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Girls Will Be Girls

By Jolie London Glickman; Directed by Shira-Lee Shalit
Part of the 2016 New York International Fringe Festival

Off Off Broadway, Play
Runs through 8.25.16
VENUE #8: WOW Café, 59-61 East 4th Street

 

by Shoshana Roberts on 8.16.16

 

Girls Will Be GirlsMackenzie Lansing, Alana Raquel Bowers, Jolie London Glickman, and Rocky Vega in Girls Will Be Girls. Photo by Jody Christopherson.

 

BOTTOM LINE: An edgy play about four modern high school females and their sex lives (...or lack thereof?).

Coming-of-age stories sure have come a long way in the past few decades. It used to be all sneaking out, kissing, and smoking cigarettes, but now it's a crazy concoction of nude selfies, using your foot to masturbate your friend, and smoking weed. Times have changed and Girls Will Be Girls by Jolie London Glickman clearly illustrates that fact.

Jada (Alana Raquel Bowers), Esther (Jolie London Glickman), Michelle (Mackenzie Lansing), and Cat (Rocky Vega) are your semi-typical high school millennials. They like to live their lives having constant fun: partying, watching porn, and trying to figure out how to lose their virginity. The problem is, the world is not always the nicest place. There are strangers who take advantage and parents who are “c**ts.” Even guys who are supposedly their friends are mean and tell lies.

So here's the lowdown on this group of gal pals. Cat is innocent, extremely pretty, and still nervous about getting in trouble with her dad. Then there's the understated Jada. She is gorgeous, but more of an introvert, so she doesn't normally get the guys. Esther is the loud-mouth of the group, always opinionated and always pissing off at least one of her friends. Last, but not least, is Michelle. She has quite a reputation, but not even her friends know if all the hype about her is true. These young ladies talk about the need for condoms, which is important and healthy, but are they in over their heads? The parties they go to aren't all fun and games. Hopefully they don't learn that the hard way.

Girls Will Be Girls is littered with funny lines. The show is extremely quotable and has some wonderful comedic moments. But Glickman includes some serious themes with the humor too, most of which surrounds sex and sexuality. Sex is always a popular subject. Sex sells and everyone wants to be edgy. Luckily there are some new ideas here that I haven't seen done before. It took a few scenes before the actors settled into their performance rhythm to share these ideas with us, but once they did it was fairly smooth sailing.

(Girls Will Be Girls plays at VENUE #8: WOW Café, 59-61 East 4th Street, through August 25, 2016. The running time is 1 hour 30 minutes. Performances are Sun 8/14 at Noon; Thu 8/18 at 9; Sun 8/21 at 2:15; Wed 8/24 at 7; Thu 8/25 at 9:15; and Sun 8/28 at Noon (added FringeFAVE performance). There is no late seating at FringeNYC. Tickets are $18 and are available at fringenyc.org. For more information visit girlswillbegirlstheplay.com.)

 

Girls Will Be Girls is by Jolie London Glickman. Directed by Shira-Lee Shalit. Lighting Design is by Kate August. Sound Design is by Kate August. Costume Design is by Sean Smith. Stage Manager is Nikki Castle.

The cast is Alana Raquel Bowers, Jolie London Glickman, Mackenzie Lansing, Rocky Vega, and Gus Weinstein.