School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (255)
See it if you're looking for a good time at the theatre. plenty of laughs
Don't see it if you're looking for something dramatic or heavy.
See it if you want an insightful and humorous view into the cross-cultural behavior of high school girls. Thoroughly entertaining, funny but profound
Don't see it if you have no interest in the motivations and emotions of teenage girls.
See it if Great acting. A wonderful ensembel. good story
Don't see it if there is really no reason to stay away.
See it if One of the best new plays I've seen in the past few years. A smart, absolute delight of a teen melodrama. Excellent on all levels.
Don't see it if Must see.
See it if You want an utterly delightful play that embraces traditional narrative to create a terrific story. I skipped out of the theater.
Don't see it if You want to be snarky about a work that doesn't necessarily "push the boundaries of the form"... whatever that crap even means.
See it if you're looking for a fun story with a serious message behind it. This really made me stop and think.
Don't see it if you don't like accents or well thought out dialogue.
See it if you want to see a show that parallels Mean Girls and explores question of race and color and what we value most
Don't see it if you like large scale shows
See it if You enjoy charming, sweetly comic plays. Amazing ensemble.
Don't see it if You enjoy more turgid drama.
Critic Reviews (29)
“There is another very different 'Mean Girls' getting ready to launch on Broadway shortly that Tina Fey is working on. But, believe me, nothing could rival the 'African Mean Girls Play'...Not to be missed. Bioh is to be congratulated on her ability to create a very humorous script bringing topical/important issues to light, together with Taichman on her always splendid creativity in directing this oh, so talented cast.”
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"It is a lot of fun—punctuated by moments of stunning cruelty and painful revelation...There is much that rings painfully true in Bioh’s seventy-minute immersion in those estrogen-charged, initiation-to-adulthood dramas, rife with both tenderly shared secrets and blindsiding betrayals. But there is something more here...'School Girls' delivers enough punch to keep you engaged and entertained—even if the payoff punch is a tad short of a knockout."
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“The humor keeps the pace up and the jokes land easily...The true worth and profundity of this play emerges gradually...The characters gain depth as we learn more about them...There is something so undeniably likable about the entire cast, who have clearly formed a strong ensemble...There is an energy and honesty to all of the performances...A light directorial touch by Taichman is surely to be credited here also; a laudable approach especially in handling a first script by a new playwright.”
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"An often unsubtle but ultimately stimulating new play...What becomes clear is how deliberate Bioh’s crafting of her play and how intriguing her insights...The playwright also deftly draws character dynamics...Director Rebecca Taichman exhibits none of the ingenuity in stagecraft that won her the Tony...What the production has going for it above all is its eight-member cast — all wonderful, all women, an ensemble whose girlish enthusiasm feels so real that we revel in it.."
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"A first-rate production of Jocelyn Bioh’s very funny (and ultimately very sad) 'School Girls'...Bioh smartly captures the way teenagers talk and act towards each other...Fortunately, Bioh does equally well with the play’s two adult characters...Everything has been immaculately staged by Tony Award winner Rebecca Taichman, who guides all the women to sure-handed performances...The play feels a little slight sometimes...But its conclusion is just right."
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“It matters little that the situations are old-hat, contrived, and manipulative; the African setting gives it a delightful twist, it's written with much wit, and it's so well-played by a first-rate cast, that you find yourself absorbed from its first words to its last. A huge hand must go to…director…Taichman for making this play so…spirited. 'School Girls'…has some moments of bitterly divisive meanness but, with its plentiful laughs and tears, it's also uplifting, unifying, and funny.”
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“Is there anything new and funny to be said about beauty contests? Bioh takes on that challenge in her new and very first play...Bioh sets that most superficial of competitions in a girls’ boarding school in the Aburi Mountains of central Ghana...Taichman directs her young actors to deliver their performances in bright, primary colors...Comedy can be serious business, but Bioh doesn’t trust her own humor...When did plays become skits with a moral stuck on at the end?”
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“A delightful play…There are hilarious examples of their misunderstanding of American culture…Bioh overlays the well-worn conventions of teenage cliques and beauty pageant competition with an additional ingredient: colorism…Has anything changed since 1986? Come, find out and be entertained. The actors are all wonderful. Director Rebecca Taichman has demonstrated her usual sure but deft hand.”
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