Mean Girls Musical Canceled

Mean Girls Musical Canceled

For the 2023  spring musical, Champaign Central’s theater program was initially planning on producing Mean Girls (High School Version), but the choice was ultimately vetoed by Principal Joe Williams. The spring musical is now The Little Mermaid, but how do the thespians and students of Central feel about this decision? 

Students at Central High School seemed to have a variety of reactions to Mean Girls first being announced. Thespian and senior Lars Anderson said “I was looking forward to it because it’s something different.” Senior Robin Fitzgerald, another thespian at Central said he was “fairly indifferent” to the idea of choosing Mean Girls. “At the point where it was announced, we had been going back and forth between several possible shows for the spring, and I was just relieved that a decision was made.” Robin said. Another student, Senior Ali Williams, said she thought it was “cool” and was “excited” for the show. 

When asked via emails with a parent about the decision to cancel Mean Girls, Mr. Williams said  “While it is a show that is entertaining to many, even the show’s suggestions of how to make changes from their high school version to make it more acceptable to a community are questionable for high school.  There is a big difference between shows that have deep themes in context and shows that rely on heavy exaggeration and coarse language as the primary vehicle for the entertainment.” In the same email, Williams said that Central has previously done shows that could be described as “more edgy.” 

When Robin and Lars were asked about how they felt about the cancellation of Mean Girls, their responses were different. Robin said he was “pretty disappointed” when the show was changed. That being said, he also thinks it was necessary as there were a “lot of different circumstances that went into the decision to cancel Mean Girls,” and it was “definitely for the best.” Lars also explained that they were “fine with the change,” but felt that the choices for the shows should be made by the students in the theater program. 

The decision to cancel the musical was disappointing to many students and theater program members, but it also may have been necessary. Nonetheless, Central is now showing The Little Mermaid for the spring musical, and there is no doubt that the Central theater department will put on an amazing show.