The comparisons to FAME are inevitable: This rough-hewn but appealing backstage musical, set in a summer camp for stage-struck kids, could easily pass for a "What We Did on Our Summer Vacation" student film straight out of Manhattan's High School of the Performing Arts. The eager-to-please film doesn't waste a second before unleashing the first in a slew of showstoppers, opening with the kind of number usually reserved for first-act closers, the long, gospel-inflected "How Shall I See You Through My Tears." Only then does it get around to introducing this summer's campers: Vlad (Daniel Letterle), an all-American, corn-fed straight boy from the sticks who isn't as per...
Released:
2003
Rated:
PG-13
Length:
114 mins