Learn more about director/choreographer Casey Nicholaw before seeing 'Mean Girls'

The double Tony-winner is also the talent behind The Book of Mormon, and has Hercules coming to London next year. Mean Girls is in performances at the Savoy Theatre.

Casey Nicholaw is an American director/choreographer known for his colourful, exuberant productions of popular musicals. His current production of Mean Girls, which recently opened at the Savoy Theatre, exemplifies everything there is to love about musical theatre — a bubbly cast, catchy tunes, slick staging, and lots of pink!

In a review for London Theatre, our critic said, “This committed theatrical incarnation totally makes fetch happen… there are few shows in town with the spectacular joke rate of Mean Girls, nor with characters this vivid”.

Nicholaw is also represented in the West End with the long-running hit The Book of Mormon, playing at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Furthermore, he’ll be at the helm of Disney’s Hercules when it arrives in the West End at Theatre Royal Drury Lane next year!

Read on to learn more about the highlights of this Broadway director/choreographer’s esteemed career.

Book tickets to Mean Girls on London Theatre.

Casey Nicholaw in theatre

Born in San Diego, California in 1962, Nicholaw attended the University of California, Los Angeles, and began his career as a performer. His Broadway credits include Crazy for You, Victor/Victoria, Saturday Night Fever, Seussical, and Thoroughly Modern Millie. He returned to the stage as a performer to play Spats Columbo in his production of Some Like it Hot for one weekend in 2023.

Directors and choreographers with whom Nicholaw worked as a performer include Susan Stroman, Tommy Tune, and Arlene Phillips. His fellow actors included Julie Andrews, Rachel York, Kristin Chenoweth, Sutton Foster, and many more.

Since making his debut as a choreographer in 2005 with Spamalot and helming his first production as director/choreographer the following year with The Drowsy Chaperone, Nicholaw has won Tony Awards for Best Direction of a Musical (shared with Trey Parker) for The Book of Mormon and Best Choreographer for Some Like it Hot. He has received a further 11 nominations for direction and choreography. Nicholaw also won an Olivier Award for his choreography for The Book of Mormon.

Take a look at some of Casey Nicholaw's greatest hits to date.

Spamalot (2005)

Nicholaw earned his first Broadway choreography credit with the musical adaptation of irreverent Arthurian parody Monty Python and the Holy Grail, adapted by Monty Python member Eric Idle and directed by Mike Nichols. The show was nominated for 14 Tony Awards (including Best Choreography for Nicholaw) and won three, including Best Musical.

The Drowsy Chaperone (2006)

Nicholaw made his debut as director/choreographer with this meta-theatrical pastiche of 1920s musical comedies framed by the ‘Man in the Chair’, a reclusive Broadway fanatic listening to his favourite album of his favourite musical, the long-forgotten The Drowsy Chaperone. Starring Broadway sweetheart Sutton Foster, the show received mixed reviews, with many critics finding the material too slight, but it nevertheless received 12 Tony nominations. A brief London run starred Summer Strallen and Elaine Paige.

Elf: The Musical (2010)

It was inevitable that the 2003 Will Ferrell festive hit would become a musical sooner rather than later. Nicholaw helmed the original Broadway production, which played for two Christmas seasons. Buddy and friends have played in the West End and on tour in the UK several times, with Georgina Castle — who is currently starring as Regina George in Mean Girls — playing Jovie in the 2022 cast at the Dominion Theatre.

The Book of Mormon (2011)

The uproariously politically incorrect satire of white Mormon saviourism in Uganda written by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, with Robert Lopez, won nine Tony Awards, with Nicholaw and Trey Parker jointly earning Best Director of a Musical. When the show transferred to the West End, Nicholaw won the Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer. Elder Cunningham and Elder Price have become one of musical theatre’s quintessential odd couples and the mega-hit continues to play on Broadway and in the West End.

Something Rotten! (2015)

Songwriting brothers Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick and book writer John O’Farrell (the same team behind Mrs Doubtfire) penned this comic romp about Elizabethan playwrights Nigel and Neil Bottom, who find themselves overshadowed by their contemporary William Shakespeare. The show was nominated for nine Tonys. A UK transfer of the show was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but a concert will be performed at Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 5-6 August.

Aladdin (2014)

Nicholaw directed and choreographed the stage adaptation of the Disney classic, which premiered on Broadway in 2014 and in the West End in 2016. A characteristically lavish Disney production, London Theatre’s reviewer enjoyed how Nicholaw’s staging “brings a knowing irreverence and delivers some knockout production numbers.” The show is currently touring the UK.

Dreamgirls (2016)

Nicholaw raised the roof at the West End’s Savoy Theatre with the first-ever West End production of the R&B musical about Motown girl group The Dreams, inspired by The Supremes. Amber Riley won an Olivier Award for her sensational performance as Effie. London Theatre’s five-star review admired the way in which “Casey Nicholaw stages the show in one giant sweep that continues to build momentum from the first notes to the final curtain… this is a show that commands multiple visits to fall in love with it over and over again.”

The Prom (2018)

A sweet teen musical about a lesbian high school student who is banned from bringing her girlfriend to her senior prom and befriends a troupe of Broadway actors. New York Theatre Guide’s reviewer called it “a frothy, high-energy musical… That The Prom is not edgy is fine; it is exuberant.” Ryan Murphy’s film version premiered on Netflix in 2020.

Some Like it Hot (2022)

Nicholaw finally won a Tony for Best Choreography for this Jazz Age-inspired extravaganza based on Billy Wilder’s 1959 classic cross-dressing comedy starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon. According to New York Theatre Guide’s review, “Nicholaw sees to it that each scene is composed like a movie still”. Perhaps we’ll get a chance to see this sizzling show at some point on this side of the Atlantic?

Mean Girls (Broadway 2018, West End 2024)

Mean Girls is real labour of love for Nicholaw, who has been involved in its development for over a decade. The classic 2004 teen comedy was adapted by its original writer Tina Fey herself, with Fey’s husband Jeff Richmond as composer, and Legally Blonde’s Nell Benjamin as lyricist. The Broadway production sadly closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but the show indicates every sign of being a bona fide hit on this side of the pond!

Hercules (2025)

The stage adaptation of the epic 1997 Disney animation was first performed at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse, and Nicholaw took the reins for its German-language run earlier this year, which continues to run in Hamburg. Thrillingly, it’ll be coming to Theatre Royal Drury Lane in 2025 (dates to be confirmed). Keep an eye out for lots more content on this exciting new show!

Book tickets to Mean Girls on London Theatre. Check back for tickets to Hercules.

Photo credit: Casey Nicholaw in rehearsals for Mean Girls. (Photo by Brinkhoff & Mögenburg)