Camp Ovation is a summertime haven for the kid who doesn't fit in the outside world: Michael (Robin de Jesus), who shows up at his prom in high-heel drag and is turned away; Ellen (Joanna Chilcoat), the plain girl with the extraordinary singing voice, who had to pay her brother to take her to the prom; Vlad (Daniel Letterle), the straight kid who might have been a jock, had he not discovered his love for musical theater. Todd Graff's autobiography about kids who summer by singing Sondheim plays like the old Fame TV series: Everything ends on a high note. Camp would be perfect without its scenes of plot and exposition, which feel like filler between the killer musical numbers that make even special guest Stephen Sondheim smile on his way out the door.
Robert Wilonsky