Theater Camp

Joan Rubinsky is the co-founder and director of AdirondACTS, a theater-focused summer camp in the Adirondacks in Upstate New York. While attending a show featuring one of her campers, a strobe light causes Joan to experience a seizure and slip into a coma. In her absence, Joan's son Troy takes over operations at AdirondACTS, but finds that his personality clashes with the theater kids who attend the camp. He makes various attempts to alleviate the camp's financial difficulties, including turning his cabin into an Airbnb, which he shares with guest Tim. He is assisted by Joan's staff, including Amos and Rebecca-Diane, two best friends who are also former campers and longtime staff members. Amos and Rebecca-Diane announce the summer's slate of productions, including Joan, Still, a new original musical based on Joan's life story, which they have yet to write. During auditions, Troy is approached by Caroline, a representative of financial firm Barnswell Capital, who own the luxurious neighboring Camp Lakeside. Barnswell offers to purchase the camp, which is facing a threat of foreclosure.

Amos and Rebecca-Diane make progress on Joan, Still, with Rebecca-Diane promising to handle the music for the show's finale. Meanwhile, Troy, with the help of technical director Glenn, tries to both make money and connect with the campers by having them act as servers at a Rotary Club event, with mixed results. As the production continues, Amos is troubled by Rebecca-Diane's continued absences, including disappearing from classes, missing her "performance night" for the campers, and failing to show up to rehearsals. Caroline returns to meet with Troy, who mistakenly agrees to sell the camp to Barnswell Capital, and the two sleep together. With days remaining before the show, Amos presses Rebecca-Diane to unveil the closing number, which she has not completed. She performs an improvised, atonal song about camp, sparking an argument between her and Amos. She reveals that she has been absent because she has been hired as a cruise ship performer; the revelation infuriates Amos, who resents feeling left behind in their partnership. In the midst of their fight, Caroline arrives at the rehearsal, forcing Troy to reveal that the camp could be shut down.

Realizing that the sale will only take place if the bank forecloses on AdirondACTS, Troy invites the Founding Ballers, a group of popular financial influencers, to the performance of Joan, Still, hoping they will be inspired to invest money to save the camp. The play is thrown into jeopardy by the departure of camper Darla, who portrayed adult Joan, but she is replaced by Glenn, who gives a surprisingly impressive performance. At the end of the show, the cast performs a completed version of Rebecca-Diane's closing number and shares what they have learned from attending camp. Amos and Rebecca-Diane reconcile, with Amos deciding to remain at AdirondACTS.

Although the Founding Ballers enjoy the show, they are revealed to be financially insolvent; instead, AdirondACTS is rescued from foreclosure by a significant donation from Tim, who related to the show's themes. Rebecca-Diane finds success with her cruise ship gig until she accidentally burns down the vessel trying to conduct a séance, while Glenn performs as Elphaba in Wicked in Saratoga Springs. Amos dedicates himself to teaching, and Troy takes on his mother's work raising money for the camp. When the show finishes, a random hospital patient who was watching the show from a live stream praises the show, as Troy was planning to show it his mother on the live stream but accidentally set it up in the wrong room. Joan awakens from her coma after the show finishes, confused by the reaction of her hospital roommate, who was the patient that watched the show.

Nick Lieberman, one of the directors

In June 2022, it was reported Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman would direct the film, from a screenplay they wrote alongside Ben Platt and Noah Galvin. Gordon, Platt, Galvin, Jimmy Tatro, Patti Harrison, Ayo Edebiri, Amy Sedaris, Caroline Aaron, Nathan Lee Graham, Owen Thiele, Alan Kim, Luke Islam, Jack Sobolewski, Kyndra Sanchez, Quinn Titcomb, Madisen Lora, Bailee Bonick, Donovan Colan, Vivienne Sachs, and Alexander Bello were set to star, and Will Ferrell would serve as a producer under his Gloria Sanchez Productions banner.[4][5] The film's soundtrack was released by Interscope Records.[6]

Platt said that due to the film's budget, only a few real Broadway songs could be used; as a result, the filmmakers wrote snippets of "musical theatre songs that don't exist" for the scene in which the campers audition.[7]

Principal photography began in June 6, 2022, at the former URJ Kutz Camp in Warwick, New York, and wrapped on June 30, 2022.[8] According to Tatro, most of the dialogue was improvised.[9]

Theater Camp had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2023, where it received two standing ovations from the audience, one following the film itself and after a special post-screening musical performance from the younger actors of a medley of songs from the film's finale.[10][11] The film was also the recipient of the Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast.[12] Shortly after, Searchlight Pictures acquired distribution rights to the film for $8 million.[13] The film was released in select theaters on July 14, 2023.[14]

The film opened with $301k (or $50.2k per theater at six locations) and was the strongest limited opening for Searchlight Pictures since 2019's Jojo Rabbit ($349k in five locations).[15]

The film was released on American subscription streaming service Hulu and through VOD on September 14, 2023.[16]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 85% of 163 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The website's consensus reads: "Theater Camp's authentic depiction of the theater experience may not resonate as strongly with non-actors, but they'll probably be laughing too hard to seriously complain."[17] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 70 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[18] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[15]

• Official website
• Theater Camp at IMDb