As we inch closer to a stage musical adaptation of the beloved comedy “Mean Girls,” executive producer and the film’s screenwriter Tina Fey said a new creative force has joined the team.
“There’s a secret director,” Fey told the crowd at Produced By: New York, an annual east coast conference held by the Producers Guild of America.
During a featured discussion about her triple-threat status as writer-producer-star, Fey tipped her hand about the anticipated project she’s been developing with her husband, composer Jeff Raymond.
“We’re assisting Nell Benjamin, he’s doing the lyrics this time,” she said of the musical’s latest book.
The musical will be mounted in Washington, D.C. in Fall 2017, an individual familiar with the project recently told Playbill.
It does not currently have Broadway ambitions, though Fey has joked it will open “in 2027… whenever ‘Hamilton’ closes.”
Fey also told Playbill she’s had ample time to focus on the musical, given her day job has been pushed thanks to Ellie Kemper’s pregnancy. Fey and her business partner Robert Carlock are waiting for the “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” star to give birth before resuming production on a third season of the Netflix original series.
“Mean Girls” was released by Paramount in 2007, and went on to gross nearly $130 million worldwide on a $17 million budget. It’s also become deeply rooted in the pop culture canon, along with its stars Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert and Amanda Seyfried.
Fey also serves as executive producer for the upcoming NBC series “Great News,” about a network news producer (Briga Heelan) whose mother (Andrea Martin) joins the staff as an intern.
The series will also star John Michael Higgins and Nicole Richie.