The reviews are in for School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, Jocelyn Bioh’s 1986-set comedy about a Ghanaian boarding school where the Miss Ghana pageant recruiter is coming and the queen bee has just met her match. Nearly a decade after its off-Broadway premiere at MCC Theater, it has reached Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in a production directed by Whitney White, with Denée Benton as the fearsome Paulina, Jasmine Amy Rogers as the new girl who unseats her and Patina Miller as the pageant recruiter working the same cruelties on a grander scale. Twenty-three critics have filed since opening night, and the verdict is warm if not quite unanimous: the play has lost none of its comic bite, the sing-off between Benton and Rogers is the evening’s set piece, and Qween Jean’s costumes are singled out almost as often as the cast. The reservations, where there are any, are about the writing rather than the staging — several critics find Bioh painting in broad strokes.
The verdict: twenty-three reviews so far. Only four of them carry a star score — most American outlets publish none — and among those four the average is 4.3 out of 5, from 1 Minute Critic’s five down to fours from New York Stage Review, Culture Sauce and Time Out New York; Entertainment Weekly adds a letter grade of A–. The praise is remarkably consistent: Denée Benton and Jasmine Amy Rogers are named in almost every notice, the pageant sing-off to Whitney Houston’s “The Greatest Love of All” is the scene the critics keep returning to, and Qween Jean’s costumes draw their own paragraph again and again. The dissent is about the play rather than the production: Stage and Cinema, Culture Sauce and New York Theater all find Bioh painting in broad strokes, New York Theater’s Jonathan Mandell thinks the piece has been overtaken by what its author wrote next, and TheWrap’s Robert Hofler files the one outright pan, finding the girls’ feuding nastier than it is witty.
What are critics saying about School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play?
The New York Times
“A Broadway Glow-Up for a ‘Mean Girls’ Comedy”
Reviewer: Helen Shaw
“The director Whitney White uses Brown’s self-assertion bop “My Prerogative” to marshal us into Bioh’s ripe-for-comedy setting: the canteen of the Aburi Girls’ Senior High School, in Eastern Ghana, in 1986. The song, with its marching band swagger and sulky defiance, is the distilled sound of the me-me-me ’80s.”
Vulture
“Beauty Is Unbecoming”
Reviewer: Sara Holdren
“Without a Paulina that we can really feel for — despite all her undeniable viciousness — School Girls can only ever be a part of the play that it’s built to be. White’s production understands this in a way that the show’s first New York run didn’t quite access. She nimbly manages to maintain a bubbly ensemble energy while placing Benton at the show’s center and giving her space to be both victimizer and victim — and Benton soars. She tosses the darts of Paulina’s vindictiveness with bullseye accuracy. Yet it’s her softer, sadder moments that truly cement the performance.”
The Guardian
“Comedy makes a near-flawless Broadway debut”
Reviewer: Juan A Ramírez
“As in Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, or the Lagos-set Nollywood Dreams, this is a comedy – full-stop – but one undergirded with deft specificity. School Girls respects its teens’ right to frivolous infighting, Bioh respects their particular situation’s challenges, and it’s in that combination that her plays become so salient. Bioh’s background as an actor also means she knows exactly how to craft lively dialogue and wonderfully individual characters, which White (a performer and playwright herself) is completely at home bringing to life with this knockout cast.”
Entertainment Weekly
“The African teen comedy subverts the genre”
Reviewer: Dalton Ross · Grade: A–
“What began as a plucky battle between a friendly newcomer and a queen bee with a nasty stinger morphs into something much more complicated, especially as further revelations are uncovered. But while School Girls shifts into another gear by fearlessly tackling African ideals of beauty with words and deeds that had the audience gasping at points, it also remains very, very funny.”
Variety
“An Exceptional Portrait of Black Girlhood”
Reviewer: Aramide Tinubu
““School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play” is a joyous and gutting play centering the treasure of Black sisterhood, exceptionalism and the pain and anguish of putting your best foot forward and still falling short of someone much less qualified. It is an ever-timely examination of what it is to be a Black woman or girl in a world that constantly labels you as unworthy. With exceptional performances from the entire cast and homages to musical legends like Whitney Houston and Janet Jackson, Bioh and White present a reflection of the Black female experience in all of its dazzling idiosyncrasies, triumphs and pains.”
Deadline
“When Escape Is Just A Clique Away”
Reviewer: Greg Evans
“As School Girls builds to its denouement – that pageant try-out – rest assured that Bioh and director White will not deprive us of bearing witness, and the young actors who play the school girls, some in their Broadway debuts, meet the challenge and then some. As they take turns soloing Whitney Houston’s “The Greatest Love of All” – an inspired choice not only for the technical demands that few of these hopefuls could meet, but for Houston’s haunted ending that they couldn’t possible know – the cast members imbue each character with comic ineptitude that’s as poignant as it is laugh-out-loud funny.”
