A ‘Hamilton’ Star Discovers Lunatic Comedy With ‘Girls5eva’

It could have happened in her early 20s, fresh from college, with a face like a cherub and lungs like a hurricane, when she booked an understudy role in a Broadway-bound show that never arrived. Or 10 years later, when she moved to Los Angeles and sang with a jazz ensemble. Or five years after that, back in New York for a run on “One Life to Live,” or in the decade following, spent bounding between plays and short TV stints.

But Renée Elise Goldsberry had her first decisive success later, at 44. In 2015 she astonished as Angelica, the eldest Schuyler sister, in the musical “Hamilton,” earning a Tony Award and a share in a Grammy for her work. Independent movies followed, plus a series regular role on the Netflix sci-fi show “Altered Carbon.”

And now, at 50, Goldsberry is a breakout star of the Peacock comedy “Girls5eva” as Wickie, a member of a Spice Girls clone 20 years defunct who reunite after a young rapper named Lil Stinker samples their one hit. As Wickie, “the fierce one,” Goldsberry gets to sing, dance and display a knack for lunatic comedy. She fakes a fempire, crab walks into a Duane Reade, pilots a motorized bed, seduces a young influencer and shoots geese off an airport runway. Her catchphrase? “Cease and desist, bitch!”

“I feel like God has a bit of a sense of humor with me,” she said. “There’s something beautiful about things happening in a different way than we expected, later than we thought.”

Wonky timing is a central theme of “Girls5eva.” Created by Meredith Scardino, with Tina Fey as an executive producer, it centers on women in their 40s, chasing fame in, as one lyric has it, “comfortable shoes.” Their pursuit seems both go-girl inspirational and seriously deluded. “It’s an uphill climb and they’re going for it,” Scardino said.