Broadway - How Excited Are You?: “School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play”

by Chris Peterson

Welcome back to our series where we look at upcoming Broadway productions and ask: how excited are we?

If you listen to the OnStage Blog Theatre Podcast, you’ve probably heard Rachael and Jacklyn talk about this from last season, and we’ll be sure to get their thoughts on the upcoming year.

I’ll take a look at upcoming Broadway productions, run through what we know, and think about where my excitement lies.

Next up: School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play.

And I’ll just say it right away. My excitement level for this one is high.

Jocelyn Bioh’s comedy is getting its Broadway premiere this fall through Manhattan Theatre Club, with a limited run opening on September 28th at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.

Whitney White (who is red hot right now) is directing, and the announced cast is LOADED. It includes Lucia Aremu, Denée Benton, Patina Miller, Erin Morton, Nia Otchere-Sarfo, Jordan Rice, Jasmine Amy Rogers, and Heather Alicia Simms.

That collection of talent alone is enough to get my attention.

The play is set at Aburi Girls Boarding School in Ghana, where Paulina, the school’s queen bee, has her eyes on becoming Miss Ghana. Then a new student from America arrives, a pageant recruiter shows up, and suddenly the competition gets much more personal.

So yes, the title gives you the easy entry point. African Mean Girls. We all understand the shorthand. Teen girls. Popularity. Jealousy. Social warfare. The lunch table politics of who gets to be admired, who gets to be ignored, and who gets destroyed for stepping out of line.

The question, as always, is whether Broadway audiences will show up for it.

So, my excitement level: high. Maybe very high.

I’m excited because Bioh is one of the more distinctive comedic playwrights working right now. Whitney White directing this material makes a lot of sense. I’m excited because this cast looks stacked.

Now we’ll see if audiences are ready to make it one of the season’s must-sees.