Get Schooled: 5 Reasons to See School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play on Broadway

Attention, students! Jocelyn Bioh’s biting comedy School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play is now on Broadway. Set in 1986, School Girls stars Denée Benton as Paulina, the reigning queen bee of Ghana’s most exclusive boarding school. Paulina’s crown starts to slip when American transfer student Ericka, played by Broadway.com Audience Choice Award winner Jasmine Amy Rogers, arrives, captivating her classmates and catching the attention of a Miss Ghana pageant recruiter. Loyalty is tested, truths exposed and tensions are pushed to the limit.

Helmed by Liberation Tony nominee Whitney White, School Girls is a laugh riot that packs a punch. Read on for five reasons to get schooled at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.

1. It gives the mean-girl canon a new edge.
As its title suggests, School Girls follows in the tradition of queen bee comedies like Mean Girls, Heathers and Bring It On, with all the cattiness and competition that make clique flicks so irresistible. But School Girls also cleverly subverts this genre, using high school hierarchy to examine soft power, colorism and global beauty standards. The claws are out, and the cuts run deep.

2. Denée Benton and Jasmine Amy Rogers are perfectly matched.
Benton and Rogers square off as two girls who each desperately want what the other has. As vicious as Paulina can be, Benton brings a wounded quality to her character that takes you by surprise. Rogers draws us in with Ericka’s hunger for belonging while proving she can be just as cutthroat. Together, they make the rivalry crackle.

3. It's brisk and transportive.
School Girls’ 80-minute running time breezes by thanks to White’s engaging, tightly paced staging. Qween Jean’s costumes and Nikiya Mathis’ wig, hair and makeup design—both the work of history-making Tony winners—are rich with period detail and perfectly tailored to each character. Bioh peppers the script with sly pop culture references and well-placed needle drops (Janet Jackson’s “When I Think of You” is particularly inspired). All of these details effortlessly acclimate you to the unfamiliar world of a Ghanaian private school in 1986.

4. The cast is sensational.
When it comes to School Girls, everyone is a star. Lucia Aremu gives a grounded performance as Paulina’s best friend, Ama, conveying her growing exasperation at the hive mind around her. Tony winner Patina Miller makes a meal of the imperious pageant scout Eloise, a.k.a. Miss Ghana 1966. Strutting across the stage with an Anglo-inflected accent and a trail of chiffon behind her, she's the perfect foil for Headmistress Francis, played with maternal authority by Heather Alicia Simms. Nia Otchere-Sarfo and Jordan Rice bounce off each other to hilarious effect as cousins Gifty and Mercy, respectively, earning some of the biggest laughs of the night. As Nana, the mild-mannered junior mercilessly taunted by Paulina, Heathers The Musical alum Erin Morton brings the vulnerability that gives School Girls its heart. All eight performers shine, bringing Bioh’s sharply drawn characters to life.

5. School Girls has the greatest laugh of all.
Without giving too much away, School Girls features a choral rendition of a certain Whitney Houston ballad by its central characters. The number had the audience howling while offering each performer a chance to flex their comedic muscles. In a show packed with laughs, this a cappella interlude might take the cake. It has to be seen—and heard—to be believed.

Get tickets to School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play!