Four Californian Teenage Girls Come of Age With Music, Charm and Chance

Eisa Davis’s new play, “II:Girls:II:Chance:II:Music:II,” opens with one of its four characters — all “highly gifted and talented girls of color in their teens,” according to the script — standing atop a building, poised to jump. Margot, as she’ll soon be identified, is spotted by another gal, called Fax, who manages to talk her down. These teenagers are, like the others we’ll meet in the play, now having its world premiere off-Broadway at Vineyard Theatre, enrolled in a summer music program that’s both prestigious and free, because as Fax, a budding classical singer, later explains, “None of our families have money. They check.”Their struggles aren’t purely financial. We’ll learn that Margot, a drummer, is estranged from her father, and that Fax grapples with bulimia. But as they prepare for their final concerts of the season, the very young women, who also include Rile, a pianist, and Clementine, who plays multiple instruments, find solace and support in music and each other.While Ms. Davis, who is also a performer and songwriter — she was Lin-Manuel Miranda’s collaborator on the 2024 concept album “Warriors” — has dedicated “Girls” to her music teachers, this coming-of-age story is told exclusively from the perspectives of these high school students. To her credit, the playwright has crafted compelling, often amusing dialogue that captures youthful yearning and angst, and is credibly contemporary without leaning too heavily into trendy cliches; it was a pleasure, for example, to hear no references to micro-aggression or triggering over its one hour and 45-minutes duration.The play feels every inch of that length, though, due in part to the often meandering musical segments Ms. Davis has composed to accompany excerpts of Rossini, Chopin, Debussy, Pergolesi, Cole Porter, and Bobby Capó, among others. All the performers sing and play instruments, except for Hillary Fisher, who as Fax reveals an impressive lyric soprano, and the concept is that their characters bond through improvisation.Fax, an anxious overachiever who’s nonetheless immensely endearing in Ms. Fisher’s portrait, is reluctant at first: “There are the classical girls who can read music but they can’t always improvise —me— and there are the jazz girls who can improvise but they can’t always read — not me,” she announces. As she learns to be less rigid artistically, she also grows closer to Margot and then Rile, who initially irritates her, and a spark of sexual attraction seems to develop with Margot.For Margot, music is more than a means of expressing creativity; it represents freedom, a word she uses, and sanctuary. As played by Naomi Latta, she is generally soft-spoken, with the superficial toughness of an outcast who has learned to hide behind emotional armor, relaying her passion on the drums; she also harmonizes sweetly with her friends.The frequent humming and periodic playing that represent improvisation in “Girls” can grow tiresome, depending on your tolerance level for Ms. Davis’s dissonant ramblings, which have the general flavor of freeform jazz. (Disruption is a theme here: The play is set in Berkeley and Oakland, and earthquakes figure into the plot.)Fortunately, under Pam MacKinnon’s supple, sensitive direction, the young performers keep us engaged. Yeena Sung brings a punk-like piquance to the aptly named Rile, while Gianna DiGregorio Rivera lends a gentler spirit to Clementine, the youngest and quietest of the group, who for a while seems to be excluded from the camaraderie the others share. Towards the end, it’s suggested that Clementine has had a source of emotional sustenance and stability that her friends, at least Margot and Rile, lack.Mel Ng provides costumes that reflect both a collective bohemian sensibility and contrasting individual styles. Rile, whose dark hair is streaked with hot pink, also favors brightly colored garb, while Fax is both the preppiest and the frilliest of the bunch and Margot’s ethic is bare-bones and baggy.By the time “Girls” concludes, with glimpses into its characters’ futures, you may recognize a sister or friend or daughter or even yourself in one of them. Certainly, you’ll be at least intermittently charmed by them, and by this imperfect but heartfelt play.

Four Californian Teenage Girls Come of Age With Music, Charm and Chance

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