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A14 PEOPLE / ARTS
Thursday 13 July 2023

Film review: Musical theater meets mockumentary in ‘Theater Camp’

By JAKE COYLE side jokes fly fast and fre-
AP Film Writer quent. There’s a group
Among the low-hanging of finger-snapping “Fosse
fruits of satire, sleepaway kids,” a designated “Mer-
theater camps would dan- yl Day,” bedtime stories
gle about as low as social- where the villain is non-
media influencers and Def union and exaggerated
Leppard cover bands. stakes on stage. “Joan,
But “Theater Camp,” a Still” is said to be such an
new comedy by Molly Gor- ambitious work of theater
don and Nick Lieberman, that Amos promises its child
energetically wades into cast: “This will break you.”
the kind of mockumen- All of this clever but too
tary territory Christopher expected to be especially
Guest would approve of. funny. The movie, the direc-
The spirit of “Best in Show” torial debut for Gordon and
and “Waiting for Guffman” Lieberman, loosely bounc-
is often present, for better es between a large cast of
and worse, in Gordon and characters, who know their
Lieberman’s film, which first parts well maybe too well.
debuted at Sundance ear- This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows a scene from “Theater Camp.” They include the dancing

Associated Press

lier this year. instructor Clive (Nathan
But theirs is a much more camp of AdirondACTS has film. Taking Amy Sedaris off summer season, plenty of Lee Graham), the cos-
earnest, loving lampoon, been pluckily kept running screen in a mockumentary eyerolls follow especial- tume designer Gigi (Owen
made by a group of friends for years by its founder, that might have starred her ly from Amos (Platt), the Thiele) and Galvin’s tech
with obvious affection for Joan (Amy Sedaris). She’s is like killing Fred Astaire off head of drama, and his director with secret dreams
musical theater. Gordon intended to be the main in the first number. You just close friend and collabora- of performing. One nota-
and Lieberman co-wrote character of a documen- don’t do it. So who are our tor Rebecca-Diane (Gor- ble standout is “The Bear”
the script with Ben Platt and tary on the camp. But in the characters instead? Joan’s don). They nevertheless breakout Ayo Edebiri as a
Noah Galvin, expanding opening moments of the son, Troy (Jimmy Tatro), forge ahead with the sum- local hire who lied on her
their 2020 18-minute short. film, while Joan and man- comes in to run the camp. mer’s programs, including resume; her scenes have a
The result is something too ager Rita (Caroline Aaron) He’s pretty much their worst “The Crucible Jr.,” an “im- lively unpredictability.
tame for rich parody, but are out recruiting campers, nightmare: a social media- mersive” “Cats” and their But if “Theater Camp”
knowing enough to be kind she’s knocked into a coma promoting finance bro original piece, “Joan, Still.” struggles to find its footing,
of sweet. by strobe lights in a middle who always avoided his Life at the camp gets un- “Joan, Still” leads it to a
“Theater Camp,” at least, school production of “Bye mother’s camp because, derway while the threat surprisingly terrific finale. By
has the song and dance Bye Birdie.” he says, he was busy doing of foreclosure lurks and a then, Tatro has turned his
part down pat. It’s a funny enough gag “dope (expletive)” instead. more well-to-do rival camp one-note caricature into
The upstate New York but a crushing blow to the When Troy opens a new looks to take over. The in- an endearing ally. q

Music streams for 2023 hit 1 trillion

in record time

tive of an increasingly in- ish and Korean language chart factors in a combi-
ternational music market- music are the most popular nation of album sales, on-
place. when taking a look at the demand audio/visual sales,
Additionally, Luminate top 10,000 most streamed and digital track sales).
found that two in five or songs (audio and video When “top albums” are de-
40% of U.S. music listen- combined) during the first fined by physical and digi-
ers enjoy music in a non- half of 2023,” says Jaime tal sales exclusively, K-pop
English language. And a Marconette, Luminate’s dominates, taking up six of
whopping 69% of U.S. music senior director of music in- the top 10 spots.
listeners enjoy music from sights and industry relations. “K-pop fans are, unsurpris-
artists originating outside of “Furthermore, Spanish- ingly, some of the most en-
Bad Bunny speaks at the Sony Pictures Entertainment the U.S. language music’s share of thusiastic fans across physi-
presentation at CinemaCon 2022 in Las Vegas on April 25, 2022.
Associated Press According to the report, that top 10,000 has grown cal formats,” Marconette
Spanish, French, Japanese, 3.6% since 2021, while Eng- says.
Korean, Italian, German, lish-language music’s share Luminate found that K-pop
By MARIA SHERMAN at the fastest pace, ever, and Arabic are the most has dropped 4.2% in that fans are 69% more likely
AP Music Writer in a calendar year, Lumi- popular languages for non- same time,” he says. to purchase vinyl and 46%
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Is non- nate’s 2023 Midyear Report Anglophonic music among That is reflected in Lumi- more likely to purchase
English language music the has found. The number was U.S. music listeners, with Lat- nate’s 2023 Midyear Top CDs than the average U.S.
future of the music busi- reached in three months, a in genres and K-pop lead- Albums chart, where Bad music listener in the next 12
ness? Perhaps. full month faster than 2022. ing the charge. Bunny ‘s spring 2022 album months. One in four K-pop
The global music industry Global streams are also up “Specifically, our stream- “Un Verano Sin Ti” still breaks fans has purchased a cas-
surpassed 1 trillion streams 30.8% from last year, reflec- ing data shows that Span- the top 10 a year later (the sette in the last 12 months.q