Jocelyn Bioh’s School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play opened at Broadway’s Samuel J. Friedman Theater with Denée Benton as Paulina, Jasmine Amy Rogers as the new transfer Ericka, and Patina Miller as pageant recruiter Eloise. Set in central Ghana in 1986, the comedy dramatizes colorism and the scramble for status when Eloise favors Ericka’s lighter skin for the Miss Ghana of 1986 audition. The Broadway production expands the original Off Broadway staging with a longer running time, a more elaborate set and extravagant costumes, and a starrier cast. Reviewers praise Benton’s transformation into the bossy, insecure queen bee and Rogers’s powerhouse singing as Paulina’s foil, while noting some sacrifices of subtlety for laughs. Critics also say Bioh’s later, more complex plays such as Jaja’s African Hair Salon raise expectations that this earlier work does not entirely meet. The production’s arrival on Broadway is framed as a milestone because the show is written, directed, designed and performed by Black women and now plays on the Great White Way.
