If there were an award for sheer infectious energy, Toby’s Dinner Theatre’s production of Mean Girls would win it, hands down. Embodying Jeff Richmond’s predominantly up-tempo score, Toby’s ensemble executes David Singleton’s choreography with verve and precision in one delightful production number after another.
The plotline of Tina Fey’s book for the show, based on the screenplay of her 2004 film, explores the female hierarchy among teenage students. Newcomer Cady Heron (Rachel Cahoon) — a stranger in the strange land of a large high school — quickly gets introduced to the school’s mutually antagonistic cliques.
At the top of the hierarchy are “The Plastics,” led by “Apex Predator” Regina George (Mary Kate Brouillet). Her aides-de-camp are the insecure and gossipy Gretchen Wieners (Emily Flack) and the sexy airhead Karen Smith (Alexis Key-Bedore), who derive their prestige from Regina and help to enforce the clique’s position in the school’s social order.
At the bottom of the pecking order are the nerds, principally Damian Hubbard, “too gay to be functional” (Allen Gutierrez-Urista), and Janis Sarkisian (Tobi Baisburd), an aspiring artist. Damian and Janis — who also at times act as narrators of the story — bear a longstanding grudge against Regina. They recruit Cady to infiltrate and spy on their adversaries. Cady proceeds to play to the hilt the role of an ardent Plastic.
Following a revenge-fueled coup that ousts Regina from her perch, Cady herself becomes the school’s Queen Bee, acting in as mean-spirited a way toward others as Regina ever did. Kurt Vonnegut’s line comes to mind: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” Karen and Gretchen seamlessly, if somewhat improbably, assume the same subordinate roles with Cady that they played with Regina.
This being a show focusing on the power structure among adolescent girls, there is little material outside the ensemble numbers for the men in the cast. The exception to this rule is Damian: vocally and in terms of movement, the dynamic Gutierrez-Urista takes over every scene in which he appears. In a smaller role, Patrick O’Keefe’s Aaron Samuels volleys between Regina and Cady, who each want to capture the school’s nice-guy heartthrob.
Adults are unsurprisingly peripheral to the social turmoil among the high schoolers. Valerie Adams Rigsbee plays two mothers and a math teacher — a feat requiring frequent changes of wigs as well as of character — while Otega Okurume is the beleaguered principal of the school.
A probably inevitable aspect of a professional production of a show about high school students is that the actors — most of whom, visually and from their cast bios, appear to be in their 20s or 30s — do not look much like 16- or 17-year-olds. That said, they persuasively portray the emotions of people in that transitional period of life in a way to which adults in the audience can relate.
All the actors with significant solo vocal material — Cahoon, Brouillet, Key-Bedore, Flack, Baisburd — knock their numbers out of the park. Richmond’s vocal writing leans strongly to high-voice belt material, and the performers meet the demands of the style well. Nell Benjamin’s lyrics, while well suited to the characters and the flow of the show, are largely forgettable. Music director Ross Scott Rawlings’ band vivaciously accompanies the action.
Surrounded as it is by banks of tables for the audience, Toby’s playing space is limited. Director Mark Minnick fills the space effectively even in scenes involving the entire ensemble without it feeling cramped, as well as using the theater’s stairways and balconies for occasional one- or two-actor bits. The lighting design (Lynn Joslin and Andi Pfluger) is precisely tuned to the details of the action and to the timing of music cues.
This musical being one in which a happy ending is preordained, by show’s end Cady has regained her underlying kindness and peace, at least temporarily, prevails. The journey, even if predictable, is a highly entertaining one, and the performances are flawless. It’s just plain fun to watch.
Running Time: Approximately two hours and 45 minutes, including one intermission. Doors open for the buffet two hours before the curtain.
Mean Girls plays through August 23, 2026, at Toby’s Dinner Theatre, 5900 Symphony Woods Road, Columbia, MD. Tickets, including dinner and show (adult, $78–$94; child, $67–$70), can be purchased by calling 410-730-8311 or online.
