The Musical and the Power of Spiteful Thinking

Alexander Heller, Nevada Jose, Will Brill, and Giselle Bonilla pose with cast members at The Musical premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at Eccles Theatre on January 25, 2026, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Sundance Film Festival)

By Lucy Spicer

Who among us hasn't had a fantasy about orchestrating the downfall of our irritating, successful enemies? Nobody's perfect. But most of us don't act on those fantasies. And then there's Doug Leibowitz.

Played by Will Brill with a tightly wound, ready-to-snap energy, Doug is the awkward, bitter failed playwright at the center of first-time feature director Giselle Bonilla's The Musical, which premiered January 25 at Eccles Theatre in Park City. Screening as part of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival's U.S. Dramatic Competition, this dark comedy sees a middle school drama teacher enact an elaborate, truly tasteless revenge plan for what he feels are personal slights against him.

Nursing an emotional wound after his girlfriend, Abigail (Gillian Jacobs) - who is also the art teacher at his school - breaks up with him, Doug begins a new school year low on confidence. Romantically unsuccessful, he's also getting rejected for theater fellowships that could lead him to New York City. Then comes the final straw: He learns Abigail is dating the school's ambitious, charismatic principal. Principal Brady (played by a perfectly cast Rob Lowe) has his sights set on the Blue Ribbon of Academic Excellence to lend his school some prestige. One impeccable visual gag later, Doug knows just how to sabotage his nemesis's plans - he's going to have his middle school students stage an original musical about 9/11.

The plot's a brave one for a director's first feature. But Bonilla, who is an alum of Sundance Institute's Ignite program, isn't lacking in boldness. I don't know, look at the frickin' world, she responds at the film's post-premiere Q&A when Festival programmer Heidi Zwicker asks what compelled her to choose this project for her feature debut. Like, my neutral is rage, but people don't really listen to me when I'm yelling, so if I can make them laugh first, then sometimes they listen.

Bonilla credits Alexander Heller, who wrote the film's screenplay, for convincing her to take on the project. But Heller doesn't point to a specific school experience for the film's inspiration. I think just every experience of mine somehow becomes traumatic, he says amid audience laughter. I'm not very good at dealing with stuff.

Even so - a 9/11 musical? It's not a 9/11 comedy, I think, for any of us, explains Heller. It's a comedy about this guy who's selfish and petty and would, you know, stop at nothing, even exploiting a tragedy, for his own ends, and I happen to know quite a bit about being a selfish, petty guy, so I felt pretty good about that.

Even as we watch Doug thoughtlessly co-opt this tragedy for his revenge, his frustration yields relatable moments, and his students - who have been told they're making an important statement in putting on this guerrilla stage production - are dedicated performers hell-bent on taking this project seriously. Without knowing Doug's true motivations, these kids see a fired-up teacher sticking it to the man. Also, a leading role is a leading role, right? Not even a musical about 9/11 is immune to the politics of middle school theater.

I mean, it was a lifetime of preparation, jokes Brill during the Q&A when he's asked how he prepared for the role. Every moment of my life has led to this. Everything has been a challenge. What can I say? It was fraught with doubt, everything was hard, and everything was fun. And these guys made it eminently easier, too, he adds, gesturing to the kids who played his students.

And these young actors had to be able to keep a secret, just like their on-screen counterparts. What's crazy is that we shot at the school without them knowing what it was about, says Bonilla. So we made sure that all the sets were very mobile and we could pack them up at the end of each day. And we all kind of turned into Doug, every department head, in the actual making of the film.

I was extremely nervous about casting kids because I didn't want it to feel like Disney kids, adds the director. I wanted it to feel like real kids, and I wanted their personalities to shine through. One thing's for sure: Their personalities shine brightly onstage during this Q&A at Eccles.

I love this movie so much, says Aidyn James Ahn, who plays one of the students. Because nobody really talks about the power of, like, spite and rage.

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