Joanne Rubinsky (Amy Sedaris), the founder and spiritual leader of a small summer theater camp in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, has suffered a stroke and fallen into a coma. Now her son Troy (Jimmy Tatro), a failing vlogger and simpleton who fancies himself a great businessman, takes over. In a few weeks, the new director needs to save the camp from financial collapse. More successful neighbors are ready to buy the land at any moment. And in the theater camp, everything goes on as usual: amateur teachers Amos (Ben Platt) and Rebecca-Diane (Molly Gordon) stage a musical about Joanne’s life with ambitious children.
Molly Gordon as Rebecca-Diane in a still from “Theater Camp”
Every year, the Sundance Film Festival showcases original and charming audience hits that risk going unnoticed because they can’t count on an Oscar nomination. One of the discoveries of the 2023 festival is the mockumentary comedy “Theater Camp.” A group of documentary filmmakers supposedly came to film a movie about Joanne Rubinsky, the teachers, and the children dreaming of acting careers, but the leader’s stroke and coma made significant adjustments to the annual summer entertainment. The frame with the filming of a non-fiction picture only adds to the madness on the screen. The task of saving the camp from ruin in three weeks and staging a musical from scratch seems impossible, but only at first glance. The documentary filmmakers run after the children and teachers and witness the funniest episodes of rehearsals and personal lives.
“Theater Camp” is the feature directorial debut of Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman. Gordon is famous for her roles in the dramedy “Shiva Baby” and the series “The Bear.” Lieberman has directed music videos for Ben Platt’s songs. The full meter grew out of the short film of the same name. Gordon, Lieberman, Platt, and Noah Galvin wrote the script based on their own memories of visiting similar summer theater camps. The film was bought at Sundance for $8 million, but it went relatively quietly in the American box office, grossing $4.4 million.
Ben Platt as Amos in a still from “Theater Camp”
Gordon and Lieberman’s film is a fast-paced comedy about charming oddballs, while both adults and teenagers take the production of the musical extremely seriously. Unexpectedly, summer fun turns into a battle of ego-maniacs. Amos and Rebecca-Diane themselves went through Joanne’s summer theater camp many years ago, but they never made it to the big stage. The teachers recall staging their own play “Divorce on Hanukkah” and never being able to make an original travesty version of “Romeo and Juliet.” The teachers are full of ideas and are sure that they have not yet been on Broadway only by some misunderstanding. The children are mastering the Stanislavsky method and are ready to play sex workers, divorced middle-aged women, or men in an existential crisis. Naturally, the heartfelt dialogues of 10-year-old actors have an exclusively comical effect. The musical about Joanne also turns out absurdly funny. Amos and Rebecca-Diane wrote the text of the production literally on their knees in a couple of days.
Still from “Theater Camp”
“Theater Camp” is filled with charming supporting characters. The modest technician Glenn (Noah Galvin) discovers a remarkable acting talent in himself. Troy settles a certain Type into the camp through Airbnb and asks the young actors to work as waiters in the evening at a Rotary Club meeting. Eccentric costume and dance teachers (Nathan Lee Graham and Owen Thiele) are demanding of the children, and Janet (Ayo Edebiri), who lied on her resume, is forced to improvise in every lesson.
A Hilarious Look at Amateur Theater
Viewers seem to be watching in real time the enchanting antics of teachers and young artists who literally have nowhere to escape from each other. In fact, theater in comedy is easily transferred to any other amateur activity. Imagine that you were given a strange task at team building or you need to prepare some creative project in the shortest possible time. Any handicraft collective production will do. “Theater Camp” harmlessly laughs at amateurs who have played too much in creators.
A Potential Cult Classic
Gordon and Lieberman’s film may well become a hit over time, as it is a truly universal work. But viewers who have encountered amateur theater at least once in their lives can literally roll on the floor, recognizing the situations in which they have been before. The mockumentary comedy flies by unnoticed and leaves a slightly sad aftertaste - you want to see another bizarre musical staged by obsessed teachers and versatile teenagers from a camp in New York State.