Mean Girls announces lead casting for first UK tour

Mean Girls the Musical has revealed casting for its upcoming UK and Ireland tour.

Hitting the road from early 2026, the show will open on 23 February at the Manchester Opera House and continue through to the end of January 2027 – we’ve added the final batch of tour dates, including a festive three-week spell at Birmingham’s Alexandra Theatre, to our dedicated tour page here.

Based on the 2004 Paramount Pictures film, the musical follows Cady Heron as she attempts to navigate the social politics of North Shore High and disrupt the rule of the so-called “Plastics”.

Set to star in the new tour will be Emily Lane as Cady Heron, Vivian Panka as Regina George, Sophie Pourret as Karen Smith, Georgie Buckland as Janis Sarkisian, Max Gill as Damian Hubbard, Karim Zeroual as Kevin Ganatra and Joshua Elmore as Mr Duvall. Further casting is to be announced.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by WhatsOnStage (@whatsonstage)

The production features a book by Tina Fey, music by Jeff Richmond, lyrics by Nell Benjamin, and direction and choreography by Casey Nicholaw. The show’s design team credits include Scott Pask (set), Katrina Lindsay (costume), Kenneth Posner (lighting), Brian Ronan (sound), and Josh Marquette (hair), with musical supervision and arrangements by Mary-Mitchell Campbell, orchestrations by John Clancy and additional arrangements by Glen Kelly. A tour casting director has not been specified.

Mean Girls premiered in 2017 at the National Theatre in Washington, DC, before transferring to Broadway in 2018. It completed two national tours in the US and ran in the West End from June 2024 to June 2025, where it was seen by over 330,000 people.

It won Best New Musical at the 25th Annual WhatsOnStage Awards. A new film version featuring musical numbers was also released by Paramount Pictures in 2024.

The tour is produced by Lorne Michaels, Crossroads Live and Sonia Friedman Productions.