TheWrap
“Denée Benton Isn't Just Mean, She's a Teenage Lady Macbeth”
Reviewer: Robert Hofler
“The cat fights that ensue among these characters go far beyond anything that takes place in Clare Boothe Luce’s “The Women.” Unfortunately, these nasty encounters in “School Girls” are also far less witty. At times, Bioh’s comedy isn’t just about teenagers; it appears to have been written by teenagers.”
TheaterMania
“Brings ’80s Fashion and Ageless Politics to Broadway”
Reviewer: Hayley Levitt
“Much like its Mean Girls namesake, School Girls imbues high school politics with the gravity of global diplomacy (or anti-diplomacy) and lets the laughs fall where they may. It’s a tried-and-true formula, but export it outside the US, and it gains another layer. At the Aburi Girls Boarding School, high school politics aren’t so detached from global politics, even with modest uniforms, snack-food bans, and neutral-toned spaces keeping Western influence at bay (Teresa L. Williams teases a bit of open African sky behind her simple cafeteria set). Pop music, fashion magazines, skin-lightening creams, and yes, beauty pageants, still manage to slip through the back door like Trojan Horses of American imperialism.”
The New York Sun
“Stellar Cast Makes ‘School Girls’ a Class Act”
Reviewer: Elysa Gardner
“The title of Jocelyn Bioh’s “School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play” is something of a misnomer. Only one of the teenage girls in this comedy, now having its Broadway premiere, is really nasty in her behavior, and she ultimately becomes a sympathetic figure, whereas a middle-aged woman emerges as the true villainess.”
Time Out New York
“Denée Benton and Jasmine Amy Rogers battle for attention in Jocelyn Bioh's African comedy”
Reviewer: Adam Feldman · 4 out of 5
“Colorism is a theme throughout the play, but it becomes far more central in the denouement, when School Girls shifts to a more serious tone. As in Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, whose treatment of immigration came to a sharp point at the end, the transition from broad ensemble comedy to issue play is not seamless; School Girls is less than 90 minutes long, and although that helps keep the energy high, it also makes the storytelling feel a little rushed. Paulina loses her grip on the other girls faster than might be ideal, and her comeuppance is a mite precipitous. But Benton negotiates the bumpy journey with grace, and Boop! knockout Rogers continues her meteoric ascent to stardom with another standout turn (and even gets to show off her considerable expertise as a singer)…”
1 Minute Critic
“Who will win Miss Ghana?”
Reviewer: Emily Chackerian · 5 out of 5
“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.”
New York Stage Review
“Sharper and Funnier Than Ever”
Reviewer: Frank Scheck · 4 out of 5
“The 1986-set play immediately establishes that the school’s reigning queen bee is Paulina (Denée Benton, The Gilded Age) having a ball with her character’s villainy, who has a soccer-playing boyfriend and clearly has the best chance of being selected as the year’s Miss Ghana. Paulina has a devoted posse who she lords over, although often not very nicely as evidenced by her verbal abuse of the overweight Nana (Erin Morton, Heathers the Musical, nearly stealing the show). “I’ve decided you can’t be part of the group anymore,” she tells Nana. “You’re not really mixing with our aesthetic.””
Culture Sauce
“Finds an African setting for clique bait”
Reviewer: Thom Geier · 4 out of 5
“As directed by Whitney White, School Girls sprays a thin mist of social commentary over its familiar genre-based story. But where the production shines is in the comedic set pieces, including a hilariously off-kilter rendition of a Whitney Houston ballad that allows each of the schoolgirls a moment to shine. A special shout-out to the winsome Erin Morton, who played a similarly bullied and zaftig high schooler in the recent Heathers revival. Unlike Paulina, Bioh generously shares the load of punchlines and emotional connection among the talented ensemble.”
New York Theatre Guide
“Pageant queens and queen bees face off”
Reviewer: Austin Fimmano
“School Girls is at its most fun when all the girls are trading Bioh’s snappy dialogue back and forth like an expert game of pattycake. In scenes like these, there’s a frenetic yet coordinated energy to White’s direction that feels like a celebration of pure, unadulterated girlhood. Together, the cast is an ensemble of consummate comedians with impeccable timing. But the slower, lower-energy scenes hit just as hard. Love and pride for Ghana is something all the characters feel deeply. But it’s how to represent Ghana on the world stage — or rather, whose skin color is best to do so — that leads to the ultimate heartbreak of this story.”
Talkin’ Broadway
Reviewer: James Wilson
“As Paulina, Benton is deliciously awful as she puts down her classmates with a withering insult or dismissive clap of her hands. She is completely believable (and practically unrecognizable from her past theatre and television roles) as a high school senior, and she handles Paulina's inevitable downfall with genuine heartbreak.”
