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Review

Out director/writer/actor Todd Graff has created a queer musical set in a theatrical summer camp that joins in the revival of movie musicals with Chicago and Moulin Rouge. Only the most talented kids are accepted at Camp Ovation where the only sports are part of the stage productions! Back at home these kids are misfits, outcasts and loners, but here at camp they are the stars. Michael is a pimply-faced sissy boy who was beat up at his prom for wearing a dress. Ellen begs her brother to take her to the prom. Vlad, the token straight boy, is obsessed with making everyone happy. The story is autobiographical- based on a real summer camp where Robert Downey, Jr, Mary Stuart Masterson and Jennifer Jason Leigh spent their summers. Graff says this about the kids, "The majority of kids are not cut from the normal cloth. They are crazily into theater, which not a lot of kids are. They feel forced to live inside their heads and have a sense of isolation and not fitting in."

Every two weeks the campers launch a new production of a musical or serious theater piece. Among the treats for us filmgoers are scenes from Company, Dreamgirls, Follies and Promises, Promises. One of the most hilarious moments is the rendition of The Ladies that Lunch by young girls - one of whom actually steals the number from the other girl.

The plot revolves around a failed, drunken musical theater composer who comes to the camp to hide, but is actually brought to life again by these "artistic" teens. Also featured are summer romances/near-romances - mostly heterosexual. But that's a small concession to the straight people, this one's really for the queer set. Very spirited musical numbers, terrific teen actors (all fresh faces), and a cameo by Steven Sondheim himself make Camp the queer musical event of 2003.

Scott Cranin