Jocelyn Bioh’s School Girls or, The African Mean Girls Play is much more than a variation on
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| Denee Benton, Jordan Rice, Nia Otchere-Sarfo, Lucia Aremu, Erin Morton, and Heather Alicia Simms in School Girls or The African Mean Girls Play. Credit: Matthew Murphy |
Tina Fey’s Mean Girls screenplay and musical adaption. Originally presented Off-Broadway at MCC Theater in 2017 and now in a vibrant, explosively comic Manhattan Theater Club revival on Broadway, Bioh’s clever play employs the basic template of a queen bee making life miserable for her classmates to explore themes of racism, colorism, sexism, and self-destructive behavior. She doesn’t merely transport the nasty power dynamics of Fey’s world and that of Heathers, the similar film comedy now running as a musical Off-Broadway, to an African setting. She gives individual riotous life to each of her characters and full vent to the issues that face them.
Director Whitney White and a seamless ensemble deliver a rollercoaster of hilarity and pathos on a rollicking 80-minute ride. White’s tight and flavorful staging exhibits exquisite timing so that the laughs and the dramatic blows land solidly and build to a disturbing conclusion.
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| Denee Benton and Jasmine Amy Rogers in School Girls or The African Mean Girls Play. Credit: Matthew Murphy |
Set in a girls’ boarding school in 1986 Ghana and according to a playwright’s note inspired by real events, the plot revolves around the visit of a recruiter for an upcoming beauty contest. Bioh wisely rises the stakes of gaining a spot in a seemingly unimportant event like a pageant and makes the competition revealing of character and motivation. The main conflict is between dominating bully Paulina (enjoyably hissable Denee Benton) and new, friendlier girl from the States Ericka (steely Jasmine Amy Rogers). Their struggles are more than skin deep, literally. The darker-skinned Paulina resents lighter-toned Ericka and applies toxic bleaching creams to “whiten” her complexion with damaging results. Despite her American advantages and wealthy family, we learn by play’s end Ericka is just as vulnerable and needy as Paulina. Benton and Rogers are equally versatile in conveying the shattered, vulnerable interiors of these seemingly combative social warriors.
