"You need to know that only 3% of people make it. The rest end up in a mental facility - or a Go Go box in Hell's Kitchen." A well-meaning camp counselor from Theater Camp
Theater Camp, like any camp experience, begins with an explosion of enthusiasm and angst as aspiring thespians and sometimes competent counselors prepare to field a musical called "Still Joan."
Joan (Amy Sedaris) is founder of AdirondACTS, a camp for both counselors and students, whose motives are honest and talents frequently not evident. Her coma is explained as "the first Bye Bye Birdie-related injury in the history of Passaic County." As if everyone's ability is questionable, the camp is endangered from takeover on the outside by snooty nearby Camp Lakeside. Creativity emerges despite serious thespian and administrative limitations.
Part of the film's salvation is Ben Platt, co-star and co-writer of this uneven mockumentary. Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman direct while they share writing with Noah Galvin (like Gordon, he's a veteran of Booksmart). The total contribution of those like-minded artists helps Theater Camp be just shy of snarky but subtly tongue-in-cheek throughout.
Indicative of the dual character of the film is that early on, the voiceover narration, a usual mainstay of documentaries, vanishes. Remaining, however, is the over-the-top enthusiasm for the future dramatis personae, otherwise known as having "theater-kid" syndrome. Enthusiasm abounds, success not probable. Yet, the mockumentary weakly takes off because it's the counselors who are incompetent, therefor mockable, and the kids, well, plain ambitious and well meaning, therefore less mockable.
When Joan has a stroke from strobe lights, her selfie-stick brandishing son Troy (Jimmy Tatro) takes a dicey leadership of the struggling camp. While he is humorously inept, Gordon and Platt as Rebecca-Diane and Amos are way too zealous former thespians obsessed about teaching and specifically writing and directing this year's original musical, Joan, Still.
The real stars are the campers from Alan Kim (Minari), who acts like an agent in training to Kyndra Sanchez (The Babysitter's Club), who plays a professional star good enough to make Amos jealous. Although you'll catch the similarities with Waiting for Guffman and Wet Hot Summer, the rousing, Broadway-like ending will convince you the wait for the on-screen ending and the fate of the camp were worth waiting for.
As this is summer, Theater Camp is a right antidote for the explosive Indiana Jones and Mission Impossible spectacles. If the memorable Oppenheimer or opulent Barbie are too demanding for you, the light-hearted, well-meaning Theater Camp may be just your ticket.
