One 'School Girl' Is the Head of the Class
It’s a good time to be a fan of theatre and The Gilded Age. Over the last year, Cynthia Nixon, Carrie Coon, Nathan Lane, and Ben Ahlers came to Broadway when they weren't filming the HBO series.
Their co-star Denée Benton is now treading the boards in School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play. The Tony nominee returns to the stage in a role that’s the polar opposite of Gilded’s Peggy Scott.
The play takes place in 1986 at a Ghanaian girls' boarding school, where students prepare for the Miss Ghana competition. Queen bee Paulina (Benton) considers herself the clear favorite. Her main rival is the lighter-skinned American transfer student Ericka (Tony nominee Jasmine Amy Rogers).
Jocelyn Bioh’s play is entertaining but slight. Her writing has a lot of bite, though the competition plot lacks drama and the ending is rather abrupt.
Benton is the reason to see the show, however. She crackles onstage and delivers her lines with marvelous venom. She also humanizes Paulina so she’s not a complete monster.
Rogers doesn’t have as much to do, but she shines in a scene where the pageant contestants perform Whitney Houston’s “Greatest Love of All.”
School Girls isn’t entirely successful, but it’s an important step for representation on Broadway. It also proves yet again that Benton is a star outside of Gilded Age corsets.
At the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre through November 15
