"Camp isn't home...but is it, kind of?"
"We're theater people. We know how to turn cardboard into gold."
— Glenn, quoting Joan
Theater Camp is a 2023 comedy film from directors Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman. Gordon and Lieberman co-wrote the script with Ben Platt and Noah Galvin, based off their 2020 short of the same name. Gordon, Platt, and Galvin star in the film alongside Jimmy Tatro, Amy Sedaris, Ayo Edebiri, and Patti Harrison.
Adirond-ACTS is a summer camp for theater kids in upstate New York. When beloved founder Joan Rubinsky (Sedaris) falls into a coma, her nitwit son Troy (Tatro) must step in to run the camp, to the chagrin of longtime campers-turned-teachers Rebecca-Diane (Gordon) and Amos Klobuchar (Platt). As the camp sets up a play based off Joan's life, Troy must find a way to raise funds or risk having the camp forclosed.
This film provides examples of:
- All Gays Love Theater: The theater camp fittingly attracts a high number of gay and/or flamboyant men, both staff and students. Lampshaded in the finale number where the students sing that it's a place for both "belting girls and boys in tiny shorts", and Devon coming out as straight is a big moment.
- Author Appeal: All of the film's writers and directors are Jewish. Various characters have Jewish names and mannerisms, and one camper is said to be attending camp instead of sitting shiva
for a family member, which impresses the staff. - Bait-and-Switch: It seems preordained in this comedy that Joan will awaken from her coma at the end. At the big recital, the camp shows a live-feed of Joan in her hospital bed. At the end of the performance, the woman in the bed has awoken from her coma and praises the campers, but it's a different woman. The camera was placed in front of the wrong bed.
- Camp Gay: Two of the camp's instructors, Gigi and Clive, plus at least two campers both named Christopher, all behave with flamboyant mannerisms and are all but stated to be gay.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Troy hosts an AirBnB guest next to the camp. This is initially a throwaway gag about how he clearly doesn't care about the art of theater. The guest is the one that provides the donation needed to hold off the camp's forclosure.
- Cross-Cast Role: In-Universe, Glenn has to sub in for the lead role of Joan after Darla leaves. He kills it, though not without Rebecca-Diane providing supporting vocals from the audience.
- Double Entendre: Rebecca-Diane, who sees herself as something of a medium, claims that she can project Joan's spirit but cannot "control when she comes inside [her]".
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Troy manages to get a sizable enough donation to keep the camp from being forclosed.
- Establishing Character Moment: Joan is introduced in the unenviable position of pumping potential donors for money, which might make her seem mercenary. But when she attends a school play, she cheers for the kids louder than the parents, showing that she is honestly dedicated to her students.
- Fish out of Water: A big driving force of the plot is dudebro Troy finding himself thrust into the world of theater.
- Granola Girl: Rebecca-Diane dresses like a hippie and apparently genuinely believes herself to be a spirit medium.
- Hidden Depths:
- Glenn slowly shows throughout the film that, despite his quiet demeanor and job as the tech guy, he has an incredible talent for performing. This is how he ends up becoming Old Joan in the play when the lead has to drop out.
- The person who convinced Glenn to take a shot at playing Old Joan? Troy, who was the only staff member to fully see Glenn's potential outside of merely "the tech guy", despite having no knowledge nor even interest in theater. Notably, despite Troy's fratboy dudebro persona, he makes no mention nor joke of the fact that this would mean having a guy crossdress as a gal for the majority of the play. The thought doesn't even seem to cross his mind.
- Incompatible Orientation: Part of Amos and Rebecca-Diane’s backstory is that she had a crush on him when they both attended the camp, until he came out to her. It’s clear that in present day, she no longer has any romantic feelings towards him.
- Mockumentary: The whole film is presented as a documentary that was meant to be about Joan leading the camp before her coma forces the focus to shift to Troy and the other instructors.
- Moment Killer: When sparks start flying between Caroline and Troy, Glenn intentionally starts forcing himself between them while working to kill the mood.
- Not Actually the Ultimate Question: At the start of the first stage combat class, teacher Janet asks “What is stage combat?”, and gets several flowery answers as to the essence of stage combat. She has to get progressively more blunt that she’s asking for a literal definition, as she lied on her resume and doesn’t even know what the term “stage combat” means.
- Parental Love Song: Joan, Still contains a song adoringly sung by Joan to her new son, Troy. When the real Troy hears it, he finally understands why everyone loves the camp so much.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Amos and Rebecca-Diane have been inseparable besties for the last decade. This behavior is promptly called out as codependent by Janet, and she is proven right when it turns out that the relationship has been stopping Rebecca-Diane from properly following her dreams. Reconstructed after they make up and promise to resume their strong friendship without holding each other back.
- Precision F-Strike: Amos tells Rebecca-Diane "What the fuck was that?" when she presents an impromptu finale song for the play.
- Punny Name:
- Adirond-ACTS references the fact that it's a camp for acting and the camp's location: the Adirondacks.
- "Amos Klobuchar" is a play on the name of American politician Amy Klobuchar.
- Rule of Funny: Janet doesn't know what stage combat is and tries to get her students to explain it to her in a roundabout fashion while ostensibly teaching it to them. Janet could have simply Googled "stage combat" if she really had no idea what it is, but then we wouldn't get this scene.
- Saving the Orphanage: Once his mother's beloved theater camp's mission and vision finally click for Troy, he turns his focus towards raising money to stop the bank from foreclosing and the camp from being sold to the venture capitalist-backed competition. He nearly fails, but luckily managed to book an AirBNB guest who was willing to donate enough money to keep it afloat for now.
- Shout-Out: Troy asks Devon if he knows any other Post Malone songs to sing, including "the one from the Spider-Verse soundtrack".
- Slobs Versus Snobs: Adirond-ACTS is right next door to Camp Lakeside, which gives its campers iPads. At the community dance hosted by Adirond-ACTS, the stuffy Camp Lakeside campers just stand around looking snooty while the theater kids dance around. Lakeside is trying to absorb the theater camp, and Glenn calls them the enemy.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The end title cards reveal what happened to the main characters:
- Troy got a sizable enough donation to keep the camp afloat for now and continues to try and raise funds, while also shopping around an idea for a book.
- Rebecca-Diane has a successful run on her cruise until she burns the boat down during a seance.
- Amos continues teaching at AdirondACTS and has a program for children of divorce.
- Glenn goes on to play Elphaba in Wicked and operates his own harness.
