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Jocelyn Bioh and Whitney White on Creating a Different Kind of Mean Girl
The revival centers on a boarding-school rivalry and a 1986 pageant as it explores class, colorism and identity.
- On Monday, the Broadway revival of 'School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play' opened at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre under director Whitney White's Manhattan Theatre Club production.
- Set in 1986 at the Aburi Girls Boarding School in Central Ghana, the play follows students preparing for the Miss Ghana pageant, a location author Jocelyn Bioh's mother attended.
- Denée Benton stars as the ambitious Paulina Sarpong, while Jasmine Amy Rogers plays Ericka Boafo, an American transfer student; Patina Miller portrays pageant recruiter Eloise Amponsah.
- The production explores themes of colorism, sisterhood, and anti-Blackness in a joyous 80-minute runtime, with critics praising the cast's emotionally resonant performance.
- Drawing from her mother's boarding-school experience, Jocelyn Bioh premiered the play off-Broadway in 2017, where it became a regional-theater favorite before this Broadway return.
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11 Articles
11 Articles
Review: ‘School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play’ on Broadway finds its life in the girls
"School Girls" is a cumbersomely titled moral comedy from Jocelyn Bioh that the director Whitney White has transformed into a profoundly optimistic Broadway celebration of girlhood.
·Chicago, United States
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“School Girls” Broadway review: The African teen comedy subverts the genre
Pageant drama comes to Ghana.Jordan Rice, Denée Benton, Nia Otchere-Sarfo, and Erin Morton in ‘School Girls’Credit: Matthew MurphyThe typical teen story portrayed on film and TV for decades on end has a comfortingly familiar story: Plucky newcomer shows up at a high school and immediately ends up in the crosshairs of the evil prima donna or BMOC and their group of subservient underlings who either take delight in torturing the fresh meat, or fin…
·New York, United States
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources11
Leaning Left6Leaning Right0Center2Last UpdatedBias Distribution75% Left
Bias Distribution
- 75% of the sources lean Left
75% Left
L 75%
C 25%
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