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Music
Tina Fey’s new movie-musical version of Mean Girls has a critical charisma gap
The phenomenon of a non-musical movie being adapted into a stage musical that then gets adapted into a movie is surprisingly common, as recent films like 2023’s The Color Purple and the 2022 Matilda demonstrate. Some of those adapted movie musicals have even eclipsed the original movie versions in pop culture legacy, like Hairspray and Little Shop of Horrors.