Where I Watched It: Hulu

English Audio Description?: No

Sadly, Hulu (majority owned Disney), was unable to prioritize securing the audio description track for Theatre Camp, a Fox Searchlight release (also, Disney). If the red tape is so thick internally, what hope do the rest of us have? We might as well just give up now. if it’s too complicated for Disney to transfer audio description to Disney, then we’re all fucked.

The majority of critics ignore their own bias, but I’m pretty up front about mine all the time. Going into this, I realized the movie was about music theatre, and that’s my day job. Shockingly, the critic who can’t seem to land a critics circle doesn’t make money from being a critic. My degree is paying off in spades. Instead, I make money working in live theatre, so this was targeting me pretty hard.

A simple enough idea. A camp for future Broadway stars is thrown into upheaval when the owner (Amy Sedaris) has a medical emergency and her son (Jimmy Tatro) has to take over despite not having any idea how to run a music theatre camp. he could just listen to his counselors, who are all over the top Broadway nerds, or he could go his own way. only time will tell. There’s a subplot about a rival camp wanting to take over, and that factors in as well.

Mostly, this feels like what it is. It’s the long form version of what was once a short film. So, it feels like a bunch of ideas being thrown at a wall to see what sticks. it’s less about a cohesive plot, and more about getting those ultra specific references in. So, for theatre nerds, this caters to you. but it also paints it in the most extreme fashion, so that non thespians will enjoy this as well.

Overall, the cast does a fine job, with director Molly Gordon pulling triple duty as one of the writers, the director, and star. Mostly, this worked for me because of the constant theatrical references. I loved the audition sequence where the kids all sang their 16 bar cuts. Those were some talented kids, and I was trying to figure out all of their songs, as well as thinking about being on the other side of that casting table, and trying to figure out who gets what role. I also enjoyed Tatro, because of his affability in his fish out of water role. He’s wrong for the job, but kind of a likable doofus. It’s virtually the same role he plays on Home Economics.

But, not every sketch works, and the film feels more like a collection of ideas than a stretched out story. There’s no audio description here, but the movie is very dialogue heavy, as well as songs. I would have preferred audio description, but I got enough from this vision.

It might not deserve this high of a grade, but I loved the constant barrage of theatre jokes.

Final Grade: B