Queen Bee on 47th Street, School Girls Streams Its Final Week

The final week of School Girls, or The African Mean Girls Play, starring Denée Benton and Patina Miller, will be livestreamed from the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre for $59 from November 10 until the Broadway run closes on November 15.

West 47th Street keeps the play for three and a half more weeks. After that, anyone with a screen can buy a seat.

Playbill reported the stream on Wednesday. Manhattan Theatre Club, the nonprofit company that runs the Friedman, is partnering with the League of Live Stream Theater, a service that sells live broadcasts of stage shows, known as LOLST. Every performance from November 10 to 15 streams live at curtain time, and a ticket includes a 24-hour replay.

What Is School Girls About?

Jocelyn Bioh's comedy is set at the Aburi Girls Boarding School in Ghana in 1986. Paulina, the school's queen bee, wants to be Miss Ghana, according to Manhattan Theatre Club's production page. A pageant recruiter comes to the school, and a new transfer student from America turns the contest personal.

Benton plays Paulina. Miller, a Tony winner for the 2013 revival of Pippin, plays Eloise Amponsah, the recruiter. Jasmine Amy Rogers plays Ericka, the new girl. Lucia Aremu, Erin Morton, Nia Otchere-Sarfo, Jordan Rice and Heather Alicia Simms complete the cast.

Whitney White directs. She and Bioh worked together before on Jaja's African Hair Braiding, MTC notes. The play runs about 80 minutes with no intermission.

The play is not new to New York. MCC Theater first staged it at the Lucille Lortel Theatre Off-Broadway in 2017 and brought it back for an encore the following year, Time Out notes. This is its first time on Broadway. Performances began September 8, the production opened September 28, and MTC has since extended it to November 15.

What Did the Critics Say?

The reviews split on the writing more than the acting. Time Out's Adam Feldman gave the production four stars.

The play's depiction of colorism is effective, but its greatest appeal lies in its moment-to-moment colorfulness. Adam Feldman, Time Out

Feldman wrote that Benton "negotiates the bumpy journey with grace," and that Rogers "continues her meteoric ascent to stardom with another standout turn." He thought Paulina's fall comes faster than it should.

TheWrap's Robert Hofler was much harder on the script. He called Benton "a real theater pro" but wrote that the play's mean-girl fights are "far less witty" than the ones it echoes. "At times, Bioh's comedy isn't just about teenagers," he wrote. "It appears to have been written by teenagers."

How Does the Livestream Work?

Tickets cost $59 through LOLST. The streams cover the performances of November 10 through 15, each starting at that night's curtain time, with a replay window of 24 hours.

There is also a free version for students. Playbill reports that a filmed performance will be available to high schools across the country from November 2 to 13, with teaching materials from MTC. More than 70 high schools have signed on.

LOLST co-founder Jim Augustine called the play "a vital and universally resonant piece of storytelling that demands to be seen," in the company's announcement.

Where Do the Stars Go Next?

Both leads already have their next New York nights booked. Benton, who plays the journalist Peggy Scott on HBO's The Gilded Age and was a Tony nominee for Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812, sings with Jordan Donica and the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall on November 20 at 8 p.m., Playbill reports.

Miller has a different kind of marathon in mind. She is one of the Broadway performers running the New York City Marathon on November 1, her fourth time on the course.

What to Know Before You Go

School Girls plays the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, through Sunday, November 15. Tickets in the house are sold through Telecharge and at the box office. The livestream costs $59 through LOLST.

Paulina wants a crown. For the last week, she gets a camera instead.