There is a specific, sacred smell in the air during the first day of theater camp. It’s a potent mix of dusty stage curtains, E6000 glue, nervous sweat, and the faint hint of desperation that comes from trying to paint a 20-foot flat for Annie in under four hours.
Here is why this movie is required viewing—and why it feels like coming home. Hollywood usually portrays theater kids as either annoying overachievers or tragic figures. Theater Camp does something braver: it shows us as survivors. Theater Camp
And yet, they keep doing it.
And to the former camp kids reading this: Yes, you did deserve a Tony for that ensemble part in the ensemble of Fame Jr. . Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. There is a specific, sacred smell in the
The film follows the staff (played brilliantly by Gordon and Platt) as they try to keep the camp afloat after the founder falls into a coma during a one-woman show about Evita . The kids are weird. The counselors are broke. The original musical they are scrambling to put together? It’s about a pizza place that gets turned into a tech startup. It’s terrible. It’s brilliant. It’s exactly the kind of unhinged, self-serious nonsense that happens when you give teenagers a budget and a lighting board. Without spoiling the best running gag in years, let’s talk about the documentary crew asking a precocious 11-year-old, "Who is your favorite actress?" Hollywood usually portrays theater kids as either annoying