Theater Camp review: Pitch-perfect satire pokes fun at stage dreams but may touch you all the same
The IndependentGet our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Get our The Life Cinematic email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Depending on your level of initiation, Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman’s pitch-perfect satire Theater Camp will either trigger mortifying flashbacks of vocal exercises and gender-reversed Shakespeare productions, or play like a psychoanalyst’s field study in hysteria. Its script arrives courtesy of a quartet of longtime friends and collaborators: The Bear actor Gordon, filmmaker Lieberman, Dear Evan Hansen’s Ben Platt, plus Platt’s fiancé and fellow Dear Evan Hansen star Noah Galvin. Welcomed like rockstars to the camp’s cafeteria stage, Amos and Rebecca-Diane announce to the latest pool of scarily talented and disconcertingly Fosse-literate children that, on top of the usual productions of “Crucible Jr” and “immersive” Cats, they’ll be producing an original piece dedicated to their founder, titled “Joan, Still”. And when the kids inevitably unite for a finale rendition of Rent’s “Season of Love”, Theater Camp momentarily sets aside its silliness to embrace the sense of peace that can be found in these protected, self-contained little worlds.