Think Pink with the Company of MEAN GIRLS on Opening Night!

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

Tina Faye's pop culture iconic film faith, Mean Girls, has come to Broadway as a musical

and we're here on opening night to celebrate with the company. I've enjoyed this team, this collaboration with Casey, Nicola, and with Mel Benjamin, and with this cast

It's just been like a very joyous process, collaborative, hard, hard work at times

hard decisions and hard choices to make, but everyone has been so kind

through the process and so supportive. I feel it's a very special group of people

Yeah, for sure. And I would also say it's something to be able to be

with the audience watching something that you create and that you care so much about

because you don't get to do that in every medium that you work in. Don't get to do it with TV

And what you create on TV, you barely ever share it and sitting in the room with the audience that is watching it

This is amazing to do. I'm related. I feel so Good. I'm so happy to be among all of these people. I love this cast. I love this creative team. I'm so grateful. I know that's cheesy to say, but I really mean it

It seems that way you're all like 12 inches off the floor when you watch you all on stage

Oh, good, thanks. Yeah, we're just really supportive of each other. We look out for each other and we're having a blast. I think that starts from the top down

It is opening night for this incredible show. How do you feel tonight

Is it all surreal? It is surreal. And, you know, I gave myself a moment in the show

this moment where I talked to the whole cast at the Spring Fling Dance. And that was the moment that I told myself

was like, your job is to do the show tonight, just like you've always done it. But that's a moment that Erica, you take for you

And I get to tell the cast, you're awesome. And for one of the first times tonight just to look out at everybody and get to make eye contact with that whole group of people who have been on this journey that that the best part I going to get up a lot Gray and I have known each other for a while

When we found out this was happening and it was starting to cast, we were texting each other furiously, just being like, how do we get these parts

Like, it's us. We know it's us. Like, how do we get these parts? What are we going to do if someone else winds up with these roles

And then, yeah, and then my manager threatened to burn television. see down until I got an appointment

He's right there, literally cackling. I love it. It's real. It's the, yeah

So that happened. And then I was like, great. I got an appointment

And he was like furiously texting his people being like, tell them more friends, tell them more friends, tell them more friends

And they did. And then he got an appointment. And then eventually we got to audition together. You spend so much of your time with Barrett

What's it like sharing the stage with her? We have such chemistry. And we've created, we were friends before we started

But we've created this friendship that is just like, it's like, Damien and Janice have to be like a comedic duo, you know what I mean

And so it's like, we just can touch each other and hold each other and hold hands, and it's just natural now, which is such a dream

Because like you don't always get that, you know, and your team partner. But we have so much fun, so much fun

Now that's a party. This is the most, I didn't know that I could have this much fun doing a show

It is just truly playtime with all of my friends on stage

But I think we're able to play so hard because every single person who's a part of it is such a professional

And everyone does their job. We get to trust every single person who a part of this Every designer every it a team Truly it is And so it is just the most fun I ever had And I get to like dance and sing these incredible songs and say Tina Faye words

And it is the best time ever. What has this whole journey been like for you

You know, we knew they were going to change things from D.C. Because we were all very a part of the conversation there of what we felt like was working and what wasn't

But when we came back in New York, they had done a lot of things that even we weren't really prepared for

And I think at first it was a little. little like, oh gosh, we're like really kind of ripping this apart and going back to its bare bones

But when we all put it together, it was like, this is amazing. I mean, we're so proud of it

And we're so proud of them. The creative team works so hard on this. And we're just so grateful to be a part of it

How excited are you? Very excited. You know who I'm mostly excited for

Our cast has 13 Broadway debuts. And I just feel like that's so special

And their energy and excitement is infectious, you know, to us old people who are like

I've been here I'm being here I'm going to be back to the beginning

when Tina came to whatever how it's all came about and what made you say yes

Tina made me say yes just like here she is just the fact that she asked me to do it

I'm like yes I'll do it It comes down to that Justin

It kind of does and also I always love the movie You know, and also, you know, I knew that she and Jeff are musical theater fans, so it was a no-brainer

It's a dream come true. For one thing, it's a really funny room. Tina and Jeff are so quick that sometimes you're just sort of waiting, hoping, like, do I think I could get a joke in there

The answer is no, don't try. Just listen and learn. And then when you add Casey Nicola Broadway Casey Nicola who I been dying to work with for so long and I just he I don even know how it I don even know how it and the world looks through his eyes because he sees these things and he saw them long before we did And we like yeah that exactly what it should be He brilliant And between his comedy and Tina comedy you know I playing catch ball

Oh my gosh, it's an absolute dream. Just working with these people and this cast and the creative team, you know, it's everything I've ever wanted to do

And I love it. The fact that we're recording a cast album next week, just the idea that I'm going to be listened to by

because that's all I did growing up was listen to the cast albums. The fact that I'm going to be on one is insane, and I can't wait

I mean, this cast has worked so hard for so long, and to be able to go on stage with some of my best friends in the whole world

and be in a room filled with some of the most supportive people

it felt like I was in a dream the entire time around. Casey told us right before we went on

that we should just go out there and do it for us tonight, and I really think that's what we did. It is your Broadway debut

How does it feel? Oh, my goodness. It's like all kinds of musical themes are coming

It's like, it looks like we made it, and it's been a long, long time coming

You know, I'm just like filled with joy and music and just like a sense of relief that this is the day

Because I'm that guy, I was just spending every day of the process. Like, today is the day that someone's going to come into my dressing room to give me the, Rick, yeah, we've been thinking about it

And so we're going to go in a different direction. I keep going to the theater, and I'm looking on the side of the wall to make sure my picture is