Plot Synopsis

We are at the Aburi Girls Boarding School in Ghana in 1986. We meet “the popular crew”. In the crew is Ama - the smart sensible one, Nana - the quiet sensitive one (she struggles with food and snacks), Mercy and Gifty - who will do anything to stay in the cool crew, and Paulina - the most popular girl in school and she knows it. In fact, she bullies the other four girls on a regular basis. Everyone is excited about the upcoming Miss Ghana pageant because the headmistress has told them that a recruiter is coming to the school and they are sure that Paulina is a shoo-in to be selected as a contestant.

But don’t get too comfortable. A new transfer student named Ericka has arrived at the school. She is enchanting and sweet and has lighter/fairer skin than any of the other girls, she has just moved here from America. All of the girls - except for Paulina- are immediately charmed by Ericka, and they make plans to hang out.

Paulina sees Ericka as her only real competition and wants some dirt on her, so she bullies Nana to get Ericka’s file from the school office.

A few days later, Eloise, the Miss Ghana pageant recruiter, arrives at the school. She used to attend this very same boarding school and there is some leftover tension between her and Headmistress Francis.

Eloise mentions that if the contestant she recruits wins she will get a big promotion and a lot of money will go to the school, which they desperately need.

Paulina makes a point to meet Eloise and to say all the right things, but Eloise isn’t very impressed because Eloise has already spotted Ericka and is interested in her.

After some intense bullying, Nana gives Ericka’s file to Paulina, Paulina takes the file, but tells Nana she is out of the group until she loses some weight.

Later Ericka tries to offer Paulina some chocolate and invite her to hang out with the other girls but Paulina refuses and instead threatens her. Ericka is unphased.

The next day is the day of the audition! Nana walks in on Paulina rehearsing alone and sees her applying bleach cream to her face. The rest of the girls enter, they have turned on Paulina and Ericka is clearly the new queen bee. The girls blow up at each other and reveal all of their secrets but when they hear Headmistress Francis and Eloise coming they quickly act like nothing's wrong.

The girls have been rehearsing “The Greatest Love of All” by Whitney Houston to perform for Eloise. Each girl has a solo, which they perform well, but Ericka is incredible!

Eloise says that Ericka is the obvious choice for the pageant and at that moment Paulina loses it and reveals what she learned from Ericka’s file - that Ericka was not even born in Ghana and that she is a “bastard”. The girls all blow up at each other again but this time in front of the headmistress and the recruiter. Nana reveals the bleach cream that Paulina had been hiding and Paulina’s face starts blistering and bleeding.

Eloise and Headmistress Francis send all the girls away except for Paulina and Ericka. They finally have an honest conversation about how neither of their lives are easy, and they come to a sort of truce.

Eloise and Headmistress Francis reenter, Eloise tells them that Ericka will be the Miss Ghana contestant and threatens them to all keep the secret that she was not actually born in Ghana. She tells Paulina that if she can keep her mouth shut she might be the contestant next year.

In the final scene of the play, some time has passed. Ericka has won the Miss Ghana Pageant and the girls are all gathering to watch the Miss Global Universe pageant on TV. No one has seen Paulina in a while, but she had written each of them a letter claiming she lied about Ericka’s parents. They have not forgiven Paulina. They are so excited to see Ericka on TV during the pageant, and they are certain that she will win! But as the top ten contestants are announced, they are devastated to see that she does not even place.