Theater Thursday - Camp the Musical

We were given complimentary tickets for review purposes. Any and all opinions expressed here are our own. 

What: Camp the Musical 

Where: Theater Row 

             410 W. 42nd St. New York, NY 

Who: Ages 5 and Up

When: Through August 21, 2022

Camp is a show about a camp for spoiled rich children who suddenly have to share their camp with kids from the poor camp across the lake when the latter mysteriously burns down. A lot of the story and most of the characters are very cliched and predictable.  There are a few fun original elements, however,  including a particularly funny subplot about a girl who is so desperate to get internet that things go awry, and somehow, she ends up speaking Japanese. Katie Smith does a really nice job in the role as well. In general, the performers do a good job in their roles and they are very enthusiastic in their performances. After all, these kids have waited through two years of a pandemic to make their Off-Broadway debuts, and most if not all of them have clearly outgrown their roles. While we applaud the loyalty of the show's creators to these kids, it doesn't always serve the story. However, this is definitely not the only case in which kids who aged out of their roles during the pandemic were allowed to continue in them afterward as anyone who saw the original cast of Mrs. Doubtfire knows all too well. 

There are also way too many characters in general which wouldn't be so bad if they were more differentiated from each other and therefore easier to keep track of. For example, the two nerdy characters are pretty much the same, the three mean girls are pretty much the same, and so on. It's like they had a certain number of kids they wanted to get in the cast, and they were going to do so no matter what like it's a class show and nobody can be left out. 

There are some fun songs in the show although none that will really stick in your head. Was it really necessary to have a song about farting though? Surely, that will be one kids will enjoy and remember though, 

The resolution of the story doesn't really ring true.  It all happens too quickly and not believably. At its heart though, the show has a good message for kids about getting along and being yourself, and about everyone being the same underneath it all so you might still want to take your kids to this one. Besides, they won't want to miss that fart song.

And that's our view. Tune in Sunday for this week's Sunday Scoop.