Manhattan Theatre Club has paired its Broadway run of School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, which will host talkbacks after four matinees between October 24 and November 14. The last of them falls the day before the extended run ends.
The museum, known as NMAAHC, will lead the conversations after the matinee performances on October 24, October 31, November 7 and November 14 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. They draw on the Washington institution’s work documenting and interpreting African American history and culture, and are intended to give audiences that wider context while the play is still fresh.
The partnership runs beyond the talkbacks. NMAAHC is working with MTC on a supplemental digital audience guide that sets out the history behind the events and themes of the play, and character trading cards designed by the two organizations will be handed out at selected performances.
Jocelyn Bioh’s comedy, directed by Whitney White, opened on September 28 and has since added two weeks to its schedule, so it now runs through November 15, 2026. It is the pair’s second outing at MTC after Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, the company’s Tony-nominated 2023 production, and is presented in association with Chase This Productions and Susan Kelechi Watson. What the critics made of it on opening night is collected in our review roundup.
The play is set in 1986 at a girls’ boarding school in Aburi, Ghana, where Paulina, the school’s reigning queen bee, has her heart set on the Miss Ghana pageant until a new student from America changes the odds. Denée Benton plays Paulina Sarpong, with Patina Miller as Eloise Amponsah, Jasmine Amy Rogers as Ericka Boafo and Heather Alicia Simms as Headmistress Francis. Lucia Aremu (Ama), Erin Morton (Nana), Nia Otchere-Sarfo (Gifty) and Jordan Rice (Mercy) complete the company.
The design team is Teresa L. Williams (scenic), Qween Jean (costumes), Stacey Derosier (lighting), Cody Spencer (sound) and Nikiya Mathis (hair and wigs), with Dawn-Elin Fraser as dialect coach. Casting is by Caparelliotis Casting and Kelly Gillespie.
Single tickets are sold through Telecharge.com, and MTC’s Clubline is on 212-399-3050. More on the museum is at nmaahc.si.edu.
