School Girls: Or the African Mean Girls Play

It matters little that the situations are obviously old-hat, contrived, and manipulative; the African setting (with attendant accents) gives it a delightful twist, it’s written with wit, and—the exaggerations aside—it’s so well-crafted, that you find yourself absorbed for every one of its 80 uninterrupted minutes. "School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play" has some moments of bitterly divisive meanness but, with its plentiful laughs and tears, it’s also uplifting, unifying, and funny. When I saw it in 2017 I thought its next step was as a movie. That didn’t happen but, now that it’s on Broadway, perhaps someone will open that door. [more]