Tepid ‘Theater Camp’ not ready for opening night
I’m sure “Theater Camp” sounded like a good idea. Why not make a film, a mockumentary in fact, that was a throwback to those old movies in which Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney save the day by “putting on a show.” The number one problem for “Theater Camp” is evident from the start. To begin with, naming your theater camp in the Adirondacks “Adirond ACTS” is not funny. The line between clever and just plain stupid is fine, indeed. But it must be respected.
When Joan Rubinsky (Amy Sedaris) faints and fall into a coma, her supposedly (but not really) business savvy son Troy (Jimmy Tatro, TV’s “Home Economics”) takes over her theater camp, where the artistic directors are Amos (Ben Platt, who also co-wrote the original songs) and Rebecca-Diane (Molly Gordon). Amos is gay. He and Rebecca-Diane are best friends (Platt and Gordon are childhood friends). Glenn (Noah Galvin, Platt’s real-life partner) is the underappreciated technical supervisor and teacher of stagecraft (i.e., spotlight control). Clive (Nathan Lee Graham) is the flamboyant head of dance, who likes making faces. Head of wardrobe is Gigi (Owen Thiele). Joan’s son Troy, who likes to quote the cringe-inducing expression, “En-Troy-preneurship,” also hires a young woman named Janet (Ayo Edebiri, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”), who has no experience, to be another teacher at the camp. She chooses to teach “stage fighting” or something to that effect.
Never mind that “Damn Yankees” is not suitable for kids, let’s talk about casting Lola. “Cats,” “Les Miz,” “Rent,” titles that make my blood run cold, get solemnly namechecked, and I accept that people love these things. Every year, Amos and Rebecca-Diane, who plays an autoharp (hardly) write an original show, book and music for the young people to perform for their families.
This year the show is going to be in honor of Troy’s mother Joan and will be called in typical fashion for this effort, “Joan, Still” (as in, still breathing I’m guessing). At breakfast, Troy gets up to demand the return of his CBD gummies that he needs to sleep. Cut to a kid asleep in his cereal. The kids break away into subgroups: “Rent” kids, Fosse kids, etc. Shakespeare kids? No, I’m afraid not.
The standouts among the very talented child actors are Bailee Bonick, who can seriously belt a song, Kyndra Sanchez, who plays another musical phenom, actor Donovan Colan, and “America’s Got Talent” sensation Luke Islam. Although the film was shot (in 19 days) in Warwick, N.Y., we get very little sense of the lake and forest outside. Nor do we get much of a sense that Amos and Rebecca-Diane are writing a play and a score. In “Theater Camp,” to write a musical, all you have to do is talk about it.
“Theater Camp” was co-directed by first-timer Gordon and Nick Lieberman, who has directed music videos for Ben Platt and directed the 2020 short film upon which “Theater Camp” is based.
(“Theater Camp” contains profanity and suggestive and drug references)