The Off-Broadway hit, School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls by Playwriting alum Jocelyn Bioh '08, is getting its Broadway bow with leading nonprofit theatre company, Manhattan Theatre Club, this fall. Catch the play on opening night, September 8, 2026, at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on W. 47th St.
The bubbly comedy—which follows a group of high schoolers at Ghana's Aburi Girls Boarding School fixated on competing in the Miss Ghana 1986 beauty pageant—has become an Off-Broadway darling, with over 60 regional productions since its world premiere in 2017. For Queen Bee Paulina, Miss Ghana is everything: fame, fortune, and prosperity—and she and her posse have it in the bag—that is, until a transfer student from America arrives and shakes up the competition.
"I'm beyond thrilled that School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play is finally making its Broadway debut at MTC!," Bioh said in a statement.
Bioh is no Broadway newcomer; in 2024, she was nominated for Best Play at the Tony Awards for Jaja's African Hair Braiding, set during one sweltering summer day at a bustling hair braiding salon in Harlem. The play took home Best Costume Design of a Play, a Special Tony Award, and was nominated for three others. "After the incredible journey of Jaja's African Hair Braiding, it means so much to bring this play back to New York audiences and celebrate these bold, funny, complicated young women," she said. "I’m especially excited to be reunited with Whitney White, who directed Jaja’s with such heart and brilliance, and I can’t wait for audiences to experience her new vision for this revival."
Ghanaian-American writer, producer, and actress Jocelyn Bioh was born a hop, skip, and a jump from Columbia's campus in Washington Heights, Manhattan. Her written works for theatre include The 2022 Drama Desk Award winning Merry Wives (adapted from Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor for The Public Theater/Shakespeare in the Park) and Nollywood Dreams (MCC Theater, 2018), among many others. She is a former TOW Foundation playwriting fellow (2017–2018) and has been commissioned by MTC, Atlantic Theater Co., Williamstown Theatre Festival and Second Stage. Bioh's television writing credits include Netflix's Russian Doll (2019)—in which she also played Claire—Spike Lee's She’s Gotta Have It (Netflix, 2017), Hulu's adaptation of the book Tiny Beautiful Things (2023), the Star Wars series Acolyte for Disney+ (2024), and she is writing the live screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Once on this Island for Disney+.
