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BLOG ENTRY : my longstanding beef with revenge party from mean girls the musical

published : aug 31, 2026

We as a society do not discuss enough that the very concept of Revenge Party from Mean Girls the Musical is utterly inane. At the beginning of the song, Cady is devastated because Regina got back with Aaron instead of helping Cady get together with him, so Janis and Damian decide it’s up to them to help Cady get revenge. Janis then out of nowhere starts the titular metaphor which, in my opinion, is the stupidest single idea in all of this godforsaken musical, the revenge party :

Imagine a party with dresses and cake
And singing and dancing and cake
And there’s a magic act that saws Regina in half
And this time it’ll take

A revenge party
A party that ends
With somebody’s head on a spike
It’s a revenge party with your two best friends
It’s like a party with revenge is what it’s like

This revenge party does not make any sense.

In Les Misérables, Cosette’s Castle on a Cloud is a big, fantastical place like something out of a story (castle) that is dreamy and out of reach (on a cloud), making up the whole that is an abused child’s fantasy that she escapes to in her head. These ideas combine into a coherent concept in the audience’s mind to develop Cosette and her story.

But what is the revenge party ? Let’s start with the components. What is a party ? A social gathering. An event to which people are invited to socialize, have fun, and often celebrate something. There are other definitions of party, and honestly, a fun double meaning/pun could actually be kinda cool here—they could be an adventuring party out to get revenge and Janis is like Inigo Montoya, in addition to them acting as if it’s a fun, twisted celebration. But the song’s lyrics only refer to and insist upon this one definition. So what exactly is the relation between a party and Janis, Damian, and Cady’s plan ? They’re doing it together as friends ? And Janis and Damian are enjoying themselves ? And I suppose they’re celebrating Regina George’s downfall ? But by the way that the metaphor is used throughout the song, the revenge party seems to be a continuous thing throughout their entire revenge plot. The actual post-Regina defeat celebration song is Fearless. This party doesn’t even have a set date and time the way, you know, all parties have, since their revenge plan is a long multi-step endeavour that spans over two months. So… I don’t know about you, but to me, the connection between the events taking place and parties is VERY flimsy.

Why does she say it, then ? It’s not a reference to the original movie’s script, or a callback to something from earlier in the musical’s script, or foreshadowing something later in the script, nothing. You could change « party » to something else entirely and the song would remain unchanged. Last month my friends and I went on a picnic and we kept singing « A picnic with revenge is what it’s like ». Mean Girls has a lot of questionable lyricism but for this song in particular it’s nothing less than baffling that someone not only came up with, but then put to paper and kept these lyrics.

Beyond the mere absurdity of the concept, the execution is equally offensively nothing. To define the revenge party, the choruses conjure hollow images : the revenge party is, apparently, a party that ends with « somebody’s head on a spike » « entrails all over the lawn » and « lions in a Roman arena ». On their own, these phrases strengthen the ideas of vitriol and punishment, but there’s zero cohesion in the way they’re simply tacked on to the « party ». Refer again to how one could replace « party » with something else and nothing would change. Essentially, « party » simultaneously feels like a load-bearing and a filler word, an empty vessel for the rest of the lyrics to be awkwardly duct-taped onto. But among all the lines trying to explain what the revenge party is, the worst offender is nothing other than : « It’s like a party with revenge is what it’s like. » Did Nell Benjamin, the lyricist of Mean Girls, just give up ? What evil spirit could have possibly told her that this was the perfect final line for the chorus ? That the perfect note on which to finish her song Revenge Party, the punchy, exciting, triumphant ending to this fun, dramatic number, is « It’s like a party with revenge is what’s like » ??? It’s an admission of inanity. I don’t care if it’s tongue-in-cheek. When a character comically admits that a metaphor they’re using doesn’t make sense, the metaphor typically isn’t the basis of the entire song. Nell Benjamin tells us herself, multiple times, that the revenge party is, in fact, nothing. Not even the actual song can justify its own premise.

