Mean Girls returns: Regina George and crew still entertain in this remake

Can lightning strike twice when adapting an adaptation? Mean Girls: The Musical says yes. The new musical adaptation of Mean Girls faces an uphill challenge - taking a hit comedy film turned Broadway musical and transferring it back to the big screen. But writer-producer Tina Fey and producer Lorne Michaels ensure what worked before still works now. Few settings generate reliable laughs and cringes like a high school hallway. A few characters incite audiences like a beautiful yet barbed queen bee perfecting social domination. Over 15 years since debuting as a movie, Regina George remains the mean girl we love to loathe. By meticulously preserving what first captivated us, Mean Girls: The Musical convinces us that its source material maintains a hold as potent in novel musical form. When high school drama is this timeless, one formula rarely goes stale.

Just as the source material has been adapted before, so too has the criticism evolved. As the New York Times Elvis Mitchell called the original 2004 film charming in its clever skewering of high school. This latest film adaptation of Mean Girls lands somewhere in between. It lacks the bite of the original but retains the story's endearing quality that has made it so popular. Once more crafted by Tina Fey, the plot follows Cady (Angourie Rice) as she navigates the treacherous social hierarchies of a new high school. There she encounters cliques like the nerds, jocks, and queen bee Regina (Reneé Rapp) and her cohorts Karen and Gretchen. As the most studied subject, Regina is duly feared, admired, and resented by her peers.

While not as sharply written as the film or tightly paced as the stage show, Mean Girls still works its winning charm. Fey's narrative finds relatable humour and cringe in the universal experiences of high school popularity contests and social blunders. The formula remains effectively adapted to fill theatres with laughs and remind viewers what it was like to be a part of, or apart from, the cool kids.

Like the original, Cady proves a quick study of her new environment. She befriends the witty outsiders, Janis and Damian, played wonderfully by Auli'i Cravalho and Jaquel Spivey, who encourage her infiltration of Regina's elite clique. Cady gains intel but complications ensue, including sparks with Regina's ex Aaron, charmingly portrayed by Christopher Briney. From there, the familiar arcs of betrayal, comeuppance, redemption and victory unfold.

In their adaptation, the filmmakers cut many of the Broadway songs while keeping showstoppers like "Meet the Plastics" and Regina's bravado-filled "World Burn." Nothing gets audiences' attention like a star performance, and Rapp delivers as Regina. She powerhouses through "Plastics" in a commanding style, waking the film up vibrantly. Her Regina lacks the subtlety of Rachel McAdams' iconic take but she brings gusto and swagger heightened further by her PVC-clad entrance. When she belts "I don't care who you are," you feel her ferocity and authority over her kingdom. Rapp gets to the raw id of the character, cementing Regina as an irresistible force of high school politics.

Directors Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. ensure a brisk pace in their feature debut, though the film lacks some dynamic flourish. They inject bright hues and employ direct addresses to the camera, filling frames with phones as characters stare into the lens. These screens-within-screens fragment the visual plane and emphasize social media's pervasiveness. However, like early computer films of the 80s that crammed CRT monitors into every shot, the smartphone angles feel superficial and decorative rather than truly placing the viewer into an immersed experience. Good films transport audiences and capture the all-consuming nature of scrolling through feeds. While Mean Girls taps into themes of online persona crafting, it does not fully recreate the trance-like engagement of our second-screen lives through its photography and blocking alone.

At times, the parallels between the two, especially in non-musical moments, prove striking - though this cast appears older. While Fey has freshened aspects with new jokes and additions like Jenna Fischer, Jon Hamm and Busy Philipps, much remains familiar. She once more lends comedic gravitas as a wise teacher keen to crack wise. Tim Meadows also returns as the frazzled principal.

Mean Girls clings tightly to what worked before, for better or worse. Fey's tweaks inject welcome freshness but staying so close to the source risks appearing stale. The high production values and talented ensemble offer enjoyable moments. Yet directing that leaned hard into creative reinterpretation may have better justified revisiting well-trod territory. As is, Jayne and Perez play it safe within the confines of the beloved 2004 film's DNA, forgoing bolder reinvention that could have maximized the musical format's potential to evolve this material.