.
But the show itself has changed. We’ve had the creatives in so much, which has been such a privilege — that doesn’t happen very often, the fact that you get to work so closely with Tina Fey and Jeff Richmond and Nell Benjamin. I’m still getting starstruck by those people, but they don’t miss a single beat. Tina can always check in another punch line or Nell is always wanting to like make things rhyme a little better or a bit sharper or funnier. There have been those changes, but not a lot to my stuff which has been a little bit of a relief.
I bet it has it been an exhausting process though, rehearsing and changing things throughout the day and then doing the show to an audience at night?
The days they are exhausting. I feel like the adrenaline buzz has combated it so my body is saying I’m really tired, but I’m still absolutely buzzing. It’s like a pink Mean Girls fuel. Oh, I’m just having the best time.
That’s so nice to hear. I wondered how it has felt for you stepping into a show that has so many devout fans already — it has such a cult following of fans, how was that for you?
It is nerve wracking. It does put like a slightly different pressure onto playing a role that people already love. I think it sort of would do the same if you were playing like a real life human being — people have a very specific idea of what they want the character to be or what they’re expecting. I think what I’ve tried to do is just honour the original but bring as much of myself as I can to it, and to not be afraid to do that. If people love it or hate it at least it’s authentic, and so far the response has been really, really positive which is great.
The response from the fans has been so positive! I was actually sat directly in front of the creative team for the first preview and they were laughing as loud as everyone else which must be so wonderful for you all as this is their material that they know inside and out.
That is why this whole process has been so amazing. Even in the auditions, we had a lovely Associate Director named Allison and she was laughing at all of these jokes. Bless her, she’d heard them 100 times that day, but they’re also open and open to new interpretations and to be part of a project where you feel like the creatives genuinely have a real love for it is is amazing. I’m proud that they’re proud of it and relieved that they’re happy with it. Their enthusiasm for it and their passion for it is visceral. You can feel it and you would not think that this was now their seventh incarnation of the show.
That’s so lovely to hear, you spoke a bit about the audition process, I was wondering if you sang Regina’s iconic song World Burn initially for your first audition or if that came later on?
I did actually! I had to do two of the scenes and then I sang “Someone Gets Hurt” and “World Burn.” It was right from the get go, from the very start. I thought, “Okay, here we go! No messing around! Let’s dive straight in!” But it is such a joy to sing. Obviously it took a bit of time to really get it sat in my voice and in my body because she is high! I feel more confident with it every single day and it’s my absolute favourite part of the show to perform. She just gets to really unleash the beast, which is also such a treat vocally because you can just let out whatever it is that you’re feeling that day as well sort of like singing screaming.
I think that’s something that struck me was how comfortable the song sits in your voice. I love to go to first previews to see how the show adapts and changes once it’s in front of an audience. I go into first previews very aware that there has potentially only been one real dress run before this — that people are really on the stage in costume and mic’ed up for maybe the second time ever. But I was so impressed with how well the score sat in everyone’s voices already.
Oh, thank you! That’s very kind and it’s also very generous of you that you go into a first preview like that, so we appreciate that. I worked with a singing coach beforehand on how to properly support the song — especially because I’m in heels and balanced on top of the lift and I’m not strapped into it! But I love it. I live for the thrill. We love it.
Something else I really loved was the chemistry between you, Elèna Gyasi (Gretchen) and Grace Mouat (Karen) it already felt very solid and effortless. I was wondering how the three of you came about making that connection? I saw that you went and did a self-styled photoshoot together which was a lovely touch.
Well, we wanted to have a moment of connection because we met each other in the auditions on the very last day and everyone’s full of nerves. We sort of just got together there were a couple of Gretchen’s and Karen’s — different combinations of actors — we got together and we went into a lift, and just had a little quiet moment and did the scene all together. After we finished the scene, we sort of looked at each other. We were all thinking, “That felt quite good!” I felt like we had a really nice natural chemistry and, obviously, they felt the same way and paired us together as a three. I just adore those two girls. As soon as we all found out that each other had got the part we thought let’s do something fun, something pink, something girly, just to celebrate it being the three of us as the plastics.
