here’s a really long analysis of cady’s arc in the mean girls musical because i think my favourite version of cady heron is the version from the stage musical.
while the original movie version is absolutely brilliant of course, there’s something about the way the stage musical portrays cady’s arc. i feel like each of cady’s songs really progresses her arc in a way that isn’t done to the same extent by the movie. obviously i know that’s partially because the writers of the stage musical had time to improve on the original and truly think on how to portray cady’s arc.
in it roars, cady’s dissatisfaction with her life in africa and her initial awkwardness in high school is showed brilliantly. though we do see cady’s awkwardness in the movie, we don’t see her feeling less satisfied with her life in africa and I thought that was a brilliant addition.
stupid with love is such a brilliant song. i didn’t truly appreciate it until i watched the new movie :/ anyway getting her internal monologue on aaron and her history with love is a brilliant insight. and honestly i appreciated her crush on aaron a lot more in the musical because of this song. also i liked the bits like ‘do you have an eraser?’ ‘i would love to’ because they’re hilarious
apex predator is an interesting one. i haven’t watched the musical in a while but i’m pretty sure in the stage version gretchen finds out sbout cady’s crush on aaron in this song. so seeing cady’s realisation that she’s not entirely safe with this new “friend” of hers. i don’t remember getting as much of cady dwelling on this in the original movie but i liked seeing it in the musical.
stupid with love (reprise) is a song i don’t have too much to say about, but i liked cady pretending to be bad at math being more of an accident here. it seems to show cady as a little more sympathetic, but still a bad person because of her keeping up the act
i also don’t have too much to say about revenge party apart from it being a good montage of cady, janis and damien’s plan. and the focus on cady ending up with aaron is interesting, showing how cady’s fixated herself on getting with aaron. cady also only agreeing to crack gretchen because of aaron is interesting. the musical puts a lot of focus on cady trying to use manipulation as a way of getting aaron (the taking down of regina, her pretending to be bad at math and the party scene). and i liked that focus.
fearless. this sows the seeds for cady becoming the new queen bee, with gretchen instantly turning to admire cady. we also see this with regina’s part, in her observation of the ‘new hair, new skirt’ - representative of cady’s personality changing. it also shows a bit of manipulation on cady’s end (i did it for me, sure, but also for you) but mostly i think she’s just happy she won. idk i don’t listen to fearless enough to analyse it
am i the only one who imagined a timeskip between fearless and stop? anyway
stop shows cady’s fixation on aaron; talking about her failing math and damien saying ‘my god girl, he’s just a guy’ showing that damien and janis have started to pick up on cady’s changing. also showing that cady can’t stop herself from fixating on aaron. which again. i think that’s very prominent in the musical
more is better is a song i’m salty about being cut from the new movie. i could soend an eternity analysing ut, like the start when cady stops herself from talking about the animals she observed because she fears it will be cringe. or the slower speed of this song contrasting the faster paced songs she sang at the start of the musical. or the fact tbat she’s adopted regina’s sentiment of ‘more is always better’. the mentions of stars and how cady almost sounds wistful. showing that she doesn’t want to be trapped in the role of queen bee anymore either. and showing that she misses the simplicity of her old life. then her bringing it back to the way she’s started dressing. and then that moment when aaron sees that cady has become a plastic; except i liked it more in the musical because you could see the lead-up to his realisation in the verses samg before. when aaron drops the line ‘i would prefer the girl you were’, i believe cady truly realises that she wants to change. obviously the janis bit adds to that as well, but this moment is very profound. then aaron turns cady’s own words back on cady and cady finishes by repeating his sentiment; that she should have thought everything through properly. i might make a post just about this song tbh.
someone gets hurt (reprise) i mean what do i say. this is the big moment where everything falls apart for cady. where she loses her two best friends. and realises she’s become plastic. this paired with more is always better earlier makes these moments incredibly profound.
do this thing is about cady embracing herself again. its a nerdy song, with kevin’s rapping and cady hyping herself up, telling herself she can do it. this song is cady rebecoming herself. also the fact that she solves the final problem in front of aaron, instead of him being absent like in the original movie makes her win more profound. and her realisation that leads her to her speech in i see stars. when watching clips of that song cady seems so genuinely happy and i think that’s what makes this song brilliant.
i see stars. a brilliant finale to the musical and casy’s arx. her realisation that everyone is beautiful and deserves to be seen. and loved. it’s a beautiful song that i sing to motivate myself. the passion in cady’s voice as she sings it makes me trult happy as well, as you can tell she truly believes her own words. its a brilliant song and the rest of the actors joining in at the end makes it more beautiful; she’s convinced everyone of her words. also the line ‘it’s me and you, not us and her’ makes me so happy; showing that people don’t have to gang up on each other.
in conclusion, i’ve said my piece. cady heron is incredible in the original movie and the stage musical, but the way all her songs show her arc in the musical make me prefer it ever so slightly than the arc in either of the films.
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No but what the fuck happened with Stupid With Love. Like, what. I’m not even talking about lyrics, but the way Cady sings it. The Broadway original was such a teen representation that me, an asexual 15 year old back then, put “he’s like someone from tv (…) he is live and in the room” verse a my ringtone. What the fuck.
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I'm sure this has already been said, BUT, I'm relistening to the Mean Girls Broadway soundtrack and Stupid With Love just SCREAMS Logan.
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