CAMP Ovation, a performing arts summer camp, throws open its doors and welcomes its colourful coterie of adolescent misfits and outcasts.

Michael (Robin De Jesus) is gay and he proudly flaunts his sexuality by donning drag for his high school prom.

Best pal Ellen (Joanna Chilcoat) is glad to be back at camp to embrace her chosen role as his confidante.

Busty diva Jill (Alana Allen) hides her shortcomings behind a mask of smouldering sexuality, and finds an unexpected ally in ambitious groupie Fritzi (Anna Kendrick).

The students, boys and girls both, are sent into a swoon by the arrival of Vlad (Daniel Letterle), a blond adonis with a perfect smile and sculpted torso.

As the kids prepare for a gruelling summer of rehearsals, they have to contend with raging hormones and smouldering envy, as well as the roller-coaster emotions of guest director Bert Hanley (Don Dixon).

First time writer-director Todd Graff shot Camp over four giddy weeks at Stagecoat Manor, a real life performing arts summer camp nestling just outside New York. The young film-maker's passion for the stage shines through and he saturates the script with theatrical in-jokes.

Musical numbers are energetically choreographed and performed with zest by the ensemble including a show-stopping rendition of Turkey Lurkey Time from Promises, Promises.

But once the curtain comes down on the musical showcases, Camp hits far too many bum notes.

The screenplay wallows in syrupy sentiment and the dialogue is often stilted. Bert's transformation from drunken, self-loathing sop to genius reborn is hard to swallow and fun though it may be, would the entire camp really don their best drag queen and drag king get-ups to celebrate Michael's birthday?

All the soapy melodrama, which drags out the running time to an uncomfortable two hours, overwhelms the sensitive portrayals of teenage angst and sexuality.

Michael emerges as the only sympathetic player in the entire coming-of-age drama, in stark contrast to Vlad, the supposed hero of the piece, who breaks hearts and tramples on people's feelings, just so long as he is the centre of attention.

Yet, Vlad ends up with the girl and all of his classmates bow down at his altar. A lesson for our cut-throat times.

See it at UCI, ABC