Rob Lowe Returns to School in Exclusive Sneak Peek of Sundance Darling 'The Musical'

Theatre can feel like life or death. When you are part of a production, it is the only thing that matters. Or at least that's how it feels at the time. The new film The Musical captures that feeling in the new exclusive sneak peek that Collider is thrilled to bring you today. Directed by Giselle Bonilla and written by Alexander Heller, the film stars Parks and Recreation star Rob Lowe, Community actress Gillian Jacobs, and Broadway star (and star of the play Stereophonic), Will Brill. Our sneak peek will take you right back into doing theatre as a child.

If you've ever stepped on stage in a musical or a play at any part of your life, you know how it can feel like a life-or-death thing. In our clip from The Musical, a group of children will do whatever it takes to make their teacher's production amazing — including moving a bar mitzvah in order to be a part of the production. Lowe and Brill have a brief conversation where Lowe's principal threatens the theatre teacher with canceling the production before the children get the rallying cry they need. "The superpower of theatre is the element of surprise," the group of students screams, and if that isn't relatable, you maybe didn't do theatre in school.

The Musical is Bonilla's directorial debut and a movie that began as a short film, but Bonilla wanted to turn this short in particular into a feature-length film because she wanted to do it with the friends that helped start it all. She told Collider's Samantha Coley:

"The short was made with some of my closest friends from grad school, the opportunity to make our first feature together was always a great motivator. I used to put a lot of pressure on myself to write the "perfect" directorial debut that would launch my career... And that ultimately became my biggest hindrance. I would put an unfathomable amount of pressure and doubt all of my ideas. When I read Heller's feature adaptation after the inspiring experience of just making something fun for the sake of it (the short), I was able to let go of all my pretension and the weight surrounding the first feature. It was creatively liberating to approach his story from an objective perspective. And the opportunity to work with child actors who would be required to manipulate and challenge the adult characters with agency was very exciting."

Expanding a Short Film Into Something More

Heller had his work cut out for him in expanding the script beyond the short film they had previously made. But that was, according to Heller, always the plan. "I was broke and in film school — I needed anything that could maybe, possibly, hopefully be an escape hatch! I actually had an outline for the feature before writing the short, but the real question was...who was the right director," Heller told Collider. "After getting to know Giselle and seeing her first work at AFI, I just knew that there couldn't be anyone else. It took a bit of convincing, but...after she went through a breakup, she was suddenly very committed to a crazy revenge story. I still need to thank that guy."

The cast is one for the ages, and when asked about how it felt seeing legends like Lowe, Jacobs, and Brill bring their story to life, Heller shared that there were some moments where it felt like they'd assembled a perfect team for the project. "I think there were a few moments that had that feeling. Watching Will and Gillian improvise different versions of their fight scene on the stage was really eye-opening for me in the sense that I was just like...damn...they're so good at this," Heller said. "They went through so many subtle variations and really brought that moment to life. And watching Rob and Gillian do their thing in front of the kids was also so funny to me. All those auditorium scenes just made me laugh so much."

For Bonilla: "The first scene we shot with Rob and Will was a very benign warning from Principal Brady about Doug's expired parking pass at the beginning of the film... but their body language fighting opposite each other like magnets was electric. I was in awe of their ability to fill a simple scene with loads of delicious subtext." She went on to highlight their dynamic, saying, "There were no direct scenes where Brady assaults Doug's character in any way, but their physical dynamic together was so revealing it allowed me to pin Brady clearly as Doug's foe. I couldn't believe how lucky I was. How easy they made it all look." Praising Jacobs, she said:

"Working with Gillian was like watching a hummingbird in slow motion. She is incredibly poised, and still you can feel her reacting to every minute detail Will threw at her. I always tried to have two cameras when they had scenes together because their chemistry was explosive. I couldn't look away. It was like watching a car crash. They were both wildly present in the moment you never knew what was going to happen. It was a gift."

You can see Brill, Lowe, and Jacobs in The Musical. Check out our exclusive sneak peek above and stay tuned at Collider for more.