SCHOOL GIRLS; or THE AFRICAN MEAN GIRLS PLAY
by Jocelyn Bioh
directed by Whitney White
Samuel J Friedman Theatre, New York City – until 15 November 2026
running time: 80 minutes no interval
Jocelyn Bioh’s gorgeous comedy-drama, only now making its Broadway bow but first seen in New York in 2017 and at London’s Lyric Hammersmith in 2023, is a rare, satisfying thing. School Girls; Or The African Mean Girls Play truly is a delightful time in the theatre, with more belly laughs per minute than anything else currently playing, except perhaps for Oh Mary! and Slam Frank. More interestingly, it also leaves you pondering the importance of education, some pretty unpalatable truths about colourism, and the universality of teenage peer pressure. It’s inspired by a true story about suspected corruption in a Ghanaian beauty pageant and, while the parallels with properties like Heathers and Mean Girls are easy to identify, Bioh’s work, ultimately, is its own marvellous beast.
Whitney White’s vibrant but nuanced production for Manhattan Theatre Club gives full measure to the pathos as well as the rollicking comedy, and the disturbing, not to say ludicrous, idea that the more Caucasian looking a young Black woman is the more beautiful she’s considered is put over with considerable force. Set in the mid-1980s – tellingly, a time before young people were influenced by the internet and where their access to the outside world was mostly confined to what they saw on their television screen – in a rural Ghanaian school for girls, Bioh’s script looks at the tensions among a group of teenagers when a new, mixed race girl from the USA joins their number.
To up the ante, these young women are in competition to be selected as entrants in the Miss Ghana contest, a victory in which would offer the opportunity for travel and financial security. Queen Bee Paulina (understudy iesha m. daniels at the performance I saw, instead of Denée Benton, and so gloriously venomous she takes your breath away) thinks she has it in the bag, until the arrival of paler-skinned American-Ghanaian Ericka (a flawless Jasmine Amy Rogers, once again cementing her reputation as Broadway’s truest breakout star of recent years).
What follows could almost be described as a battle of good versus evil, with the other, less forceful pupils as collateral damage, but Bioh is such a good storyteller and dramatist that she gives Paulina and Ericka back stories that confound our initial impressions of them. She also creates a small gallery of delicious characters, all played with gusto and affection here, that you find yourself caring about in a very short space of time. There’s socially awkward cousins Mercy and Gifty (Jordan Rice and Nia Otchere-Sarfo), in thrall to the horrible but glamorous Paulina (“we just don’t want her coming after us”) but touchingly looking after each other. Lucia Aremu invests the exasperated best friend with information that could collapse Paulina’s house of cards, with an intriguing gravity and undercurrent of real rage. Erin Morton wins hearts as well-meaning, gauche Nana, the innocent who is the primary butt of Paulina’s cruelty and sarcasm but who exerts a wonderfully satisfying comeuppance.
The adults are represented, gloriously, by Heather Alicia Simms as the headmistress who is equal parts ferocity and kindness. Also, in a sparkling return to Broadway, there’s Patina Miller, regal as former beauty contest winner Eloise Amponsah, a woman with a definite agenda who wields her affected faux-British accent and her repeated assertion “I am Miss Ghana 1966” as though they’re weapons. Simms and Miller suggest, with formidable style, a backstory of rivalry and mutual loathing between these women that adds another layer of enjoyment to an already rich cake.
The technical elements from Teresa L Williams (whose school room scenic design backgrounded by dramatic West African mountains is simple but vivid), Stacey Derosier (nicely transformative lighting) and Cody Spencer (sound) are everything they need to be. Qween Jean, a Tony winner for last season’s Cats The Jellicle Ball, has gone all out on the costumes though, marrying realism with high camp and African opulence. Meanwhile, Nikiya Mathis’ wig for Ms Miller probably deserves its own show.
Running at a mere eighty minutes, there’s no chance of School Girls; Or The African Mean Girls Play outstaying its welcome, but what’s remarkable is how much good stuff Bioh, White and team pack into that brief playing time. The section where the party dress-clad schoolgirls try to out-sing each other (to Whitney’s ‘The Greatest Love Of All’ no less) may be like shooting fish in a barrel in comedic terms but it’s also helplessly, irresistibly funny. By the end though, what’s more striking, haunting even, is the sight of these young women watching an international beauty competition on television and pondering their place in the world at the large. The play is short but it packs a hell of a punch. The first opening of the new Broadway season and the bar is set incredibly high. This is a must-see.
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