Manhattan Theatre Club sets initial productions in 2026-27 season

An acclaimed comedy by Jocelyn Bioh will make its Broadway debut, and a British drama by Nick Payne will make its American debut off Broadway this fall.

Summary

• Manhattan Theatre Club will present School Girls; Or the African Mean Girls Play on Broadway and The Unbelievers off Broadway this fall
• School Girls follows a Ghanian school's queen bee whose reign is upset by a new student
• The Unbelievers follows parents readjusting to ordinary life after the disappearance of their son

School is in session! Manhattan Theatre Club has set the first two productions in its 2026-27 season, including the Broadway debut of the acclaimed Off-Broadway comedy School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play and the American premiere of the British drama The Unbelievers off Broadway.

In 1986 at an elite all-girls boarding school in Ghana, queen bee Paulina is a favorite to win the Miss Ghana pageant — until a new transfer student arrives and threatens her reign. School Girls was a critical hit when it premiered off Broadway with MCC Theater in 2017, marking playwright Jocelyn Bioh’s professional writing debut.

Tony Award nominee Whitney White, who staged Bioh’s Broadway-debut play Jaja’s African Hair Braiding in 2023, will also direct School Girls. The show is produced in association with Chase This Productions and Susan Kelechi Watson.

Performances will begin at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre starting September 8.

Starting October 13 off Broadway at New York City Center is The Unbelievers, in which couple Miriam and David must figure out how to go on and find hope after the disappearance of their teenage son.

Tony and Olivier Award-nominated playwright Nick Payne returns to MTC, which previously produced his plays Constellations (starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson) and Incognito (with Geneva Carr, Charlie Cox, Heather Lind, and Morgan Spector). Tony Award nominee Knud Adams directs.

Additional cast and creative team members for both productions have yet to be announced.

Photo credit: Jocelyn Bioh, Whitney White, Nick Payne, and Knud Adams. (Photos courtesy of productions)