Mean Girls has made itself a new home at London's The Savoy Theatre. We sat down with lead Charlie Burn who is playing the iconic role of Cady to talk all things Mean Girls, singing & Bridgerton...
Hi Charlie, could you share some key steps in your journey as a performer?
I grew up singing before I could talk according to my parents. I always loved the feeling of singing along to music in the car. But so much so that my parents put me into stage school as quickly as possible… my car singing couldn’t have been that bad right?!
From there I did a lot of local theatre which made my secondary school teachers gently push me towards a specialist sixth form called Thomas Telford. I trained in performing arts there and then auditioned for ArtsEd in London and luckily was accepted. My career highlights so far have been playing Cosette in Les Miserables all over the country and at the Sondheim Theatre in the West End. I immensely enjoyed working with Disney and travelling Europe with their Disney100: The Concert Tour.
My favourite moment as a performer so far was without a doubt opening as a leading lady in MeanGirls a few weeks ago. My dad sadly and suddenly passed away about a week before our show was due to open. I knew that he’d have been so very proud of me coming back to the show to open it with this incredible company in spite of feeling his loss so profoundly. It was the most difficult but rewarding moment of my life and I’m sure he was watching and smiling from the best seat in the house.
What’s it been like bringing Cady Heron to life? Was this a role you had your eye on?
It’s such an honour to be trusted with this role, I cannot thank the creative and casting teams enough for granting me this wonderful opportunity. I loved Cady from the minute I first read the script. Cady is so pure, her core beliefs are that she’s a good person who just wants to make friends. It’s very rare to come across securely attached people in life so I find it fascinating to play her every night. Whereas most people have social and behavioural challenges starting at a young age, she gets hit by everything in one go on her first day of normal high school!
A happy by-product of getting to know Cady throughout rehearsals, has been reflecting on my own experiences but through her eyes. I realised that I was quite similar to Cady and a lot of the choices I made were driven by a desire to belong, like most of us I guess.
With the original Mean Girls movie being released in 2004, how does this West End production differ from the source material?
Quite a lot has changed for our West End transfer, Tina Fey has many different iterations of her original 2004 Mean Girls movie, so she’s used to adapting her source material. She’s often described taking this script and adapting it for stage, then back to screen and now back for the stage as ‘driving in stick shift’. We have stayed true to the original scenic design by the wonderful Scott Pask, whereas Katrina Lindsey has completely reimagined the costume design to reflect what teenagers are wearing today in 2024.
Tina always wanted to set the right tone for UK audiences, which meant a lot of book adaptations to try and find the most culturally relevant references and jokes. So there was a lot of trial and error during rehearsals as Tina got a feel for our British sense of humour and made adaptations accordingly. MeanGirls core messages will always remain the same, if you love and accept yourself for who you truly are, then the right friends will find and love you without condition.
What does the prestige & cultural significance of The Savoy Theatre add to the production?
MeanGirls already feels like the ultimate night out as a stand-alone show, but the Savoy Theatre adds a level of prestige that I don’t think any other UK theatre has. MeanGirls at the Savoy Theatre feels like a luxury experience to our audiences, they come dressed up, in good spirits and fully ready to be entertained. The Savoy is a spectacular home for our show and I couldn’t imagine MeanGirls living anywhere else in London.
What’s caught your eye in the UK culture scene recently? (Can be anything!)
I’ve loved this season of Bridgerton on Netflix, I love everything Bridgerton is doing to improve and promote the importance of diversity in the Romantasy/ Period Drama genre.
Now that MeanGirls has opened, I can’t watch as much theatre as I’d like to. However, before rehearsals, I saw my onstage boyfriend, Dan Bravo, as Sebastian in Cruel Intentions- I loved it! The Other Palace is such a special venue.
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All Photography by Charlie Burn & Mean Girls The Musical.