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Camp writer/director Todd Graff offers on-location
advice to leading man Daniel Letterle.
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One of a number of cheer-out-loud moments in Camp, writer/director Todd Graff's fun-loving summer camp musical, occurs when students Anna Kendrick and Alana Allen partner on a rousing rendition of the Stephen Sondheim number "The Ladies Who Lunch." They tackle the song, a tale of middle-aged, drunken self-hating, with confidence, despite the fact that neither was even born when Sondheim's song debuted in the 1970 Broadway show Company.
Movie musicals are frequently about what was. Graff strives for relevance by placing Camp around kids today. Just because the "Camp" kids weren't around during the heyday of movie musicals doesn't mean they don't know all the show tunes word-for-word.
I meet Graff for the first time on a weekday afternoon near the end of the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. The atmosphere is laid-back and chaotic, typical Sundance. He sits at a table beneath a glass atrium at a hotel in Park City, Utah, that's quickly become the central gathering spot for interviews. Matt Dillon is nearby promoting his filmmaking debut, the mystery City of Ghosts. The director and young cast of the coming-of-age drama Raising Victor Vargas gather at an adjacent table preparing for a photo shoot.
Sitting in the middle of all the activity is Graff, a 40-year-old actor and screenwriter who finds himself cast in the role of independent filmmaker as something of a mid-career move.
Graff first attended the musical theater camp Stagedoor Manor as a 14-year-old. He returned as a counselor and credits the camp for his decision to pursue an acting career. He never forgot Stagedoor Manor and spent five years polishing a script based on his experiences there. No studio was interested in the project until the costume musical Moulin Rouge! became a critical and commercial hit. With lightning speed, Jersey Films and Killer Films came on-board as producers, and IFC Films agreed to distribute the filmmaker's simply titled Camp.
Graff is a subtle, bald man of medium build whose firm handshake and thoughtful gaze reflect someone years removed from a musical theater camp. But there is an enthusiastic bounce in his voice, an excitement equal to the voices and performances of his cast of young performers. Graff has watched Sundance audiences, a group known to favor edgier fare, react enthusiastically to his old-fashioned musical. He's thrilled and more than a little bit surprised, because Camp is the feel-good, fish-out-of-water at this year's Sundance. If it can be a hit here, Graff speculates, maybe it has a chance to win audiences everywhere.
"Camp is not the typical Sundance film," Graff says, looking at the busyness around him. "I was a little nervous about being here. Maybe we are too fluff. But people love it. They're reacting just the way I hoped."
Camp is set at Camp Ovation, a musical theater summer camp in the Catskill Mountains where talented young kids who know Sondheim tunes by heart come together to put on a show and share their love for musical theater.
Comparisons to the 1980 teen musical Fame are obvious, but Camp's lineage goes back 60 years to the Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney films Babes in Arms (1939), Babes on Broadway (1941), and other tales about backstage machinations like Busby Berkeley's Stage Struck (1936) and Varsity Show (1937). Camp looks to recreate never-again days, although Graff is convinced that the love for musical theater has never left. Kids still go to camps like Stagedoor Manor in large numbers.
Like a Golden Age Hollywood musical, rousing song-and-dance numbers separate the film's private dramas. Like all good movie musicals, Camp brims with exuberance and emotional excess, but there is nothing lavish about its production -- no bizarre montages, overhead camera angles or kaleidoscope effects. Graff made Camp intentionally homespun and realistic.
"Moulin Rouge! is a spectacle," Graff says. "Camp is more real than fantasy, more Bob Fosse than Busby Berkeley."
Musical numbers separate scenes of preparation and planning by the kids. The escapist elements are also there, and the hokum in the film remains pleasant and enjoyable.
Graff watches the swelling public enthusiasm for the musicals Chicago with a personal agenda. He's convinced that the timing is right for Camp to attract recognition.
In the six months since Sundance, Graff has remained busy promoting Camp. The film is in the early stages of its release, playing in some 40 theaters nationwide, but the initial response has been favorable. Graff lives a short walk from Lower Manhattan's Sunshine Theater, one of the main art-house theaters playing Camp, and he's watched large crowds respond favorably to the film.
Talking recently by phone, Graff updates me on his latest itinerary. He and his Camp kids head to real-life musical theater camp Stagedoor Manor to screen the film, and Graff admits he's terribly nervous.
"You know they're going to say things like, well, why ain't I in the film?" Graff says with a hint of exasperation. "They'll say, the dressing rooms don't connect to the stage like that. But I'm hoping they love the film."
After his coming-home return to Stagedoor Manor, Graff and the Camp kids head to England to promote the film. It's been a great ride, one made more satisfying by all the attention Camp cast members have received. Remember the musical stars of yesterday -- Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, Leslie Caron and Cyd Charisse? Graff is hoping cast members like Kendrick and Allen are the musical stars of tomorrow.
Asked if he's surprised by Camp's initial success, Graff sees his film as part of a matter-of-fact rebellion against bad Hollywood movies.
"There have been a string of bad Hollywood movies this summer, and a small film like Camp stands out from the mediocre crowd."
Studios don't make movies like Babes on Broadway anymore, but the fact of the matter is Camp comes very close. Movie musicals are about yesterday, and the goal of Camp is to make musicals relevant to young kids today. Graff wants to play suburban multiplexes. He believes the film can be a crossover, commercial hit, if given a chance.
There is vitality, dancing and exuberance, which never go out of style. The smell of greasepaint is the same. So is the roar of an appreciative crowd.
The show must go on in a musical like Camp, and isn't that always the case? ©
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