School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play
Tickets from $49 Buy Tickets
Cititour.com Review
While some theatergoers eagerly await the arrival on Broadway of the ultimate mean girl, Regina George, there’s no need to sit at home until spring to get a dose of true nastiness. Just head down to the Lucille Lortel Theatre, where the self-centered, vicious-tongued and, yes, downright mean Paulina Sarpong – played to perfection by Maameyaa Boafo – reigns over her classmates in a small Ghanaian school in 1986 in MCC Theater’s first-rate production of Jocelyn Bioh’s very funny (and ultimately very sad) “School Girls; or the African Mean Girls Play.”
Paulina’s clique is fairly small, but each follower worships her to face – and then talks dirt behind her back: the tall, bookish Amu (Nike Kadri), the meek Gifty (Paige Gilbert) and Mercy (Mirirai Sithole), and the decidedly overweight Nana (a really good Abena Mensah-Bonsu), to whom the svelte Paulina is positively hateful. In their own way, they each feel indebted to Paulina. For one thing, she will lend them dresses from the finest boutiques in New York (Walmart! Conway!) as they prepare to audition for the Miss Ghana pageant – which Paulina intends to win, no matter what. And they all resent her, with good reason.
Her plan for beauty and school domination, however, is threatened by the sudden arrival of new girl Erika (a resplendent Nabiyah Be), a light-skinned African girl raised in America, whose father is a Ghanaian chocolate magnate. She’s actually rich (unlike Paulina), sincerely nice to the other girls, and, as it turns out, far more talented than Paulina. Of course, it will come as no surprise to audiences that both girls, beneath their very different exteriors, are more similar than they realize.
Bioh, a wonderful actress in her own right, smartly captures the way teenagers talk and act towards each other. Their longing to be liked and admired is palpable, causing them to act stupidly or carelessly at times. (Yes, to give away one plot point, the girls’ rendition of the Whitney Houston mega-hit “The Greatest Love of All” may actually be the funniest thing on stage anywhere.)
Fortunately, Bioh does equally well with the play’s two adult characters: the school’s benevolent yet tough headmistress Francis (the always wonderful Myra Lucretia Taylor) and her childhood friend (or is it frenemy?) Eloise (a stunning Zainab Jah). A former Miss Ghana, Eloise has come to her old school determined (to put it mildly) to find this year’s pageant winner – as it means both financial and personal recognition – and (much like Paulina) will stop at nothing to attain what she wants.
Everything has been immaculately staged by Tony Award winner Rebecca Taichman, who guides all the women to sure-handed performances. Armulfo Maldonado’s schoolroom set seems just right, and costumer Dede M. Ayita scores on many occasions, most notably with Eloise’s ultra-glamorous outfits and the shockingly ugly dress Paulina wears to her pageant audition.
At 70 minutes, the play feels a little slight sometimes; one wishes that Erika’s character had been fleshed out a bit more. Oddly enough, though, in hammering home its points, the piece also occasionally feels like an even shorter sketch that has been unnecessarily extended. But its conclusion is just right. I mean it!
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
http://www.mcctheater.org/shows/17-18_season/schoolgirls/index.html
Cast
Nabiyah Be, MaameYaa Boafo, Paige Gilbert, Zainab Jah, Nike Kadri, Abena Mensah-Bonsu, Mirirai Sithole, Myra Lucretia Taylor
Open/Close Dates
Opening 11/2/2017
Closing 12/31/2017
Box Office
866-811-4111
Theatre Info
Lucille Lortel Theatre
121 Christopher Street
New York, NY 10014
Map
Comments
Sign up for our newsletter !