Theater gays casting spells, horny Jesus, & more musical shenanigans to stream this weekend

Welcome to your weekend streaming recommendations, a.k.a. the Weekend Watch, a handy guide to the queerest film and TV content that’s just a click away!

The Tony Awards are on June 11, and everyone knows the gays love to put on a show! We hate-watched Glee as much as the next theater queen, but there are some fabulous musical-themed movies you can stream that don’t include Matthew Morrison grinding up on (fictional!) minors. While Lea Michele is nowhere to be found in these lesser-known faves, we promise you that by the end of the weekend, you’ll have found your illiterate inner diva.

Read on for some musicals and theater-themed entertainment to stream this weekend.

Camp

Written and directed by Todd Graff, this 2003 musical is about a fictional musical theater camp where misfit kids come to shine each summer. Joanna Chilcoat plays Ellen, a talented girl with a dash of naivete; out actor Robin de Jesus is Michael, a defiantly fabulous, femme drag queen who suffers regular bullying at school and longs for his summer stardom; and Daniel Letterle is Vlad, the camp’s new token straight boy with a voice like a songbird.

The three form a close friendship (and possibly more?) as the summer goes on, and Camp has a classic “let’s save the camp and put on a show!” story as the campers convince drunken composer/new camp director Bert (Don Dixon) to produce his long-lost show as a fundraiser. The movie also features a young Anna Kendrick in an insane All About Eve-style subplot that culminates in a stunning rendition of “The Ladies Who Lunch” from Company, and some wild musical theater cameos that we won’t spoil here. 

Streaming on AMC+, Prime Video, Plex, PlutoTV, and Tubi. Rentable via AppleTV.

Related:

Robin de Jesús on ‘Camp’ memories, Chippendales dancers, and the movie kiss that changed his life

Star of stage and screen, Robin de Jesús talks representing for the Boriqua queers, his dream movie-to-musical adaptation, and that time he and his ‘Camp’ co-stars turned a quiet bar in upstate New York into “an episode of Sex And The City.”

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Were The World Mine

This low-budget 2008 musical by Tom Gustafson is a very gay take on William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. When Timothy (Tanner Cohen), an openly gay kid, is cast as Puck in his school play of—you guessed it — A Midsummer Night’s Dream, he accidentally casts a spell that turns everyone in his homophobic, judgmental town gay!

The music, which is a mix of raucous folk rock and soft musical theater, incorporates Shakespeare’s verse. Robin Williams’ daughter, Zelda Williams, rocks the house with “Pyramus And Thisby.” Also, there are sweaty dudes with feathery wings and lots of guy-on-guy kisses.

Streaming on Kanopy, The Roku Channel, and Tubi. Rentable via Prime Video and Vudu.

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Stage Fright

Who says musicals have to be happy? This 2014 comedic slasher flick by Jerome Sable—with the iconic Minnie Driver as its opening kill—is basically Camp with a masked killer.

Allie MacDonald stars as a talented young woman with a connection to a famous murder, working the kitchen at a summer musical theater camp. When the camp decides to stage “The Haunting Of The Opera,” a killer starts picking off the cast and crew. Stage Fright’s a bit silly, and the performances vary, but the showstopping “We’re Gay” makes it all worth it.

Streaming on Fubo TV, Plex, PlutoTV, Tubi, and Vudu. Rentable via AppleTV, Prime Video, and YouTube TV.

Related:

No hack jobs: 10 queer slasher movies that are good for a scare—or a laugh

Don’t pick up the phone, don’t answer the door, and—whatever you do—don’t turn off the TV… because there are plenty of queer slasher movies to watch!

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Hamlet 2

This zany 2008 cringe-fest by Andrew Fleming stars the always-hilarious Steve Coogan as Dana Marschz, a down-on-his-luck drama teacher and recovering alcoholic who decides to write and stage a musical sequel to Hamlet in which the cast goes back in time to stop the events of the Shakespeare masterwork from ever happening.

Hamlet 2 features hilarious performances by Amy Poehler as a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, David Arquette, musical fave Skyler Astin, and Elisabeth Shue as herself. The catchy and gangbusters final song, “Rock Me Sexy Jesus,” is so offensively bad you’ll never stop playing it.

Rentable via AppleTV, Google Play, Prime Video, Vudu, and YouTube TV.

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Dancer In The Dark

Hard left turn, folks! Lars Von Trier’s dark 2000 Björk star vehicle tells the story of Selma, a Czech immigrant with a degenerative eye disease. Selma works in a factory to save up money for a procedure that will save her son from losing his vision and dreams in feverish musical numbers, all the while getting caught up in a terrible criminal plot by her shady landlord, Bill (David Morse).

An incredible soundtrack by Björk herself, a cameo by Joel Grey and beautifully staged musical numbers make this a challenging but worthwhile flick. This surreal, dreamy, DEEPLY UPSETTING musical is as bleak as they come, but Queerty decided to recommend it because Bjork!

Streaming on Kanopy. Rentable via AppleTV, Google Play, Prime Video, Vudu, and YouTube TV.

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The Kicker…

SiriusXM’s Christine Pedi is not only a great radio host. She’s also a brilliant impersonator with a killer singing voice. This classic live performance by Pedi of the Dreamgirls Act I finale “And I Am Telling You” contains her impressions of gay icon after gay icon, including Judy Garland, Little Edie Beale, Ethel Merman, Bernadette Peters, Julie Andrews, Katherine Hepburn and many others.