“School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play” opens on Broadway tomorrow: opening night at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre with Denée Benton, Patina Miller and Jasmine Amy Rogers

The acclaimed Jocelyn Bioh comedy “School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play” is making its Broadway debut, with the official opening set for tomorrow, September 28, 2026, at New York’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, as BroadwayWorld reports. The production is directed by two-time Tony nominee Whitney White, reuniting the creative duo behind the hit “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding.”

The play centers on Paulina, the “queen bee” of the Aburi Girls Boarding School, who dreams of the Miss Ghana 1986 title as her path to fame and prosperity. When a pageant recruiter arrives at the school, Paulina and her friends do everything to win — until a new transfer student from America takes the competition to an entirely different, personal and emotional level.

The cast features Lucia Aremu as Ama, Tony nominee Denée Benton as Paulina Sarpong, Tony winner Patina Miller as Eloise Amponsah, along with Erin Morton, Nia Otchere-Sarfo, Jordan Rice, Tony nominee Jasmine Amy Rogers and Obie winner Heather Alicia Simms as the headmistress. Benton, Miller and Rogers give the production the Broadway star power to guarantee a strong opening to the fall season.

“School Girls” had its world premiere Off-Broadway at MCC Theater in 2017 and has since inspired more than 80 regional productions and a 2023 British premiere. Its arrival on Broadway confirms Bioh’s status as one of the most important contemporary voices in American drama, while adding to New York’s fall season another production with a predominantly female cast and deep African roots.