The Cast and Filmmakers of ‘The Musical’ Will Try Not to Spoil the Dark Comedy’s Big Twist for You

A funny little micro-theme of this year’s Sundance? Kids putting on a show (specifically a musical) about a topic you’d really, really not expect kids to put on a show about.

Such is the general plot of both Giselle Bonilla’s “The Musical” and NB Mager’s “Run Amok.” But while the finer details of Mager’s film are readily available, the team behind Bonilla’s feature (written by Alex Heller) are playing things a little closer to the vest. Just know: the titular musical? It’s, uh, pretty unexpected (and, for some, will prove to be very funny indeed).

When Bonilla, Heller, and their stars Rob Lowe, Gillian Jacobs, and Will Brill visited the IndieWire Studio, presented by Dropbox, the day of their Sundance premiere, the group gamely tried to hype their new film without spilling its craziest secret. We can’t blame them for it, and their attempts to talk about the film without giving away too much actually ended up illuminating their own major takeaways.

Start here: in the film, Brill plays middle school teacher and failed playwright Doug, who starts a brand new school year with a broken heart (care of Jacobs’ fellow teacher Abigail, who dumped him over the summer), that only gets worse when it emerges that his ex is now dating smarmy Principal Brady (Lowe). His only available weapon? Staging a musical with his plucky band of theater kids that’s so wild, it will upend Brady’s big dreams of elevating the school to vaunted Blue Ribbon status.

“The film is about a sad and jealous man who wants revenge on the person he hates most in the world, who is his boss,” Heller said. “And he does so by way of [making] a controversial musical with middle schoolers.”

But not so fast! Brill had his own take. “I would say the film is about a cool and handsome man,” he started, before the rest of his team started laughing. “It’s about a sad and handsome man who is resentful and takes his power back by staging a musical about a historic event that is not often depicted on stage, nor set to music.” Fair enough!

Jacobs’ elevator pitch? “A woman who has to work with her ex-boyfriend and her new ex-boyfriend and juggle that while really trying to be a good teacher and caring about the students, which you really haven’t heard about until this point,” she said with a chuckle. “And she’s horrified to watch the musical that her ex-boyfriend has created behind all of their backs.”

Lowe interjected to laughs, “Sad little man! Yes, sad little man! Jealous! Jealous for no good reason, of a man, just a simple man, who has aspirations to rise beyond being a principal and to higher office, like comptroller. And is completely unaware! He’s excited to see ‘West Side Story.’ The play that is delivered? Not ‘West Side Story,’ and not good for his political career.”

Bonilla, who makes her feature directorial debut on the film, got a bit more serious. “It’s a satire on white liberalism,” she started (“I like that!,” Lowe added). “And people who weaponize tragedy for their own agendas.” Oh, it’s that, and more.

Watch the complete conversation with “The Musical” team in the video above.

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