'Mean Girls' composer promises song-filled, dance-filled show
When the hit sitcom “30 Rock” ended its seven-year NBC run in 2013, creator/writer/star Tina Fey and her composer/arranger/director husband, Jeff Richmond, had time to pursue their long-held dream.
“Let's see if they'll let us write a show and put it on Broadway,” recalls Richmond of the dream shared by him, Fey and countless teens like them, whose keen sense of humor and penchant for performing draws them to theater during high school and never lets go. Sometimes dreams become reality, as it did with Fey and Richmond, whose musical “Mean Girls” arrives at Chicago's James M. Nederlander Theatre on Christmas Day as part of its national tour.
The couple's Broadway ambitions took hold in Chicago where Ohio native Richmond got his first professional job with Child's Play Touring Theater. He and Fey met during the 1990s at the noted improv venue iO Chicago. They subsequently worked together at The Second City where he played piano and she performed onstage. When Fey was hired for “Saturday Night Live,” which films in New York City, Richmond stayed behind to direct at Second City. Eventually he joined Fey on the late-night show where he spent five seasons composing music. The couple, who married in 2001, moved on to “30 Rock,” where Richmond served as executive producer and composer.
Then came “Mean Girls.” Adapted by Fey from her hit 2004 film - which was inspired by Rosalind Wiseman's advice book “Queen Bees and Wannabes” - the musical is about high school best friends, boys, betrayal and the desire for popularity.
Years later, some suggested Fey and Richmond adapt the film for the stage.
“The more we thought about it, (we concluded) this would adapt itself into a pretty good musical,” said Richmond, who arranged the vocals and composed the score with lyricist Nell Benjamin.
The “yes, and” approach animated the creative process, explains Richmond, who says that the primary principle of improvisation “permeates our life.”
The couple recognized that simply plugging songs into the film script wouldn't do, he said. So they set about reinventing parts of the story while retaining what people loved about the movie.
“There was a dramatic paradigm shift (from 2004) with how kids dealt with each other via social media. We had to modernize those elements,” Richmond said.
Lastly, the couple had to determine how to best tell the story: through dialogue or song.
“We wrote so many songs there wasn't enough room” for them all, said Richmond, who describes the show as “a big, dance-filled, song-filled piece of entertainment” populated with characters audiences will recall from their own high school days.
He says audiences identify with “Mean Girls” because it addresses the near universal experience of wanting to be accepted and finding they don't exactly fit in.
“It's the stuff you carry with you all through high school,” he said.
In the case of Richmond and Fey, it's the stuff of which dreams are made.
“Mean Girls”
Where: James M. Nederlander Theatre, 24 W. Randolph St., Chicago, (800) 775-2000 or broadwayinchicago.com
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday through Jan. 26. Additional 7:30 p.m. Tuesday performances beginning Dec. 31. Also, 2 p.m. Wednesdays beginning Jan. 8; 2 p.m. Dec. 27; 7:30 p.m. Dec. 30 and Jan. 5
Tickets: $30-$120