A little independent American comedy called Theater Camp is set in a summer retreat for artistic kids. It’s clear that just about everyone involved in the film had done time at some sort of theatre camp and had had the world’s greatest time.
So, they assumed that – like the musical at the heart of this movie – it would pretty much write itself.
Sadly, an all-improvised, mockumentary film like this only really works if it’s done by Christopher Guest. And even Guest doesn’t always pull it off.
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Theater Camp opens when Joan, who runs a struggling summer school, is suddenly hospitalised at the start of the season.
Her place is taken by her dopey son Troy, described as a “clueless tech-bro”. I have no idea what a tech-bro is, but it clearly has nothing to do with theatre. Fortunately, the camp’s teachers step into the breach.
They are not-quite couple Amos and Rebecca-Diane, played by Ben Platt and Molly Gordon, who also devised Theater Camp.
I say “devised”. No-one seems to have actually written or directed it.
There are two under-nourished storylines. The first involves getting an original show up by the end of the month.
Naturally it’s a musical, because…. well, because that’s pretty much how everyone at the self-explanatory Theater Camp seems to roll.
As the musical advances in fits and starts, behind the scenes the camp is hopelessly in debt. And “tech-bro Troy” keeps coming up with feckless business plans – often involving the kids – trying to get the place to pay for itself.
But both stories keep being derailed by one-off theatre reminiscences. The trouble with improv is it’s all in the moment. You may come up with a promising idea, but then it’s suddenly superseded by a new one.
For example, there’s Janet, a new teacher who arrives on day one, played by Ayo Edebiri – Sydney in the TV series The Bear.
Now what if Janet has completely cooked her CV, and knows virtually nothing about acting or teaching?
Well, I’m afraid, that remains in the “what if?” category, since nobody seems to have any idea or interest in how to develop it. One minute it’s there, then it’s gone.
Same with the talented kids in Theater Camp who are mostly left flailing with a bare minimum of material to work with.
“It’ll come right on the night” may work with a live show playing to an audience made up of friends and family. But it’s not what creates even a high school musical, let alone a Fame, a 42nd Street or a Singin’ in the Rain.
There’s got to be some structure under the ad-libs and what-ifs.
But the main thing Theater Camp depended on was an audience knowing what a theatre camp actually is.
The film is littered with inside references that slipped past me, and I suspect past anyone whose knowledge of theatre is limited to “we can put on a show right here in this barn” and “oh no, the star’s lost her voice – who can possibly step up to replace her?”
With the best will in the world – and that really is what I went into Theater Camp with, believe it or not – you can only go so far with a show that assumes you know and care more than you do.
Too many half-baked characters and under-developed ideas, culminating in a final act that’s implausible even by musical theatre standards. In other words, not enough theatre and too much camp.
