‘The Musical’ will release in theaters nationwide on Sept. 18
NEED TO KNOW
- Will Brill, Rob Lowe and Gillian Jacobs star in the first trailer for The Musical, a dark comedy about revenge and theater
- The film follows a theater teacher who uses a secret student play to sabotage his school principal’s reputation
- Directed by Giselle Bonilla, the movie premiered at Sundance and hits theaters nationwide on Sept. 18
A theater teacher is putting on a new musical — all in the name of revenge.
That’s the premise of the dark comedy The Musical, which stars Tony Award winner Will Brill as disgruntled playwright-turned-middle-school-teacher Doug Leibowitz as he seeks to get revenge on the school’s principal (Rob Lowe) when he begins dating Doug’s ex (Gillian Jacobs).
PEOPLE can exclusively reveal the trailer for the film, which starts with Principal Brady informing the teaching staff that the school is on the cusp of making the Southern California Blue Ribbon Schools list and the teachers need to work harder to get on it.
Credit: Blue Harbor Entertainment
Doug, who has been marking time as a theater teacher until he can get himself to work as a playwright in New York, is seemingly on board until he finds out that his ex Abigail is now dating Brady, his nemesis. His plans then turn “from purely self-interested… to diabolical,” a synopsis reads.
The frustrated teacher says in the trailer, “Everyone talks about the power of love, but nobody talks about the power of spite.”
To get back at the principal, Doug enlists his theater students to put on “a play so inappropriate, the only result could be the ruin of Principal Brady’s reputation,” according to a logline for the film.
Credit: Blue Harbor Entertainment
The trailer shows Doug’s new script called “The Heroes,” which is leagues away from the West Side Story musical he promised the principal.
“Do we really want to do the same play that every other school does or do we want to do something special?” Doug asks his students in one clip after introducing them to his new musical script. “We can’t tell anybody what we’re doing.”
This prompts one of his students to ask, “You want us to lie?” to which he responds, “It’s okay to lie if it’s for the right reasons. The superpower of the theater is the element of surprise… Okay people let’s get to work.”
Several clips then show the students rehearsing for the new, secret play while keeping Principal Brady in the dark. He can then be heard saying, “When that curtain opens and they see what we’ve created, their minds will melt in their skulls.”
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The trailer cuts to the words, “What is the musical?” as the audience is left in suspense.
Credit: Blue Harbor Entertainment
The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, is directed by Giselle Bonilla and written by Alexander Heller.
The Musical hits theaters nationwide on Sept. 18.
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