THEATER CAMP
US, 2023, 92 minutes, Colour.
Ben Platt, Molly Gordon, Noah Galvin, Jimmy Tatro, Caroline Aaron, Ayo Edebiri, Amy Sedaris, Kyndra Sanches, Alan Kim.
Directed by Molly Gordon, Nathan Lieberman.
It will very much depend on your sense of humour if you enjoy this story of a summer camp for youngsters interested in performance. And it may also depend on the national sense of humour. Most of the comments coming from the United States find the film hilarious. Though not all. For non-Americans, it might be amusing in many ways, but hilarious?
As the title suggests, this is one of those stories of an American summer, a summer camp where aspiring youngsters go to an upstate New York site in the Adirondaks (AdirondACTS) to develop their talents, acting, singing, mime, technical know-how for putting on a show, the theme very popular in American films over the decades. And, it can be noted from the title that there is also an emphasis on the other meaning of camp.
Audiences who have enjoyed the different versions of Fame, who enjoy television’s Glee, will probably be keen to see this film. And they will enjoy the theatrical references, the quotes from the musicals – and many favourable commentators noting that the film is for “theatre nerds”.
The actual camp struggles to survive, the founder campaigning to raise funds, then suffering a stroke from the strobe lights of a performance of camp Bye, Bye Birdie, in coma. Her rather boofhead son has to take over the running of the camp, tone deaf to most things, fancying himself as an entrepreneur (his name is Troy so he is an entroypreneur), being tempted to sell out to the upmarket similar camp adjacent.
The film actually spends more time bringing the staff characters to life, a couple of who have taught singing and put on the annual musical for 13 years, Ben Platt and Molly Gordon. There is also the tech man who, at a pinch, can improvise quite a dance sequence and, surprisingly, is very effective at female impersonation for the crisis in the annual show, Noah Galvin. There are various other assorted members of staff, teachers, costume design, and a fake intruder.
Much less attention is given to the characterisation of the students, seeing them perform, many with quite some talent, but Are Not really getting to know most of them – except a rather haughty and ambitious performer and a youngster training to be the pushiest and persistent of talent agents.
So, lots of theatre references for those in the know, quite a number of farcical situations and conflicts, a climax, of course, with the final show, amusing in its way.