The thing about Mean Girls the Musical is that it’s not brainless—it wants to say something and sometimes there is even substance in its ideas but the way these ideas are conveyed is so often fucking stupid. Take Stupid With Love, for example. The idea is that Cady is academically smart, understanding facts that are certain and clear, but when it comes to romance, a much more nebulous concept, she’s clueless. A smarter (less lazy) songwriter could have come with an interesting hook for this conflict, but Mean Girls the Musical instead has the most banal lyric « Smart with math, but stupid with love ».

Fans might argue that these stupid lyrics are simply in line with how dumb teenagers talk. I reject this argument on multiple counts. Like, no, I don’t think any teen girl has ever unironically said anything remotely close to « This whole school humps my leg like a chihuahua » ; rather, many of the lyrics feel like they are referencing the style of campy dialogue from the original movie, but they aren’t as effective due to simply poor writing quality as well as my second point : singing isn’t the same as dialogue, and dialogue isn’t the same as real life talking. Human conversation is imperfect, people stutter and pause and misspeak and repeat themselves and talk over each other, etc. Replicating all of this behaviour in fiction can be used to great effect, but also can get in the way of the flow of a scene, which is why it is usually largely trimmed down. Fictional mediums allow for varying levels of suspension of disbelief when it comes to how realistic dialogue can be, but perfect realism is not the primary goal. The substance of the dialogue is written in service of characterization and of plot, and the style, in service of the tone. In theatre, there is higher suspension of disbelief. When watching a Shakespeare play, we know that people in real life do not speak in the form of rhyming couplets or sonnets and we know that dramatically monologuing to oneself is not the most common of occurrences, but these are the methods Shakespeare employed to convey his plots and characters and themes.

Song is a whole other level. Typically, when you listen to a song, you are aware that what is being sung is not something that someone would say in everyday conversation. In musical theatre, there is an understanding that « in real life », the character is usually not really saying these lines word for word or even at all ; it all exists beyond common speech and even dialogue. There’s the common musical theatre adage of when you can no longer speak, you sing, and when you can no longer sing, you dance. A showtune allows for the expression of a character’s thoughts, feelings, and motivations even beyond what would feel natural in stage dialogue ! A more obvious example of this is the stage version of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, which gives Ariel songs during the part of the story where she doesn’t have her voice. The songs allow her thoughts to be well-articulated despite her restriction of speech within the narrative. Furthermore, so many other musicals with young characters do not ascribe to this so-called lyrical style of « dumb teen speak » in the way Mean Girls allegedly does, instead letting their young characters express themselves just as naturally as their adult characters ! So I don’t buy it ! There’s a point at which the amount of ironic, awkward, and otherwise shoddy lyrics no longer serve the point of writing « authentic » speech and just become bad. It’s all merely an excuse for the lack of thought and effort.

It sucks so much for how much potential there was. On a positive note for once, in Revenge Party, I really enjoy the « She has everything, she gets everything / Regina, Regina, Regina » part sung by the ensemble, which is effectively used to highlight Regina’s public perception. I love how the « lions in a Roman arena » chorus ends with that chant. The combination of the image of a violent punishment in front of thousands of spectators in a Roman colosseum with the student body resentfully chanting the name of the most popular girl in school skillfully conveys the idea of Regina’s downfall being brutal and public ; it’s clever ! It’s well-thought out ! But it also begs the question of where is the REST of that energy ? Of that cleverness ? Why is one half of Revenge Party decent and effective while the other half feels so phoned in ?

Because I wasn’t lying when I said this number is fun and dramatic. Again, Mean Girls isn’t brainless. It’s catchy as hell. Damian’s « whoah-whoah-whoah »s are fun. I have a soft spot for « Glenn Coco, Glenn Coco, Glenn Coco ! » because my friend was Glenn Coco in my school’s production, and it’s a decent beat of comic relief as well. And Gretchen’s breakdown at the end is a standout moment. Who doesn’t love « NO ! THEY’RE BOTH IN THE COSTUME ! », it’s a classic. These all work in favour of the song and musical as a whole, but the competency in these other parts only makes the stupid parts worse. I know you can do better, Nell Benjamin. It’s evident by not only your other work (along with her husband Laurence O’Keefe, she wrote for the musical adaptation of Legally Blonde, which is a much more well-written musical) and in the very same song. I know you can do better, Nell Benjamin !!! Why didn’t you ?