The Hooks Family: Mean Girls

What a show! Brylliant's spring musical this year was Mean Girls. We knew this would be a fun one. Mia was cast in all four shows as Janis, an artistic girl with a snarky attitude who is one of the outsiders in the school. She's often seen with her best friend, Damian. This musical is one of Lily's favorites, so she auditioned and was cast to be the witty and mentoring math teacher, Ms. Norbury, in two of the shows. She was also an ensemble performer in all four shows. I loved being able to watch them both perform in the same show!

The show begins with Janis and Damian singing "A Cautionary Tale" about corruption and betrayal and being hit by a bus (they confirm no one dies after being hit by a bus). Ah, the things high school girls will do to be popular.

We are soon introduced to Caty, a new girl who has moved from Africa. She knows all about the jungles where animals lives, but now it's time to learn about the jungle of high school. Caty was played by Lily's long-time friend Avery for two of the shows. She starts out in math class, a subject she is quite good at, and meets Ms. Norbury.

Soon she meets Janis and Damian who warn her about "The Plastics," a group of three girls who rule the school. The Plastics start to welcome Caty into their group which makes Janis angry. The leader of The Plastics, Regina George, was at one time Janis' best friend. Janis devised a plan to have Caty infiltrate their group to learn all about them.

Caty meets and falls for Aaron Samuels while in Ms. Norbury's class. Unbeknownst to her, he's the ex-boyfriend of Regina.

A Halloween party comes up and everyone, except Cady, comes dressed in a sexy costume. Lily (as ensemble, not as the teacher!) dances as "sexy shark" in this one.

Small break from the show, but I had to put this in. Lauren came to watch one evening. She sat in the front row with other friends, and as this song was playing, she held this sign right in front of her. No one in the audience could see it, but Lily could. I'm impressed she didn't start laughing when she realized it said "That's My Sexy Shark!" I love good friends like Lauren!

Back to the show. Caty had dressed as the Bride of Frankenstein for the party. That's where she sees her supposed friend, Regina, kiss Aaron right in front of her. At this betrayal, she decides to go along with Janis' plan to bring down The Plastics through sabotage. It's time for a Revenge Party as you can see here: https://youtu.be/nx33WGbOyBA

Caty is also trying to win over Aaron. She pretends to be dumb so Aaron can tutor her. Ms. Norbury is on to the plan, and she does not like it.

The plan seems to be working as Regina seems to be losing some of her power. At one point, Caty has to stand up to Regina, and she does. This leads to a great song called "Fearless." Since this takes place in a crowded school cafeteria, almost the whole cast was in this particular song. It was so fun to have one scene where Mia and Lily (in ensamble) on stage dancing together!

Soon though, Caty fully immerses herself as a Plastic and even steps in as their leader. She still talks with Janis and Damian but in a completely different way.

This leads to a fun song called "Stop" where everyone is encouraged to just stop for a minute to think about it before doing something stupid, like continuing to text a boy who isn't responding or pretending to be stupid at math (hint hint Caty). Ensemble Lily gets to perform in a very fun tap routine for this.

A house party at Caty's comes up, and all the kids had fun dancing with this one.

Janis isn't at the party though because she was at her art show. She had invited Caty who lied about being out of town and instead threw the party. Janis of course finds out about it and confronts her. Mia did a fantastic job of conveying the hurt and anger Janis feels here. You can see the scene here: https://youtu.be/kqq4fDOQIZY

It come to light that there's a "burn book" filled with awful things about lots of individuals. It even says Ms. Norbury is a drug pusher. Pages are flung all over the stage as the book is shared with others. Caty is framed as the author even though it was Regina.

This outburst forces the principle to call a meeting for all the girls (and Damian) which Ms. Norbury ends up leading. She wants to help them see that all the girls have been mean to one another. See how she leads here: https://youtu.be/YZq4tYU4hdo

She is the first to perform a trust fall and others begin to follow as they begin to confess and apologize.

Janis finally gets up and says she needs to apologize to herself because she's been burned twice by good friends. She then has a fantastic song called "I'd Rather Be Me" where she reveals her secret strategy to deal with this is to raise her right finger and solemnly swear not to care because "I'd rather be me than be with you." This might have been my favorite performance of the night. This can be viewed at https://youtu.be/uzNVMD4FMeA

Caty is suspended after she admits that she lies, and Ms. Norbury is restored to her teaching job. Ms. Norbury says she'll let Caty make it up to her by competing as a mathlete in the upcoming math competition.

Caty ends up winning the competition for her team as she sings "Do This Thing" with Ms. Norbury and team.

Caty leaves the math competition and arrives at school to find out she's won homecoming queen. As she stands on the podium in front of everyone, she leads a song called "I See Stars" which wraps up the show with a final dance scene. Watch the finale here: https://youtu.be/CaXp3kVEawY