Not since Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s “Good Will Hunting” has a group of actors (and actual friends) so felicitously taken a movie into their own hands.
Two childhood pals, Tony winner Ben Platt (“Dear Evan Hansen”) and “The Bear” star Molly Gordon, alongside Gordon’s “Booksmart” co-star Noah Galvin, plus Nick Lieberman, their go-to video director, spent the early days of the pandemic writing “Theater Camp,” itself a feature version of their 2020 18-minute mockumentary of the same name. (Platt lovingly described the short on Zoom as a “slapdash zero-dollar short,” which gets to its appeal.)
Platt, Gordon, and Galvin also starred in both the short (financed by Platt) and the feature film, while Lieberman directed the short and co-directed the feature with Gordon (whose parents, Bryan and Jessie Gordon, are both writer-directors). The four are also all credited producers. Talk about do-it-yourself.
Platt and Lieberman have collaborated on improv and sketch comedy videos since they were just teenagers. “He is like a vital voice in the group as a director and a writer,” Platt told IndieWire. “And thank God there’s one of us that doesn’t want to perform. He’s basically the one that stays behind the camera.‘’
Gordon had long edited their material with Lieberman, said Platt, “and it made sense they would team up and direct together.”
“It was a large undertaking,” said Galvin on Zoom. “We had to film the movie in 19 days. On top of having children who can only work four or five hours a day. On top of being in a remote sweaty goose-poop-filled place north of New York City.”
Given that Platt and Gordon co-starred together as actual toddlers in musicals such as “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” there was no question what subject they were going to tackle. “Naturally, the world we chose to depict was theater,” said Platt, “because we love it so much. And also we felt we could make a lot of fun out of it.”
“The crossroads of all four of us is our shared trauma and love for youth theater,” said Galvin, who is engaged to be married to Platt. “And all of our collective experiences dealing with youth theater teachers, and these people who take their jobs incredibly seriously. If Ben were to lean into every terrible bad quality in himself, he would probably be a lot more like [his character] Amos.”
“So you’re saying those qualities are in me?,” said Platt. “They reside in you, absolutely,” Galvin responded. “And Molly.”
After making it, the group decided to sit on the short, waiting for the right moment to expand it into a feature. “We dreamt of what we might be able to accomplish if we had a longer form story,” said Platt. “And a little more money,” said Galvin. “We thought it could be proof of concept for something larger.”
It was. During the pandemic, the gang decided to post the “Theater Camp” short on YouTube. “We didn’t know what the future held in terms of our lives,” said Galvin. “But also the business. And we thought: ‘It made us laugh. Hopefully it will do that for others.’”
They were stunned by the positive response. The message was clear: the “Theater Camp” feature had to be their next project. The foursome congregated at Platt’s house (and over Zoom when they were otherwise working) to write the full-length musical comedy about two long-time upstate New York camp counselors who take their teaching Very Seriously (Platt and Gordon). When the camp owner (Amy Sedaris) falls into a coma, they must deal with her clueless tech-bro son (Jimmy Tatro), who is threatening to sell the tattered camp.
They know exactly what to do: “Let’s put on a show!”
The counselors, plus their long-suffering production manager (Galvin) and the talented troupe of kids must deliver a wham-bang benefit musical to bring in enough funds to save their beloved AdirondACTS. Creating the musical book and songs for the movie with Mark Sonnenblick was another challenge for the filmmakers, who accorded three days for the musical performances.
A year later, Galvin submitted the finished script to producer Jessica Elbaum at Will Ferrell’s Gloria Sanchez Productions, who had encouraged him to write during the filming of “Booksmart.” She brought in Picturestart to back the project.
Galvin and Platt credit the pandemic for forcing them to fall on their own creative resources. “A lot of this business is dictated by so many other things than your abilities,” said Galvin. “And it takes a lot to prove yourself as a performer who can do a lot of things. Everybody’s wanting this business to simplify and make things easier for them, and a lot of people find the way to do that is by compartmentalizing and putting people in boxes. This was an opportunity for us to seize our own narratives, and create opportunities for ourselves, and showcase all of our strengths.”
Platt, who has flourished more on Broadway than in Hollywood movies, can relate. “If you’re in the position to do something that’s actually going to fill you up and be joyful and fulfilling and meaningful,” he said, “then that needs to be the priority. We learned the hard way that you have to be the one to really prioritize that. Because I don’t think that there’s anyone who is going to look on paper at this somewhat niche subject matter, this small alt-comedy film — especially right now in the landscape of filmmaking — and in our individual lanes of our careers tell us to prioritize that. So we had to learn that it needed to come from us putting that first. We feel so wonderfully lucky and grateful and vindicated that it has come to fruition the way that we always dreamed that it could.”
And the actor never expected his fantasy scenario for the film to come true: finding someone to finance the movie, editing it into a coherent narrative, getting into Sundance — where “Theater Camp” played to enthusiastic ovations — and selling to a top theatrical distributor, Searchlight Pictures, which paid $8 million for worldwide rights. “It’s all about the communal live experience, the movie,” said Platt, “the importance of family and friendship. Searchlight is so special at finding eccentric, small, specific, warm stories and giving them the right life. We actually couldn’t believe it for a while.”
And the other boon that the movie provided was a showcase for Galvin (who, funnily, enough, has also played the titular role in the smash Broadway hit “Dear Evan Hansen,” just like his fiance), who breaks out in the musical finale in full drag — and full voice. Platt and Galvin added this coda to the script in the last few weeks of prep when the two directors were otherwise engaged.
Platt knew exactly what Galvin could do, he said: “One of the joys of this has been people’s discovery of his performance. Based on the short and what they’ve seen him do in the past, they probably have one idea of what they might expect from him. And he subverts those expectations and exceeds them. It’s been wonderful like a cherry on top to get to watch that as his partner.”
Next up: Galvin continues on “The Good Doctor,” while Platt finishes his Broadway run in “Parade” on August 6. He has already shot the first sequence of Richard Linklater’s 18-year project “Merrily We Roll Along” (that first sequence was filmed a second time, after Paul Mescal replaced Blake Jenner). The second is coming up at the end of the year. “That’ll be the second of nine,” said Platt. “Each one is about two or three years apart.”
Searchlight Pictures releases “Theater Camp” in theaters on Friday, July 14.
