‘The Musical’ Star Will Brill on His Dark, Surprisingly Delightful 9/11 Revenge Comedy — SkimNews
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- Will Brill stars as Doug, a middle school theater teacher who directs his students in an original 9/11 musical — complete with cardboard Twin Towers — to sabotage rival principal Rob Lowe and win back a colleague
- The Musical premiered at Sundance and is now rolling out in limited theatrical release after distributors reportedly hesitated over the high-concept 9/11 premise
- Screenwriter Alex Heller conceived the 9/11 musical angle after watching "The Producers" and "Election," writing in his notes app simply: "Fuck it: 9/11 musical"
- The lead role cycled through Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver before landing on Brill; the previous leads dropped out 10 days before shooting, after which Rob Lowe — drawn by the Los Angeles filming location — signed on
- Brill drew on his own childhood in children's theater, starting at age 6 in "The Velveteen Rabbit," and a real-life college petty revenge moment to shape Doug's character
- Director Giselle Bonilla originally offered Brill the principal role instead of the lead, citing the same reason she passed on bigger names: "It's the person behind the character"
Why it matters: A Tony-winning stage actor fronting a microbudget film whose entire hook is having middle schoolers perform a 9/11 musical is exactly the kind of project corporate distributors now routinely pass on, as Brill himself notes. The film's path from rejected-by-Sundance-buyers to limited theatrical release — with Rob Lowe attached for the L.A. shoot — tests whether audacious original comedy can still find a theatrical audience outside the festival-to-streaming pipeline.
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