Overview
- The Broadway revival is playing at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre with Denée Benton as Paulina and Jasmine Amy Rogers as Ericka supported by Patina Miller, Heather Alicia Simms and an ensemble cast.
- Playwright Jocelyn Bioh reunited with director Whitney White to mount the transfer and shape a production that leans into comedy while deepening the play’s social critique.
- The staging runs about 80 minutes and foregrounds crisp, fast-paced direction plus period costumes and hair by Qween Jean and Nikiya Mathis that anchor the 1986 Ghana boarding-school setting.
- The play reframes the familiar “mean-girl” story to examine colorism, class and the influence of international beauty standards on identity and opportunity.
- Early reviews and audience response have praised the cast’s comic timing and a standout choral a cappella number, and the revival builds on the 2017 Off-Broadway hit and Bioh’s family boarding-school ties to broaden the play’s reach.