Theater Camp

 

Like the world it depicts with such goofy joy, Theater Camp is a celebration of creative collaboration and sends a glitzy affirming message to all those kids picked last for sports.

Co-directed by Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman, a first feature for both, Theater Camp was co-written by Gordon, Lieberman, Noah Galvin (who plays Glenn, the stage manager with the big secret) and Ben Platt (Tony-winning star of Dear Evan Hansen). It's a sometimes grainy mockumentary about a financially strapped summer stock program in the Adirondacks for young thespians, "Adirond Acts," that is on the verge of being shut down.

The camp has been shepherded, more or less responsibly, by two women -- Rita (Caroline Aaron) and Joan (Amy Sedaris). Joan falls into a coma just before camp opens, and her clueless son, Troy, played by the eternal Bro Dude Jimmy Tatro, takes over for his mother. Troy doesn't get theater and so is dismissed by the camp's crew, who, except for Glenn, are as clueless as Troy in their own ways. But Troy persists until faced by the inevitable.

Gordon and Platt play Rebecca-Diane and Aaron, former lovers and now devoted friends and collaborators (perhaps modeled after Gordon and Lieberman) who are committed to keeping the camp going despite being blind to their own deficiencies and vanities and perhaps using the camp to hide from their inadequacies.

The large cast is a delightful smorgasbord of drama types, some gifted, others not; they will undoubtedly be familiar to theater nerds in the audience. The "drama" of Theater Camp is in the "inside baseball" chatter and chaos surrounding staging live performance, with the legendary queerness of musical theater on full display in heels and feathers.

And to that latter point, I can imagine some reactionaries questioning the propriety of having such young Out and Proud characters in the story. I suspect Galvin and Platt, both openly gay, would argue many kids today are owning their sexuality when they first recognize their attractions. Theater Camp, perhaps both in the film and in real life, is telling them you're safe here.

And that, along with all of the great lines, terrific songs and the fact that they didn't invert the "e" and "r" in Theater, is welcome indeed.