Jocelyn Bioh’s 'School Girls' Reaches Broadway After 75 US Stagings

Q: What makes Denée Benton and Jasmine Amy Rogers’ showdown the driving force of School Girls on Broadway?

Denée Benton and Jasmine Amy Rogers drive *School Girls* because their rivalry gives the play both its comic spark and its emotional weight. As Paulina and Ericka, they are not just competing for a pageant spot; they embody the show’s deeper tensions over colorism, beauty standards, class, status and the fantasy of American prestige. Benton’s Paulina is written as a queen bee, but critics and cast interviews note that she plays her with visible insecurity and hurt rather than as a flat villain. That makes Paulina’s cruelty legible as the product of a system that rewards lighter skin and social aspiration. Rogers, meanwhile, gives Ericka both charisma and edge: she arrives as the seemingly effortless outsider, but she also reveals her own hunger for belonging and ability to play the game. That balance is what makes the showdown crackle. Reviews have emphasized that the two are “perfectly matched,” each representing what the other wants. Paulina sees Ericka as a direct threat to the future she has imagined for herself, while Ericka’s appeal exposes how quickly a social order built on appearance can shift. Their scenes keep the audience laughing, but they also sharpen the play’s critique of anti-Black beauty hierarchies and adolescent cruelty. Whitney White’s brisk staging amplifies that duel, but Benton and Rogers are the anchors. Their chemistry turns a familiar mean-girl setup into the engine of a broader, more pointed story about girlhood, power and who gets chosen.

3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Sep 29

Samuel J. Friedman Theatre is now hosting the Broadway debut of Jocelyn Bioh’s 80-minute comedy, which runs through Nov. 1 after years of success off-Broadway, in Los Angeles and London.
Whitney White’s new production leans on a seasoned team and cast, with Denée Benton and Jasmine Amy Rogers driving a rivalry set at a Ghanaian girls’ school in 1986.
Colorism and money sharpen the comedy’s stakes: a lighter-skinned transfer student threatens Paulina’s expected path to Miss Ghana, while the pageant’s cash prize tempts school leaders.
More than a victory lap, the Broadway run brings one of the past decade’s most widely staged plays—seen in over 75 US theaters—to its highest-profile New York home yet.