I’ve just fallen in love with them really. They’re such amazing actresses as well. In the audition, we did the scene a couple of times and with Regina being the boss you never want people to feel super comfortable. I think me, personally as Regina, I don’t want the other characters to feel completely at ease. I’d sometimes chuck Elèna a look or put Karen down or tell her to sit somewhere else and both of them were just so engaging in and listening and so funny. We just have such a giggle.
Something else I wanted to talk to you about was the costumes, they’ve changed quite a lot from Broadway.
Oh, I know. I love the costumes, and, again, what an amazing thing to be able to work with the actual designer of the show and be able to have conversations around how Regina might be feeling at this moment in the show or what this item of clothing does for her character. Katrina Lindsay was amazing and she really listened and took on board what I was saying and feeling. I think she’s come up with some amazing ideas and some of the things that are also completely different from the Broadway version or the movie, like my Halloween costume is just a completely different look and I’m in love with it.
I loved that costume so much! I think that got quite a few gasps from the audience as well.
People are just blinded by the by the sparkle!
Is that is that your favourite costume in the show?
I love all of them because they’re all perfect for each scene. We played around with different textures for “World Burn” but she’s in black and she’s got boobs out and a leather trouser — she means business! But Regina also at one point has a really soft pink dress with little bows on the back which sort of gives the illusion that she’s a sweetheart when obviously we all know that she isn’t really, so I love all of them for different reasons. I think Katrina has done an amazing job of bringing it into 2024 and giving it a touch of everyone’s personality on stage while also making it look vibrant and being authentic to the original piece as well.
You are someone who has been in a lot of shows – you’ve been in Mamma Mia, Cinderella, Dirty Dancing and now Mean Girls you’ve played a lot of iconic musical theatre characters, is musical theatre your favourite genre to perform in?
Well, interestingly, musical theatre was always my first passion as a child and growing up because I think that was the thing that was most accessible. I fell in love with singing. I went to Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and the training there was very acting focused and people affectionately referred to it as the Royal Central School of Speech and Trauma! Just because it is quite dark but amazing and I’m so glad that I’ve had that experience. It has meant that actually where I feel I sit perhaps more naturally is in the more straight acting or the drama side or the comedy side. But musical theatre has been what keeps coming up, and I love the live experience. Anything that is on a stage is always going to be I think my first passion, but now I’m so keen to sort of explore something different as well – something darker maybe.
So something darker perhaps could be what’s next after Mean Girls?
With Mean Girls, I’m going to have my fill of musical theatre joy and pinkness and all of that fun so yeah, maybe we’ll go something different after this so it’s a real contrast!
I do find that when actors are classically trained or have done a lot of acting lessons bring a different dynamic when they then go into a musical – I found that with a lot of the actors in Mean Girls actually.
That’s very kind, thank you. For me, I think if you’re going to sing a song, it has to be like the acting is what comes first. It’s the same with dance, I think everything should be character driven. The ensemble that we have in this show are all amazing as well and they are all individual 3D, fully fleshed out human beings rather than sort of just like one entity, which I think is also really cool that they get their individual standout moments that are super character driven.
When this piece comes out, you will have opened, but as we are speaking, opening night is days away. What is the feeling amongst the company now? Are you ready to be officially open?
We’re super ready. I think it’s been such a nice process. By our first preview, we were really excited for an audience. Now, after this preview period, and we’ve experienced the audience reactions and we sort of know what to expect and we’ve made improvements and tweaks. We’re now just super ready to share it with everyone and you know, hope that everyone loves it as much as we love doing it!
I think it’s a show the West End needs at the moment, we just need something that’s fun!
I think that’s exactly what the show is! It’s fun joy, there are consistent laughs and the audience is just engaging with us, I think if you’re looking for two hours of just pure fun, Mean Girls is the show for you!
MEAN GIRLS is at the Savoy Theatre. Tickets can be purchased by visiting www.MeanGirlsMusical.com or via the Box Office: 0844 871 3000
Interview Amelia Walker
Photography By Pip
Styling Clementine Lucy Brown
Hair & Makeup Alexis Day
