It’s tough to take the piss out of something in a loving, affirmative way. For every Spinal Tap, which sends up its courgette-trousering, up-to-11 heavy metal strugglers in all sorts of ingenious ways but still obviously adores them all, or Galaxy Quest, which spoofs both Star Trek and the profession of acting but would clearly go to the wall for William Shatner and co, there’s a clutch of sorry Scary Movie-style rip-offs that forget to love the thing they’re spoofing.
No such problems with Theater Camp, a mockumentary as sparky, big-hearted and entertaining as its cast of bright-eyed kids and the wannabe thesps who coach them in the ways of ‘turning cardboard into gold’. The affection for musical theatre is so sincere, it’ll win over even the most Sondheim-averse.
Welcome to AdirondACTS in upstate New York, a summer camp for the terminally jazz-handed. Joan (Amy Sedaris), its founder, has suffered a seizure during a musical (‘the first Bye Bye Birdie-related injury in the history of Passaic County,’ a caption tells us) and lies in a coma. Her gormless business bro son Troy (Jimmy Tatro) has to keep the place afloat as the bills stack up and the owners of the rival camp next door plot a buyout.
Into the fray come drama instructors Amos (Dear Evan Hansen’s Ben Platt) and Rebecca-Diane (The Bear’s Molly Gordon), a co-dependent double act who get to work on an end-of-season musical about Joan’s life. The camp’s tweens and teens love them despite their gruelling auditions and tough love (‘If you drop a line or a note is a little off-key, just what does that say about you?’), and are soon vying for roles. In the script? IBS, Wall Street and cocaine-fuelled nights in Studio 54. ‘Do you want to be the Lance Armstrong of theatre?’ Rebecca-Diane asks when one of their young cast is caught with a tear stick.
It’ll leave you with spring in your step and a lump in your throat
Based on Platt’s own 2020 short film (not online, sadly), and co-written by him, Gordon and Nick Lieberman, Theater Camp bears an obvious debt to Christopher Guest’s fly-on-the-theatre-wall classic Waiting For Guffman (and to a lesser extent 2003 comedy Camp), but its progressive spirit, celebration of belonging and sunny disposition bring freshness to the formula. Platt, Gordon and their young cast members are a joy, as is Ayo Edebiri (another alum from The Bear) as a new staffer who teaches stage combat despite not knowing what it is, and Noah Galvin as the camp’s secretly talented technician.
The odd joke doesn’t land – Minari’s Alan Kim is left a bit marooned as a precocious wannabe talent agent forever on the phone or dishing out business cards – but it’s a small grumble. The end result will leave you with spring in your step and a lump in your throat. Standing Os all round.
In UK cinemas Aug 25.
