Photos: Opening Night for School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play on Broadway

Last night, the company of Jocelyn Bioh’s School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play celebrated opening night at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway.

The comedy takes place in 1986 at an elite girls’ school in Ghana, where queen bee Paulina (Denée Benton) appears to be a shoo-in to represent the school in the forthcoming Ms. Ghana pageant. But she faces sudden competition with the arrival of Ericka (Jasmine Amy Rogers), the half-white daughter of a local cocoa factory owner, recently relocated from Ohio.

The ultimate judge will be Eloise Amponsah (Patina Miller), a scout sent by the pageant and Ms. Ghana 1966.

Bioh’s play premiered off-Broadway with MCC in 2017. This new Broadway production for MTC is directed by Whitney White, who also helmed Bioh’s Jaja’s African Hair Braiding at the Friedman in 2023.

You can read TheaterMania’s review of School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play here.