Being such a huge film fan, I was a bit surprised when I first came across Mean Girls and realised I hadn’t seen it.

To this day, I’ve still only ever watched parts of it, which is even more surprising when I think of some of the female cast, many of whom have gone on to become massive stars and feature in other films and series I love.

I did wonder whether to sit and watch it before seeing the show, which is something I usually prefer to do, but on this occasion I decided to find out what all the hype was about this award-winning theatre hit during opening night on Tuesday, September 8, at the Bristol Hippodrome.

Mean Girls The Musical premiered in 2017 and it started its latest UK and Ireland tour in February this year. Since then, it’s been seen by more than 330,000 people and in 2025 was crowned Best New Musical award at the WhatsOnStage awards.

We’ve all seen American High School films, and know how tough it can be, but these girls are another level.

Regina, Gretchen and Karen rule North Shore High School and anyone who gets in their way is definitely going to regret it.

New girl Cady Heron (Emily Lane) thinks she knows about survival of the fittest with her zoologist mum, but wow, high school is a whole new level of savage.

Helping tell the story are art geeks Damian Hubbard (Max Gill) and Janis Sarkisian (Georgie Buckland), who were very funny and had the audience laughing from the outset.

They take Cady under their wing as she navigates her new life and develops her social skills, having spent much of her time alone in Kenya and being homeschooled.

She catches the eye of the mean girls, better known, as The Plastics, who pretend to be her friend and quickly becomes one of the popular girls, however, when Cady gets too close to Regina’s ex-boyfriend Aaron (Ben Oatley), Regina decides it is time to remind her who the ‘Alpha’ is at North Shore.

Cady devises a plan with Damian and Janis to end Regina’s reign, but she learns the hard way you can’t cross a bee without getting stung!

This comedy production wanted to retain many of the elements that fans loved in the 2004 film, while adapting it for the stage and bringing it into today’s world.

Hence, there are references to Ozempic, along with the inclusion of selfies, social media and iPhones.

The Creative Team said they focused on what they knew was still true - the desire to fit in remains universal, and sometimes the mistakes youngsters make in trying to do so are a painful part of growing up.

They said: “The story was about 'human behaviour and social media was just a new (albeit nuclear) weapon in that battle'."

Vivvian Panka is superb as Regina George and as much as I hated her, because her character is so awful, you also can’t help but love her. She is a huge talent, with a stunning voice, and absolutely the perfect cast for this role.

Former Brookside star, Jennifer Ellison, whose theatre credits include Singin’ In the Rain, Chicago, Legally Blonde and Calendar Girls, was effortless in switching between her three characters - school teacher Ms Heron, Cady’s mum Ms Norbury and Regina’s mum Mrs George – all of whom had different voices and costumes!

I think my favourite characters though were Damian Hubbard and Regina’s sidekicks, who really weren’t that mean.

Gretchen Wieners (Kiara Dario) is a complex emotional teen who struggles to keep everyone happy and it drives her a little bit insane and Karen Smith (Sophie Pourret), is self-confessed stupid, but she has a big heart and much of the meanness goes over her head.

These three for me delivered some of the best lines and best songs, but I thought the whole cast were fantastic and I’m so glad I went to watch it.

It did feel like attending a party on a school night, and who doesn’t want that, when we’re all having to adjust to getting back into a routine after a lovely, long sunny summer!​