The “Mean Girls” musical has cast “Mad Men” star Jon Hamm as Coach Carr. The Emmy-winning actor and star of “Confess, Fletch” and “Beirut” will play the school’s gym teacher and sex-ed instructor. The film will adapt the Broadway musical, which in turn was an adaptation of the 2004 theatrical comedy “Mean Girls.”
The Paramount film, about a teen girl who moves from Africa with her anthropologist parents and finds herself unprepared for the community dynamics of an American public high school earned solid reviews and grossed $130 million worldwide on a $17 million budget in early 2004, becoming a generational touchstone on par with “Clueless” and “Heathers.” This live-action musical version will debut on Paramount+.
Hamm joins a previously announced cast including the likes of Angourie Rice, Auli’i Cravalho, Jaquel Spivey and Reneé Rapp. Rice will be playing Cady, originally portrayed by Lindsey Lohan in the original feature, with Rapp playing Regina (Rachel McAdams in the film). Cravalho will play Janis and Spivey will be Damien, originally Lizzy Caplan and Daniel Franzese, respectively. Coach Carr was played by Dwyane Hill in the 2004 original.
Along with original star and screenwriter Tina Fey, Tim Meadows will also be reprising his role as the school principle, with Jenna Fischer, Busy Philipps, Avantika, Mahi Alam, Christopher Briney, Bebe Wood, Ashley Park and Connor Ratliff joining. Fey will write the movie musical’s feature script, with music by Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin. Kyle Hanagami is choreographing.
Lorne Michaels will produce with Fey, who wrote the book for the Broadway show. Erin David, Caroline Maroney, and Micah Frank are overseeing for Broadway Video, and Eric Gurian and Jeff Richmond for Little Stranger. Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. are set to direct.
Hamm first came to fame as Don Draper (or Dick Whitman) in the trailblazing AMC drama “Mad Men” which aired in the late 2000s and early 2010s. He has also appeared as a supporting player in a number of feature films and television comedies. He co-starred as Kristen Wiig’s mediocre boyfriend in “Bridesmaids,” was a main bad guy in Edgar Wright’s “Baby Driver” and played a psychopathic cult leader in Netflix’s comedy “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmitt.”
He recently appeared in “Top Gun: Maverick” and will next be seen in the upcoming season of Apple TV’s “The Morning Show.”
