Review of Theater Camp, directed by Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman

For a hot minute, I thought I wasn’t going to see Theater Camp because I thought it wasn’t really going to show outside of major cities like Los Angeles and New York City. Imagine my delight when it showed up at my local suburban AMC Theater, which meant I could use my A List subscription, for only one week.

You bet I booked my ticket immediately and was prepared to drag myself all the way to the movies on a Sunday night. I had to drive, too, as my sister booked a ticket with me and she ended up going to a winery before it. I thought she was going to throw up during the movie because she honestly was pretty drunk.

Anyways, not only did I want to see this movie because of its cast (Ben Platt might be a nepo baby, but I’ve seen him twice on the Broadway show Parade and he, despite doing his little vibrato thing, is a really good actor in my humble opinion), but I’ve worked in New York’s theater scene for three years now.

I know what it’s like behind the scenes of getting productions going and have gone through the metaphorical theatrical trenches, so this comedy looked like it was right up my alley.

Let’s get into the review!

A theater camp for youths kickstarts its summer session, but it’s at risk of closing forever.

There are multiple different threads going on throughout this movie, but it introduces it with the camp’s founder. While scouting the youths at local theater shows to recruit for the next camp session, she collapses mid-show, and ends up in a coma.

That means no one else is left to run the camp except for her son, a finance YouTuber (it’s questionable if he even knows anything about finance or business to be quite honest), to take over. So he does, and he knows absolutely nothing about theater before these kids show up.

The first task is hiring a new teacher. The only seemingly qualified individual is one vastly under utilized throughout the movie, as the subtitles reveal that her entire resume is a lie and she is in no way capable of teaching these kids basic theater skills. Essentially, she’s just someone who needs a job.

She’s hired anyways because the owner’s son doesn’t know any better. This is then woven into the story of two camp counselors who went to this and straight up never left, Amos and Rebecca-Dianne.

These two never do anything without each other, including a failed Juilliard audition. Because of that, they end up at the camp every year and write an original (not good) musical for the youth campers, which this year is the life story of the camp’s founder.

But friction is occurring between them in this production, as it’s gradually revealed Rebecca-Diane’s spaciness and missing rehearsal means she is preparing to book a new job at a cruise ship, which pisses Amos off because he thinks they’re connected at the hip.

Financial ruin is upon the camp, unbeknown to everyone except the stagehand, Glen, and the son. The son is trying to figure out ways to make money before the camp is shut down forever, the finance hawks are appearing like cockroaches to liquidate this camp so it becomes one with the rich kid camp across the road, and he doesn’t know what to do because he’s just a YouTuber here for comedic timing.

So what does the son, Troy, do? First he invites the Rotary Club and has the students perform for them, but that backfires very quickly.

One big problem then happens: Troy sleeps with the finance girl in charge of the other camp’s company, and accidentally signs away the camp forever.

The catch is that the contact only kicks in when the camp fully runs out of funds, so when the time comes, they’re all going to lose it. In a last ditch effort, he decides to invite all of his YouTuber friends (who are secretly broke, but he doesn’t know that) to try and get them to donate money.

The summer continues onwards. One of the students Amos helps out books a gig, and when it comes time to actually perform the musical, she books a gig and peaces out of camp the night of the performance. Glen, the stagehand, is recruited to be the female lead role and actually does an incredible job of it, much to the joy of everyone.

The audience is moved by the performance, and a donation by Troy’s AirBnB guest (who apparently has a ton of money) keeps the camp going.

Overall Thoughts

I focused on the main plot for this summary, but man there were subplots as well. The kids are a big part of the movie and I think the entire concept as a whole is hilarious. My sister, who doesn’t know theater, was even laughing at some of the scenes, especially when that super straight “I’ve never done theater” kid makes a proud declaration at the end that’s he’s not gay.

I thought the funniest scenes were Alan Kim’s role as the kid who’s trying to be an agent despite his age, and the bedtime story about the girl who got the callback at an NYC audition despite not being Actors’ Equity.

So whether you know theater or not, I think this is such a gem of a movie and accessible for everyone.

Follow me below on Instagram and Goodreads for more content.