Doug Leibowitz is a playwright who expected a bigger stage than a middle-school classroom. Instead, he teaches theater while the school principal dates his ex-girlfriend. That is the spark for The Musical, a dark comedy opening in U.S. theaters September 18. Doug does not take the breakup well. He decides the best revenge is to put on a school show that will embarrass the principal and ruin his shot at a major academic award.
Will Brill plays Doug, a teacher who can turn a bruised ego into a wildly complicated plan. Gillian Jacobs plays his ex, Abigail, and Rob Lowe plays Principal Brady. The Blue Ribbon of Academic Excellence is within Brady’s reach, which makes a scandal at his own school a particularly nasty weapon. The children in the theater troupe are the people caught in the middle of a fight between adults.
Is The Musical actually a musical?
The title refers to the production Doug stages at school. This is a comedy about a teacher using a musical to get even, rather than a straightforward song-and-dance movie where everyone bursts into numbers. The official trailer shows rehearsals, awkward encounters at school and a performance that Doug seems determined to push much too far.
The setup would be merely cruel if Doug were an untouchable mastermind. Sundance describes him as an uncharismatic, bitter man who becomes a strangely entertaining antihero. His frustration is recognizable even as his solution gets harder to defend. That gap is where the comedy lives: a teacher who dreams of making important art is spending his talent on a petty grudge.
Who made the film?
Giselle Bonilla directed The Musical, her first feature. Alexander Heller wrote the screenplay. The movie premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, where its unusual mix of school politics and show-business spite found an early audience. Sundance lists the running time as 84 minutes.
The supporting cast includes Nevada Jose and Michael Strassner alongside Brill, Jacobs and Lowe. Sundance also credits Tu Do with the cinematography and Mateo Nossa with the music. That behind-the-scenes team helps explain why the school show has such a specific look and sound, even though the movie’s main joke is about the questionable judgment behind it.
When and where can you see it?
Blue Harbor Entertainment’s official trailer gives September 18 as the theatrical date, and U.S. theater listings carry the same opening. It is a limited theatrical release, so local availability varies. A streaming date has not been announced in the distributor’s release materials.
There is a good reason to keep the premise simple before seeing it: the trailer sells Doug’s terrible idea without giving away every turn of the performance. The fun is watching his plan get out of hand, and seeing whether Brady, Abigail and the students will let him get away with it. The Musical begins with one hurt teacher and ends up making the entire school his stage.
See the confirmed cast and release details on our The Musical movie page.
