Aburi Girls' SHS Takes Centre Stage on Broadway as African Mean Girls Play Opens in New York

• Jocelyn Bioh's School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play officially opened on Broadway on Monday, September 28, 2026, at New York's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
• The comedy was set in 1986 at Aburi Girls Boarding School in Ghana, where students compete to be selected for the popular Miss Ghana beauty pageant
• Playwright Jocelyn Bioh drew partly on the experiences of her mother, who attended Aburi Girls' School, one of Ghana's most sought-after girls' senior high schools today

Aburi Girls' Senior High School has earned global attention after a Broadway play set at a boarding school bearing its name officially opened in New York.

School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, written by Ghanaian-American playwright Jocelyn Bioh, began its official run at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Monday, September 28, 2026.

The comedy follows Paulina, the queen bee of Aburi Girls Boarding School in 1986, who believes being crowned Miss Ghana will bring her fame and fortune.

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Her position is threatened when Ericka Boafo, a new student who has arrived from America, joins the race for the pageant.

Through the rivalry, the play explores colourism, Western beauty standards, class and teenage identity.

Previews began on September 8, and the production is scheduled to run until November 1, 2026.

How Aburi Girls inspired a Broadway play

Bioh drew part of her inspiration from her mother, who attended Aburi Girls' School in Ghana.

In a 2017 interview with The Interval, the playwright said the story was very loosely based on her mother, whom she described as something of a mean girl in school.

According to her, her mother had to stand up for herself because she came from a lower class than many of her classmates.

The play also drew on the story of a biracial American crowned Miss Ghana in 2011, as well as the film Mean Girls.

Founded as a secondary school in 1946 with just seven students, Aburi Girls' Senior High School is a Presbyterian girls' boarding school in the Eastern Region.

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The Instagram post of Broadway World, in which it announces the Broadway opening of the play set at Aburi Girls, is below.

Denée Benton leads School Girls on Broadway

Directed by Whitney White, the Manhattan Theatre Club production features an all-Black female cast led by Tony nominees Denée Benton and Jasmine Amy Rogers.

Benton plays Paulina Sarpong, while Rogers portrays Ericka, and Patina Miller takes on the role of pageant recruiter Eloise Amponsah.

Other cast members include Erin Morton, Lucia Aremu, Nia Otchere-Sarfo, Jordan Rice and Heather Alicia Simms. Nigerian-born actor Lucia Aremu is making her Broadway debut in the production.

The show first premiered Off-Broadway at MCC Theatre in 2017 and has since been staged in more than 75 regional productions, as well as in London in 2023.

Deadline's review praised the Broadway production, describing its cast as having no weak link.

Aburi Girls attracts over 8,000 applicants

According to an earlier report by YEN.com.gh, Aburi Girls' SHS received 8,225 applications for around 800 vacancies in the 2026 school placement exercise.

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The Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) coordinator said about 3,000 of the applicants had aggregates between six and 12.

Combined with Achimota School, the two schools were selected by more than 36,000 candidates for only about 2,100 places.

Source: YEN.com.gh