School Girls; or the African Mean Girls Play (Broadway) (2026)

Following the successful run of Jaja's African Hair Braiding on Broadway last year, Manhattan Theatre Company revived another Jocelyn Bioh play. Pleasant surprise, there was a discussion after the show with the playwright and director, now in their second collaboration. You know I love a Q&A. And I especially loved hearing about how the reception has changed over time, ten years after its original run Off-Broadway. We have different sensibilities now and so people laugh or sympathize with certain lines in new ways. The show is very funny. The girls are so mean. The accents are so good. It's especially jarring when Patina Miller arrives and she has this unplaceable accent that's not really African and nor really European or American. The show touches on colorism, racism, classism, fat-shaming and high school girls being teenagers. Remember Mean Girls features a white Lindsey Lohan from Africa? Well this play has a light-skinned black Jasmine Amy Rogers (who is extraordinary) from America recently moved to Ghana. The lead cast is stacked but the supporting cast is actually who really stood out. The supporting characters are all so quick-witted, they react to each other, and in their accents they sing-song rhythmically their one-liners. Wonderful show, go see it! 

Marina (Little Island)

Little Island trimmed down their programming this summer. I think they're looking to cut down on their expenses but in this maritime production that happened to be on a rainy night, they provided good quality disposal ponchos. This is my second outing to the Amphitheater and this was certainly the stranger production. A commission by the Whitney Biennial, Marina is a world premiere by Martine Gutierrez, who stars as the titular Marina, and Julio Torres, who wrote and directed the hour-long play. I was a little deceived because I thought Torres would be in it. There is even a role that should have been played by Julio--a character that rolls around the stage on its stomach. All the under-the-sea characters use spooky voices. Their costumes are absurd. I mean, I don't know what a sea wench is supposed to look like so the production designers ran wild. This ain't no Disney-fied little mermaid. It is funny in a Torres kind of way. It's weird, not for everyone. I don't think it's as incisive or funny as his other work. But it has its moments. Just as Ariel collects human thingamabobs from the surface, Marina comes across a smartphone and promptly creates an OKCupid profile to catfish unsuspecting human men who she slays when they realize the deception. Before we started, we were a little surprised that the play was so short but I think an hour is honestly the right length for a show that's so out there. I was also led to believe it was a musical. While it has a score by Lia Ouyang Rusli (who wrote the music or Happyend) there aren't really songs. Glad to have seen it anyway!