Jocelyn Bioh has become one of the busiest playwrights in recent years, bringing a sitcom sensibility to the stage in works like Nollywood Dreams, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (her 2023 Broadway debut), and even a Harlem-set update of Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor. Now her breakout comedy, School Girls: Or, the African Mean Girls Play, arrives on Broadway nearly a decade after its premiere in a light-hearted and laugh-filled production.
The setting is all-girls boarding school in Ghana in 1986 where Bioh draws on American cultural tropes to make the far-off location familiar to New York audiences. Yes, there’s a direct line to Mean Girls, including a newbie student who arrives not from Africa as Lindsay Lohan’s Cady did in the 2004 film but from Ohio. But there are also nods to clique-focused movies like Clueless, Drop Dead Gorgeous, and Legally Blonde.
The queen bee of the decidedly real Amuri Girls Senior High School is Paulina (Denée Benton, The Gilded Age), an unrepentant meanie who cements her head-girl status by putting down her classmates with casual cruelty and dubious claims to superiority based on her never-seen soccer-star boyfriend and sophisticated presents sent by a U.S.-based aunt from “trendy American boutiques. Conway. Wal-Mart. The list goes on.”
Her dream of winning the local pageant to compete for Miss Ghana is threatened by the arrival of Ericka (Jasmine Amy Rogers, Boop), the American-born daughter of a Ghana cocoa magnate who definitely knows her Conway from her Calvin Klein. Smarting from the recent death of her white mother, she immediately ingratiates herself into her new school with an almost innate kindness and willingness to share her knowledge of U.S. culture. Paulina does not take this well — especially as it becomes clear that the fairer-skinned Ericka has a real shot at upsetting her pageant ambitions. Benton brings hints of softness to her sharp-elbowed character, while Rogers continues to show new layers in her apparently endless versatility.
The rivalry among the girls is echoed by the conflict between the headmistress (Heather Alicia Simms) and a former classmate of hers, Eloise (Patina Miller), a former Miss Ghana who swoops in as a rep for the pageant hoping to choose a contestant who can genuinely compete for the Miss Global Universe crown — which would burnish her rep and her pocketbook, and produce a generous donation to the struggling school. The headmistress naturally favors Paulina, while Eloise immediately gravitates to Ericka — and colorism is the major factor even before the girls’ talents can be assessed.
Bioh uses the element of internalized racism to deepen a plot that is very broad and schematic; both Paulina and Eloise emerge as genuine villains in their outrageous putdowns and put-on airs. Miller’s Eloise even deploys a British accent, the perfect accessory to the ’80s era designer outfits she sports in stark contrast to the headmistress’s kente-based looks. (Costumes by Qween Jean.) But she fails to recognize Paulina, the girl who most closely aligns with her younger self, as anything but an obstacle to her new ambition.
As directed by Whitney White, School Girls sprays a thin mist of social commentary over its familiar genre-based story. But where the production shines is in the comedic set pieces, including a hilariously off-kilter rendition of a Whitney Houston ballad that allows each of the schoolgirls a moment to shine. A special shout-out to the winsome Erin Morton, who played a similarly bullied and zaftig high schooler in the recent Heathers revival. Unlike Paulina, Bioh generously shares the load of punchlines and emotional connection among the talented ensemble. ★★★★☆
SCHOOL GIRLS: OR, THE AFRICAN MEAN GIRLS PLAY
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, Broadway
Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes (no intermission)
Tickets on sale through November 1 for $70 to $321