Dicks: The Musical is hitting theaters tomorrow, and it marks the latest film helmed by director Larry Charles. Charles is best known for writing and producing episodes of Seinfeld as well as directing Borat, and Dicks: The Musical marks his first time helming a musical. The A24 comedy is an adaptation of the off-Broadway show F*cking Identical Twins by Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson. Both Sharp and Jackson returned to write the script for the film version, and they star in the project as Craig and Trevor, long-lost identical twins who reunite and decide to get their parents (Megan Mullally and Nathan Lane) back together. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Charles alongside the cast, and we asked what drew him to his first musical project.
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“They drew me in with their work and their performances,” Charles explained. “I mean, the music in the musical was amazing, and I am not necessarily a musical person, but I do have my tastes and this immediately grabbed me, the hooks, the lyrics. I just thought, ‘These are some of the best songs I’ve heard recently.’ I love the idea of being able to do something with those songs as well as the comedy of course.”
Sharp added, “Also, Aaron and I obviously love musicals and there’s probably some, you would guess we like Little Shop and Urinetown, Book of Mormon, and stuff. But Larry came in with a lot of the grand old musicals like Gene Kelly. Stuff that we love, too, but I wasn’t always thinking about … He’s learning!”
“But those are very postmodern movies,” Charles added. “Singin’ in the Rain and On the Town, they’re shot against blank walls and there’s a lot of dream sequences, and they really kind of threw it all together very quickly. And I wanted this movie to have that vibe also, because it’s a musical, we’re not presenting a documentary, and yet it is more honest than most documentaries because you’re seeing the process at the same time.”
You can watch our conversation with Charles, Sharp, Jackson, and Yang in the video above. Stay tuned for more from our interview with the creatives behind Dicks: The Musical as well as stars Nathan Lane and Megan Mullally.
Dicks: The Musical will be released exclusively in theaters on October 6th.
Editor’s note: Dicks: The Musical has a SAG waiver which allows the cast to give interviews during the SAG actors’ strike.
