Jocelyn Bioh's School Girls opens on Broadway at Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
Manhattan Theatre Club staged Jocelyn Bioh's comedy-drama about a 1986 Ghanaian boarding school, featuring Denée Benton and Jasmine Amy Rogers under Whitney White's direction.
Production and creative team
Manhattan Theatre Club opened Jocelyn Bioh's comedy-drama School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on 28 September 2026. The 75-minute production brings director Whitney White together with Bioh following their work on the Tony-nominated Jaja's African Hair Braiding three years ago. White positions the actors near the front of the stage to deliver punchlines directly to the audience. Denée Benton leads the cast as Paulina Sarpong, returning to the Broadway stage after her performance in the 2016 transfer of Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 and television roles in The Gilded Age. Jasmine Amy Rogers co-stars as Ericka Boafo following her Tony-winning breakout role in Boop!.
- Denée Benton performs in the Broadway transfer of Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.
- Whitney White directs Jocelyn Bioh's Tony-nominated Broadway debut, Jaja's African Hair Braiding.
- School Girls opens on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.
Setting and boarding school rivalries
The play is set in 1986 at the Aburi Girls Boarding School in the Aburi Mountains of Ghana. The student characters follow American popular culture, listening to Bobby Brown tracks including My Prerogative and Every Little Step on a boom box. Paulina rules her clique of five classmates through social pressure, fabricated stories about a boyfriend named Kofi, and references to an aunt working at a White Castle in New York. Her social circle consists of her friend Ama, portrayed by Lucia Aremu, along with cousins Mercy and Gifty, played by Jordan Rice and Nia Otchere-Sarfo. Paulina regularly directs verbal abuse at Nana, a newcomer portrayed by Erin Morton, regarding her body size and eating habits.
Paulina confronts Nana in front of the other students during a cafeteria exchange.
Do you want to be fat-fat? Or fit and popular?
Miss Ghana competition and social tensions
The plot develops around an upcoming audition for the 1986 Miss Ghana pageant, which offers the winner a route to the Miss Universe contest and international modeling work. Headmistress Francis, played by Heather Alicia Simms, approves the students' participation in the pageant tryouts. Paulina assumes she will secure the school's nomination until Ericka arrives during the second week of the school term. Ericka, an American Ghanaian student with lighter skin, Calvin Klein clothing, and a Midwestern accent, immediately challenges Paulina's social status. Bioh uses the confrontation between the two teenagers to address the effects of colorism, anti-Blackness, and Western beauty standards within the school.
Pageant audition and staging
The conflict between the students reaches a climax during a pageant audition sequence where each girl performs Whitney Houston's Greatest Love of All for a visiting recruiter. White directs the musical numbers to show each student's temperament, contrasting Nana's soft singing with Gifty's eccentric choreography and Mercy's unpitched volume. Ama performs respectably before Paulina and Ericka take their turns in direct competition. Ericka's powerful vocal delivery overtakes Paulina's demure rendition, altering the hierarchy among the classmates. The production continues its performance run under Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.
