There is a specific audience for the movie theater camp. That’s the demographic that prays every morning in the name of Father, Son, and Patti LuPone for the most important things in life: that the high school theater director will eventually listen and produce. Song of a New World instead of let loose for the spring musical; that they will deliver that West End product dream girls ready; and, of course, that they will find their communities who understand these priorities.
That audience was present in large numbers at the movie premiere Sundance Film Festival At its premiere Saturday night in Park City, a crowd evidently gathered on Our Sondheims ritual rosaries followed by three Hail Audras. Directed by Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman, who co-wrote the largely improvised story with their best friends Ben Platt and Noah Galvin, theater camp is not a love letter for theater enthusiasts as it is a diary of one person.
You can still feel like a discovery knowing that the diary is not personal but shared; that there is a passionate, unwavering community that understands every reference in the film, from the self-important drama club acting technique to every musical song a camper sang during the session. their audition—and why it was a shameful choice. We were every kid at that camp, and sometimes, every adult who worked there.
By the time the series ends, with a noisy original musical not suitable for underage children (plus Galvin pulling in as an alternate version of Amy Sedaris; believe me, it makes sense in context), the applause during the screening was enthusiastic and knowing that one wondered if it would turn into applause in time until the end of “Seasons of Love” end or not. To rent.
What? theater camp hits exactly the lifelong mark this passion has on this community, in a way that is as moving with the same intensity as the ensemble cast at the end of the film. ragtime title number, for those who get it—and maybe make all the others blink ignorant and confused. It shows what it feels like to discover this family of people who share this passion. But it also understands the satisfaction of digging into the core details of it all — so serious that it becomes almost alarming, but also the source of your greatest joy and emotion.
Maybe the bug caught you when you were young, and you find yourself in a place like AdirondaACTS, a New York suburban paradise, where, in theater camp, precocious and gifted children will perform songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Maybe you did some manipulation on the board of your high school stage.
And maybe you’re an adult regretting a time when the promise of a career in you-ah-tuh seems real, and you refuse to let go of it. Or, if you’re a healthy enough person to let go, perhaps you still allow yourself to enjoy the joys of sheer musical theatrical obsession. (Have you debated who is the best? Go to the forest Witches with a loved one recently? Just stay away from the discussion of “The most beautiful mother rose”. People known to have blood.)
theater camp depicts a circus tent in the mountains, where young children can channel their enthusiasm for the performing arts for three glorious weeks, and mentors are teaching them to be able to relive their glory days. But that’s the gag of the love theater. That circus ends up everywhere, happening every day. It’s always in town, so send clowns.
There are some very compelling references when describing Singing camp. delightedOf course, for all the musical theater enthusiasts. Hot and humid summer in America, for the summer camp comedy of all. And this is Camp, the hit 2003 film about fierce competition but also beautiful friendship takes place in the wonderland of a sleep-intensive art. What? theater camp most owed, however, are the films of Christopher Guest.
At the beginning of this Vérité-style simulation, we follow Joan, owner of AdirondaACTS as she recruits new campers on the opening night of the show. Goodbye Birdie at a school in New Jersey. When she has a seizure because of the flashing lights in the play, a title card pops up: The subject of the documentary, Joan, is currently in a coma. Filming will continue.
Then we head to camp, where Joan’s want-to-be-business influencer is an incompetent narcissist named Troy (the young heroes’ conductor, Jimmy Tatro) Occupy.
We started meeting with mentors, including Rebecca-Diane (Gordon) and Amos (Platt), who attended the camp for 11 years before spending the next decade working together. (“I think we are full-time teachers aspiring to be performers,” Amos told Rebecca-Diane at one point when she admitted that she… longed to leave and really perform. acting.) Galvin plays Glenn, a third-generation stage manager who harbors dreams of stepping on stage himself — which manifests loudly in the film’s final act.
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Photo by Tiffany Burke/IndieWire via Getty Images
Troy knows nothing about the stage. He saw a Playbill and pronounce it Play soccer. When Glenn went over budget with Troy, he explained that they would have to get rid of the summer’s consecutive plays to make enough money for the musicals. Troy doesn’t understand the concept of live play. “What will the gay play be like?” he asked, as Glenn balked before grudgingly admitting: “A musical.”
Turns out it wasn’t just the live plays that AdirondaACTS could no longer afford. The camp is on the verge of being confiscated. Troy was unable to figure out how to help. Mentors have dug too deep into their self-esteem holes to be helpful. There is a camp that needs to be saved, because a group of people think that the attitude of “the show must go on” and the dream ballet in the second act is enough to satisfy the creditor.
Revolving around all of this drama are the kids themselves, an inclusive, incredibly talented and dedicated young cast, who not only present an avatar of all the stage buffs that are playing. watch them on screen, but also embody a particular simulated tone: playing to the truth so intensely that humorous madness explodes on the surface.
theater camp not necessarily rip Christopher Guest style of improvisational, observational comedy. During the Q&A session after the screening, Gordon, Lieberman, Platt and Galvin cited directors of films such as The best in the show, Waiting for Guffmanand A strong wind as an inspiration for the kind of movie they wanted to create. It’s exciting to think of a new group of creative collaborators who can capture that Guest-ian’s character and performance style, and interpolate it through experiences, inspirations, and relationships. their own system.
Platt’s ability to turn his frenzied anxiety into poignant, soulful moments is superbly displayed here, and Gordon, best known as an actress by virtue of her work her in Smart book, embodying new shades of confident eccentricity. Galvin has a unique ability to portray a flaw that immediately prompts audiences to defend and empathize, then topple it with an almost menacing unpredictability. There’s also hilarious footage from Ayo Edebiri, Patti Harrison, Nathan Lee Graham, Owen Thiele and Caroline Aaron.
theater camp very edgy about the world it’s sending to (though it feels very real, you can honestly say “it’s documenting”). Children need the approval of adults, and adults need the praise of children. And everyone needs the healing power of art, no matter how strange those arts may be. (In this case, an original musical called “Women Can’t Read” was performed by a cast of children.)
The standing ovation at Sundance proves its appeal to those who know this world, because they are part of it. When someone you don’t know, do they get tickled or mesmerized? Who knows. And who cares. Here is one for us.
As the screening began on Saturday night, there was a series of conversations with people exchanging their own war stories about their theatrical background: Rizzo in Grease Year 11! Went camping just like AdirondaACTS! Ever seen Kimberly akimbo on Broadway six times!
It makes sense that its creative team is a quartet of close friends, two of whom (Gordon and Platt) have known each other since they were three years old, and two of them (Platt and Galvin) are engaged. theater camp is about a life of love for the stage. And it’s about people that you’re privileged to love it.
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