Welcome to Camp Ovation where parents send their sons and daughters who have a hankering to act, sing, dance, and play music. Among the teenagers sharing the creative adventures here are Vlad (Daniel Letterle), a charmer who has an inveterate need to win people over; Ellen (Joanna Chilcoat), a tomboy who hangs out with gay guys; Michael (Robin De Jesus), who was beaten up by male classmates and rejected by his parents after he attended his high school prom in drag; Jill (Alana Allen), a blonde who loves getting everyone's attention; Fritzi (Anna Kendrick), Jill's roommate who is her humble servant and lackey; Dee (Sasha Allen), an African-American whose vocal talents are acknowledged by all; and Jenna (Tiffany Taylor), whose parents have had her mouth wired shut so she won't gain any more weight while away from home.
Writer and director Todd Graff has based this comedy on his experiences as a camper and counselor at an upstate New York theatre camp. The kids are required to put on a new show for audiences every two weeks, and these include such complex musicals as Dreamgirls by Henry Krieger and Burt Bacharach and Promises, Promises by Hal David. The teenagers are real troopers who still find time to agonize over their private problems. Vlad admits to Michael, who has a crush on him, that he has an obsessive-compulsive problem that lies behind his need to act and perform music. At the same time, he tries to draw out the shy and socially awkward Ellen who was so desperate to attend the prom that she had to ask her brother to take her.
The kids aren't the only ones wrestling with their demons. The guest director at Camp Ovation is Bert Hanley (Don Dixon) who has been blocked and boozing it up for years after having a hit show on Broadway. The busy Vlad decides to surprise this cynical creative soul with a musical tribute to him. Stephen Sondheim makes a brief appearance at the camp and sends a stir through the crowd of admiring kids. This pleasant light-hearted drama is filled with plenty of musical numbers and a sassy group of teenagers all yearning to strut their stuff.
