Theatre Critique Versus Film Critique. Comparision of versions of "Mean Girls".

Authors Avatar by sydneypullman1028gmailcom (student)

        

        For this assignment I chose to do Mean Girls, that way you can truly see a side-by-side comparison of the two- theatre production versus film production. On newyorktheatreguide.com, the review was written by Kathleen Campion, where she rated the musical four-and-a-half out of five stars. Which means it must have been a hit! However, on rogerebert.com, the review for Mean Girls as a movie was given by Roger Ebert, and he only gave the film three out of five stars. This shows that the film and the play were seen through two different lenses and critiqued in different areas than one another- but what is focused on in both of these reviews?

        To begin, Kathleen Campion states that she is typically not a fan of stereotypical, loud productions- but she absolutely enjoyed herself while watching Mean Girls come to life on the stage. She focuses on the overall production of the play, of course, but she goes on to give her opinion on the key components that help any theatre production come to life. She calls the production visually stimulating, while stating that “Scott Pask’s set design combines seamlessly with Kenneth Posner’s lighting, Ross & Young’s video design and Brian Ronan’s sound. The coordination is very ambitious and precise. The scene-changes are remarkable,” (Campion, 2018). The descriptions of the production given by Campion allow room for those reading the review to believe that the production runs smoothly and that the show has purpose being on the stages of Broadway. She then goes on to review the dancing, explaining that “The dancing—and there’s a lot of it—is exuberant. Wearing his choreographer’s cap, Nicholaw stages broad, wide production numbers that capture that explosive adolescent energy,” (Campion 2018). Then, she continues on to compliment not only the actors and actresses’ singing abilities by stating, “...all of the soloists have strong, trained voices,” (Campion 2018), she favors the updated references within the script to fit our generation and the impeccable choice of music numbers. So, after giving it a rating of almost 5 stars, she finishes her review using a single line that says, “Mean Girls is a lot of fun,” (Campion 2018).

Join now!

        The stage production of Mean Girls sounds like a lively experience, but our film reviewer Roger Ebert seems to have different opinions when it comes to the filmed production of Mean Girls. He gave the movie three out of five stars- which isn’t terrible, but it also doesn’t radiate energy that leads his readers to believe that it’s the best movie ever to exist. Since Mean Girls was already a movie before it ever partnered with the Broadway stage, Roger Ebert focuses a lot more on the plot itself- and after reading the review, it seems as if he only gave the ...

This is a preview of the whole essay