Perhaps as early as grade school, promising young women were hearing “boys will be boys,” a ridiculous catch-all phrase that justified any number of male misdeeds: slapping, hair-pulling, bra strap–snapping…you get the picture. As we all got older, the boys’ behavior got more heinous, and the idiomatic excuse less acceptable. Unless you’re an elected official.
Trophy Boys, Emmanuelle Mattana’s slash-and-burn send-up and takedown of toxic masculinity at MCC Theater, meets a quartet of seniors from a boys’ private high school—perhaps the peak of privilege. The twist: All the guys are played by female-identifying, gender nonconforming, or nonbinary performers.
“Gender is a scam but it is also a gift. Drag is radical joy and liberation,” writes Mattana, a former competitive high school debater herself, in her program note. That should tell you something about the tone that she, Tony-winning director Danya Taymor (The Outsiders), and the four actors—all terrific at simply tapping into their lower registers and taking up a lot of physical space (pardon the generalization, but guys do that)—are aiming for: lightness and laughter as they cut into the core of a serious issue. Incidentally, Trophy Boys would make an excellent double-feature with Kimberly Belflower’s John Proctor Is the Villain, another Taymor-directed, high school–set play punctuated by periodic primal screams and colorful dance breaks.
[Read Michael Sommers’ ★★★★☆ review here.]
Let’s meet the debate team, shall we? There’s Owen (played by Mattana), the self-professed best speaker and ringleader of the St. Imperium seniors—sort of the Blair Waldorf of the group; Jared (Louisa Jacobson, freed from the corsets of HBO’s The Gilded Age and actually having some fun), who loves women, especially his girlfriend; Scott (Esco Jouléy), a jock trying a little too hard to be über-masculine; and the inscrutable David (Terry Hu), the benchwarmer/team adviser. They’ve been thrust into enemy territory—a classroom at the all-girls’ school—to prep for a pressure-packed season-ending debate. Owen looks approvingly at the walls, lined with art of pioneering women such as Malala, Gloria Steinem, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Oprah, AOC, and others. “I am at my most inspired when surrounding by inspiring women,” he says. “I love women,” declares Jared. If you took a shot every time Jared says “I love women,” they’d have to carry you out of MCC.
Then David unveils the debate topic, which they’ll be arguing in an hour: “That feminism has failed women.” They’ll be on the affirmative side. Silence. Slack jaws. Jared insists that he “can’t argue that.” Remember—he loves women.
The boys’ biggest challenge, however, proves to be an anonymous Instagram post from the opposition: “I was sexually assaulted by a Senior Imperium debater.” Owen decides “it’s clearly not real.” Scott goes into freak-out mode. David tells everyone to “chill.” Jared, again, proclaims that he loves women.
The mere accusation is enough to send the group into a total tailspin. Jared suddenly sees his future—“I’ve known I was an artist ever since I made my first pasta necklace at my Montessori pre-k”— ending before it begins: “No publicity, no Netflix specials, no international tours. No Grammys or Oscars or cologne sponsorships.” Scott says he “definitely can’t make it in sports” if he assaults someone. (Does he know about the NFL?) Owen is similarly distraught: “And no way I can get into the White House!” (Does he know about the—oh, never mind…)
Though they all assert their innocence, these future Ivy Leaguers are smart enough to know that one of them is guilty—more likely, all of them. They’re also savvy enough to realize that the accusation will never go beyond the internet. “No girl wants to go through the shit-show that happens when you do come forward,” Owen reasons. “Not in our legal system. Not now. Who can blame her?” Mattana—voice calm, cool, and almost soothing—delivers a winning closing argument. Dammit. How did we end up on the boys’ side?
Trophy Boys opened June 25, 2025, at MCC Theater and runs through July 27. Tickets and information: mcctheater.org
