Mean Girls releases rehearsal photos ahead of first UK tour

Exclusive: First look photos from inside the rehearsal room of the forthcoming Mean Girls tour have been released.

The show will open on 23 February at the Manchester Opera House and continue on tour 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 are Emily Lane as Cady Heron, Vivian Panka as Regina George, Sophie Pourret as Karen Smith, Georgie Buckland as Janis Sarkisian, Faye Tozer as Ms Heron/Ms Norbury/Mrs George, Kiara Dario as Gretchen Wieners, Max Gill as Damian Hubbard, Karim Zeroual as Kevin Ganatra and Joshua Elmore as Mr Duvall, with Ben Oatley as Aaron Samuels.

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Want to hear them in action? We have videos of Buckland performing “I’d Rather Be Me” and Lane performing “It Roars”!

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.

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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.