New York Theater
Reviewer: Jonathan Mandell
“For all the tensions between some of the characters, there is a palpable underlying feeling of camaraderie among the eight performers in this new production of “School Girls, or the African Mean Girls Play,” opening tonight at Broadway’s Samuel J. Friedman Theater. Everybody involved deserves to feel pride that a show written, directed, designed and performed by Black women has made it to the “Great White Way.” The Broadway version has a longer running time, a more elaborate set and extravagant costume design, and a starrier cast than the original Off-Broadway production. But it also somehow feels slighter than it did when I saw it in 2017.”
Stage and Cinema
“Jocelyn Bioh gives the familiar mean-girl story a funny, painful twist in a terrific Broadway production”
Reviewer: Kevin Vavasseur
“Bioh makes an inspired choice in combining mean girls, beauty pageants, and colorism. This last element gives the show surprising depth through the painful examination of the pervasive effects of racism. However, Bioh writes with broad strokes without much subtlety, creating one Big Moment after another. And this can sometimes make the storytelling feel forced and a bit unearned. Still, Bioh has a great gift for dialogue, and her character exchanges are stellar, plotting issues aside.”
Theater Pizzazz
“Delightful”
Reviewer: Alix Cohen
“Director Whitney White is as creative with singular gestures as she is with group reactions which feel fugue-like. Everything is believable; ostensibly unaware comedy superb. The piece has a big heart and effervescent buoyancy, but its message is clear.”
Lighting & Sound America
Reviewer: David Barbour
“Jasmine Amy Rogers' shapeshifting abilities verge on the supernatural, a skill she demonstrated last season, transitioning from sexy, sassy Betty Boop to woebegone Olive Ostrovsky in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Appearing as Ericka, a transfer student from the US, she is once again head-swivelingly different. Affable, savvy, yet with visible rough edges, Ericka is primed to dethrone Pauline, winning over the other girls with makeover parties stocked with the latest American beauty products. At the same time, she carries a certain sadness that, initially at least, is hard to pin down. (All will be revealed in a scene of brutal truth-telling.) Rogers gets a chance to show off her astonishing singing voice, but this production confirms what we already suspected: She's a character actress of considerable skill.”
Read David Barbour’s full review at Lighting & Sound America
Pages on Stages
“Schooled Yours; Or, Why this Show Won a Lortel”
Reviewer: Mason Pilevsky
“School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play is an exemplary beacon that reinforces a couple of truths that contemporary theatre is losing sight of. First, people learn best when actively entertained and engaged. Making it funny is a big part of getting people in the door for a lesson voluntarily. Second, a lesson doesn’t need to involve brow-beating and circular conversations and pedantic preaching— it can be cleverly shown and not told. Finally, a show can talk about serious and upsetting themes without being serious and upsetting. Jocelyn Bioh’s script, Whitney White’s direction, and the unwavering commitments of the cast and creative team make it work seamlessly. The biggest takeaway from the show is about the value of friendship and how it can get a person through both disappointment and success. I wish School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play nothing but success.”
Theatrely
“A Fabulous SCHOOL GIRLS; OR, THE AFRICAN MEAN GIRLS PLAY Finally Makes It To Broadway”
Reviewer: Joey Sims
“The ensemble here is, otherwise, faultless. Jasmine Amy Rogers lights up the stage as always, and subtly reveals the operator hiding under Ericka’s outward warmth. Patina Miller delightfully chews the scenery, while Heather Alicia Simms has fun with the Headmistress’ barely-concealed disdain for Eloise. The true MVPs of School Girls, though, are the other four young women, who provide much of the play’s heart. Lucia Aremu, Nia Otchere-Sarfo and Jordan Rice all have fun playing out their own mini-arcs, while fast-rising star Erin Morton lends Nana an unforced dignity that grows, by the play’s end, into a quiet fabulousness.”
Cititour
Reviewer: Brian Scott Lipton
“Her plan for beauty and school domination, however, is threatened by the sudden arrival of new girl Ericka (a thoroughly winning Jasmine Amy Rogers, unrecognizable from her other stage roles), a light-skinned girl raised in America, whose father is a Ghanaian chocolate magnate. She’s sincerely nice to the other girls, offering them makeovers and sweets with no strings attached. And as it turns out, she’s also far more talented than Paulina. (Listening to Rogers seriously out-sing Benton during a group performance of Whitney Houston’s “The Greatest Love of All” is worth the price of admission.)”
Also reviewed by: The Wall Street Journal (Charles Isherwood, “Beauty-Pageant Dreams on Broadway”), whose review sits behind a paywall.
For more of what the New York critics have been saying this week, read our roundups for How Shakespeare Saved My Life at The Public Theater, In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat at New York Theatre Workshop and Arias with a Twist at HERE Arts Center.
School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play runs at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th Street, through November 1, 2026. Production photos by Matthew Murphy.
