A Fabulous SCHOOL GIRLS; OR, THE AFRICAN MEAN GIRLS PLAY Finally Makes It To Broadway

As if there was ever any doubt, you may consider it confirmed: Jocelyn Bioh and Broadway are a match made in heaven. 

Bioh, a gifted Ghanaian-American playwright and actress, already proved her Broadway writing bona fides three years ago with Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, a bitter-edged comedy premiered by Manhattan Theatre Club in 2023. Now Bioh’s breakout play School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play receives its well-deserved Broadway debut, again at MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre and under the direction of Tony Award nominee Whitney White.

School Girls first delighted New York audiences off-Broadway in 2017, presented at that time by MCC Theater in a breakout moment for Bioh. Bitingly witty, this smartly constructed comedy transports us to the Aburi Girls Boarding School in 1986 Ghana, where a sharp-tongued crew of young ladies are competing for a chance to become “Miss Ghana 1986.” 

Queen bee Paulina (Denée Benton), the resident “Regina George” of the crew, has little doubt that local pageant recruiter Eloise (Patina Miller) will select her for national consideration. That is until Ericka (Jasmine Amy Rogers), a transfer student from Ohio, swoops in to disrupt the balance of power. 

Ericka’s arrival sets off a chaotic chain of events by turns uproariously funny, stingingly painful and, for anyone who lived through teenage bullying, cruelly familiar. Yet Bioh always keeps her tone two or three notches above naturalism, allowing the audience guilt-free enjoyment in reliving all these excruciating memories. It’s a tricky balance, one that White negotiates expertly for this high-energy Broadway revival. 

That new arrival Ericka is of a lighter hue, in contrast to the other girls’ darker skin color, opens up an equally knotty conversation around colorism that Bioh handles with care. Ericka’s privilege is plainly acknowledged. But, as in all of Bioh’s writing, empathy overflows. Every character faces their own challenges, and each gets their moment to be seen. All of them, as a result, feel like fully-rounded individuals. Cartoonish individuals, to be sure (deliberately so), but fully-rounded all the same. 

If Bioh overdoes it anywhere, it is perhaps with the character of Paulina. That this seemingly heartless bully will be revealed to have deep-seated insecurities is not a shocker, nor is it intended as one. We know the tropes that Bioh is playing in here, and she knows that we know them. All the same, Paulina’s eventual turn can feel a bit too heavily telegraphed, particularly in Benton’s affected portrayal. And though verisimilitude is far from the goal of this production, casting the 34-year-old Benton as an 18-year-old proves a bridge too far. (Though I did adjust to it, eventually.)

The ensemble here is, otherwise, faultless. Jasmine Amy Rogers lights up the stage as always, and subtly reveals the operator hiding under Ericka’s outward warmth. Patina Miller delightfully chews the scenery, while Heather Alicia Simms has fun with the Headmistress’ barely-concealed disdain for Eloise. The true MVPs of School Girls, though, are the other four young women, who provide much of the play’s heart. Lucia Aremu, Nia Otchere-Sarfo and Jordan Rice all have fun playing out their own mini-arcs, while fast-rising star Erin Morton lends Nana an unforced dignity that grows, by the play’s end, into a quiet fabulousness. 

School Girls is now in performance at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on West 47th Street in New York City. For tickets and more information, visit here.