It’s immediately evident that Paulina Sarpong is the queen bee in Jocelyn Bioh’s School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play. Tall and regal, she demands attention, gliding across the stage with a grace her classmates lack. It’s a pity she isn’t nicer. From the moment she speaks, she is cruel, admonishing a younger girl for eating too much. “Do you want to be fat-fat? Or fit and popular?” she asks.
Nearly a decade after its Off-Broadway premiere, School Girls arrives on Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club and, under Whitney White’s smart direction, delivers a comedy with a vicious bite. Set in 1986 at a boarding school in Ghana’s Aburi Mountains, the play follows a group of students hoping to be picked by a recruiter for the Miss Ghana beauty pageant.
Everyone assumes it’ll be Paulina (Denée Benton), who is as pretty as she is mean. But before the recruiter (Patina Miller) even shows up, new girl Ericka (Jasmine Amy Rogers) arrives, and to Paulina’s frustration, she is everything Paulina is not: kind, worldly, and light-skinned. She has also signed up to meet the recruiter.
Paulina’s pageant plan hits a snag
What begins as a teen comedy swiftly transforms into a sly commentary on colorism. Though you wish to spend longer with the characters, the time Bioh affords us is worthwhile. The ensemble is stellar, with Benton and Rogers as the standouts; Benton beautifully portrays Paulina’s viciousness and vulnerability. Rogers (who burst onto Broadway two seasons ago in the title role in Boop!) is instantly likable. The full cast also gets a chance to show off their comedy chops during a hysterical show choir scene that ends with Rogers singing the house down.
School Girls takes inspiration from the story of a biracial American named Miss Ghana in 2011, Mean Girls, and Bioh’s mother’s real-life experiences at Aburi Girls’ School. Qween Jean, who designed the Tony-winning costumes for Cats: The Jellicle Ball, creates detail-rich garments inspired by bright school uniforms and poofy pageant dresses.
The production’s vibrance and intensity feel appropriate; for all its humor, School Girls puts beauty itself under the microscope. Luckily, it stands up to scrutiny.
It wants better content.
Is ‘School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play’ worth seeing?
Jocelyn Bioh’s pageant comedy lands its laughs and its reckoning with colorism in equal measure. And with Denée Benton and Jasmine Amy Rogers circling the same crown, a return trip to Aburi Girls Boarding School feels like a term worth repeating.
- Samuel J. Friedman Theater, 261 West 47th Street, New York City
- Featured performers: Denée Benton, Jasmin Amy Rogers, Patina Miller
- Running time: 80 minutes, no intermission
- Performances through November 1, 2026
Have another minute?
Off-Script – My Walkman never prepared me for this Jean Valjean
Books – One grande Ariana to go, hold the spotlight
Theater – In ‘Kowalski,’ Johnny Galecki’s Tennessee Williams plays hard to get
