Dicks: The Musical
Dicks: The Musical is a 2023 American musical comedy film directed by Larry Charles, based on the off-Broadway musical Fucking Identical Twins by Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson. The film stars Sharp and Jackson as a pair of identical twins who plot to reunite their divorced parents. The film had its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2023. On October 6, 2023, it was released in the United States by A24, as the studio's first musical film. Premise
Two business adversaries who realize they're identical twin brothers decide to switch places to reunite their divorced parents so they all can become an actual family again. Cast

Production

Development
In June 2016, 20th Century Fox was set to produce a film adaptation of Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson's two-man musical F***ing Identical Twins with Sharp and Jackson writing the script and Peter Chernin's production company for Fox. In February 2022, A24 acquired the film after Fox merged with Disney, with Chernin Entertainment still attached to produce and co-finance the film, and Larry Charles was set to direct. Casting
On February 17, 2022, Sharp and Jackson were set to reprise their roles and Megan Thee Stallion, Nathan Lane, Megan Mullally, and Bowen Yang joined the cast. Music 

In February 2022, Sharp, Jackson and Karl Saint Lucy wrote new songs for the film. Marius de Vries and Fiora Cutler were the film’s music producer and music supervisor, respectively. Most of the vocal performances for the musical numbers were recorded live on set instead of the traditional method of lip-syncing to pre-recorded tracks. In an interview to Variety, de Vries felt that he had a responsibility to pay attention to the detailed work within the songwriting and the arrangements as "the overall mission of the show is so anarchic and uprooted… and demented" and the music never seems to take seriously and overtly driven the comic portions, whereas supporting it. He did not have a specifically parodic writing, by trying to "elicit humor by referencing other particular, specific songs" but some of the songs "The Sewer Song" is a quodlibet, combining several different melodies in counterpoint, such as "Joanna" from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and "One Day More" from Les Misérables. With the inclusion of the songs as well as the musical score, the soundtrack had an almost longer duration as the film, which was considered to be a bigger job, where they had to conduct jazz sessions to underscore the film. Some of the songs were performed in a large canvas, similar to a Broadway musical performance where they had to negotiate with the company in advance for paying symphonic arrangements. They kept the songs "fairly embryonic" even through the shoot as lot of vocals were shot and recorded live, most of the songs were existed as piano vocals until they hit the notes. Each song had to be expanded into an orchestral treatment — either symphonic or jazz — whenever needed, and they were almost fully orchestrated with the help of a computer. The original song "Out Alpha the Alpha" was performed by Megan Thee Stallion, was initially conceived of a cabaret number but later changed to a rap number. Although they had written as a virtuoso number, the song "had to be torn to pieces and then reconceived in a very fundamental way extremely quickly" following her casting and due to their short duration for rehearsal and filming. de Vrices and Lucy felt the music is not self-consciously funny but was a calibration of the music being supportive of the action, and furthermore the pacing was felt like the need for more stuff underpinning the sequences of events rather than the internal emotional state of the characters, which was a bit esoteric. The duo wrote the score three times, where they got right at the final element. Matt Robertson worked as an additional music composer. Track listing

Release
It had its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2023, where it won the People's Choice Award for Midnight Madness. It was released in the United States by A24 on October 6, 2023. It was previously scheduled to be released on September 29, 2023. The soundtrack was announced on September 11, 2023, consisting a combination of 25 tracks: both the songs and the incidental underscore, set for release on October 6, the same day as the film. Alongside the album announcement, the song "All Love is Love" unveiled as a single through digital platforms. Nathan Lane's single "Gay Old Life" was released on September 22, while Megan Thee Stallion's song "Out Alpha the Alpha" released on October 4, and its music video unveiled the following day. Critical response
 

Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair praised the songs as "legitimate toe-tappers". Elisabeth Vincentelli of The New York Times called the music as "passable" and their staging is "mostly anemic". Ross Bonaime of Collider felt that "the tone of these songs gets old unfortunately too soon, especially as the first few musical numbers rely solely on them". David Fear of Rolling Stone wrote that the "outrageous, cabaret-style camp more than Broadway-style song-and-dance numbers" were one of the film's highlights. David Ehrlich of IndieWire wrote the songs being "credible Broadway riffs" that "keep things moving along even when their staging falls short". Johnny Oleksinski of New York Post wrote "The songs, catchy while not trying to break ground, are send-ups of traditional Broadway show tunes." References

External links
  at A24
 

2023 films
2023 comedy films
American musical comedy films
A24 (company) films
Chernin Entertainment films
Comedy of remarriage films
English-language films
Films about families
Films about twin brothers
Films based on musicals
Films directed by Larry Charles
Films produced by Peter Chernin
Films scored by Marius de Vries
LGBT-related musical comedy films
2020s American films
2023 LGBT-related films
American LGBT-related films