The new reboot of "Mean Girls," which hits theaters everywhere on January 12, is a musical. But you wouldn't know it from the handful of trailers released for the film. Not a single song graces the promotional clips. In fact, the promos are so overwhelmingly unmusical, you would think Tina Fey is trying to trick us into seeing one. If that was her intention, she certainly succeeded, as this movie theater had no idea they were watching such a film until the new Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) threw herself into a musical number.
One sneaky theatergoer, TikTok user @user03776127, stealthily recorded the audience's reaction. "Wait till the end," they wrote in the caption. "Everyone in this theatre reacted that way everytime someone started singing."
@user03776127 wait till the end?? everyone in this theatre reacted that way everytime someone started singing #meangirls #meangirls2024 #meangirlsedit #meangirlsmovie #meangirlsday #meangirlsmusical #meangirlsound #meangirls2 #musical #musically
On the screen, we see Heron flirting in class with the new Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney). "Challenge accepted," he says, smirking over his shoulder at Heron, who is flustered by his attention. Classic "Mean Girls" stuff.
Then the unexpected happens.
The classroom plunges into darkness and a spotlight shoots down onto Heron, who begins to sing. The theater immediately lets out a collective groan.
People found the audible disappointment hilarious, and the video has garnered over 225,000 likes in less than a day.
Some commenters were quick to point out that "Mean Girls" did plenty to advertise itself as a musical.
"I feel like this is on y'all," said one commenter. Another added, "There's a musical note in the ads for it on the mean girls font lol."
While this theater was disappointed in the fresh take on "Mean Girls," critics had a generally favorable consensus. At the time of writing, the musical comedy has an above-middling critical score of 71% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Jocelyn Noveck of The Associated Press calls it "A slick, fizzy bit of entertainment that's occasionally delightful and usually fun, even if the translation to 2024 definitely has its rough spots." While Clarisse Loughrey said "Not your mother's Mean Girls? This is exactly your mother's Mean Girls — just repackaged with a bunch of TikTok cameos and some of Fey's B-tier jokes."
