The first thing you may notice when visiting Abdoulaye Conde’s “Raining Wisdom” mural at 45 Ottawa NW, besides its impressive size, is its intriguing use of bold, black lines to separate colors and create an unfolding mosaic pattern.

Amid the sea of musicals adapted from film, some work better than others. And in the case of “Mean Girls”, now on tour at Miller Auditorium in Kalamazoo, based on the cult classic 2004 film written by Tina Fey, the musical in many ways improves upon the film.

It’s the final year for a failing Chicago high school, just one of many that graduates fewer than half their students and is therefore slated for the sledgehammer. Not only do they have 20 computers for 3,000 students, they can’t sufficiently stock the bathrooms with toilet paper.

Given how few and far between women killers have been in history, as a culture we can’t look away when a murderess emerges. We’re fascinated—so much so that an up-close-and-personal story of women who murdered more than 100 years ago is exceptionally gripping.