The Musical Starring Will Brill, Rob Lowe & Gillian Jacobs Sets September 2026 Release

Blue Harbor Entertainment and Variance Films have acquired U.S. rights to The Musical, the Sundance dark comedy starring Will Brill, Rob Lowe, and Gillian Jacobs, ahead of its nationwide theatrical release on September 18, 2026.

Blue Harbor Entertainment and Variance Films have acquired U.S. rights to The Musical, the Sundance dark comedy starring Will Brill, Rob Lowe, and Gillian Jacobs, with a nationwide theatrical release set for September 18, 2026.

Published: July 17, 2026
Updated: July 20, 2026
7:33 pm
By: Creators Faire Editorial

New York, NY (July 17, 2026) – Blue Harbor Entertainment and Variance Films announced today they have acquired all U.S. rights to The Musical, the Sundance hit film from director Giselle Bonilla (The Bullfighter) and writer Alexander Heller (We Met at Camp). The dark comedy stars Tony Award winner Will Brill, Rob Lowe, and Gillian Jacobs and is set for a nationwide theatrical release on September 18, 2026.

Bonilla’s narrative feature debut follows Doug Leibowitz (Brill), a disgruntled playwright turned middle-school theater teacher longing for New York. When his ex-girlfriend (Jacobs) begins dating his nemesis, the school’s principal, Brady (Lowe), Doug’s ambitions morph into a diabolical scheme. To ruin Brady’s reputation and jeopardize his coveted Blue Ribbon award, Doug plots revenge: secretly staging the most inappropriate play imaginable with his middle-school students.

Tony winner Will Brill’s (Best Featured Actor, Stereophonic, which broke Tony-nomination records in 2024) on-screen credits include Not Fade Away, Caught Stealing, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and The Beast In Me. Rob Lowe’s multi-decade career spans stage and screen, alongside hosting his podcast Literally! With Rob Lowe, with recent roles in The Third Parent, 9-1-1: Lone Star, and Unstable. Gillian Jacobs’ numerous credits include The Bear, Invincible, Transatlantic, Don’t Think Twice, Ibiza, Love, Community and Girls.

The Musical made its world premiere at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. Bonilla is an alum of the Sundance Institute as an Ignite x Adobe Fellow as well as a Latino Film Institute x Netflix Inclusion and Telluride FilmLAB Fellow. Bonilla and Heller, both alums of the American Film Institute, first collaborated on a short film of the same name which won the Audience Award at the American Cinematheque’s 2024 Proof Film Festival and received Special Mention from the jury.

The Musical is produced by Rob Lowe, Greg Lauritano, Alexander Heller, Findlay Brown, and Jordan Backhus. Executive producers are Gillian Bohrer, Jonathan Levine, Chris Quintos Cathcart, Tyler Boehm, Giselle Bonilla, David Duque-Estrada, Sean Calvano, Vince Jolivette, Jiarui Guo, Dan Reardon, Kyle Fox, Luke Daniels and Alan Pao.

Led by Amanda Sherwin, Mike Messina and Seth Needle, Blue Harbor Entertainment recently released the Sundance award-winner Ricky, starring Stephan James, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Titus Welliver, the Australian box office hit Kangaroo Island starring Rebecca Breeds, festival favorite An Autumn Summer,starring Lukita Maxwell and Mark McKenna, and adventure/action epic Storm Rider: Legend of Hammerhead. Previous notable releases include indie sensation A Nice Indian Boy, starring Karan Soni and Jonathan Groff, the award-winning untold story of Dr. Audrey Evans, Audrey’s Children, starring Natalie Dormer, and Lilly, the powerful story of equal pay activist Lilly Ledbetter starring Patricia Clarkson. They are set to release sci-fi thriller Orion this Fall.

The deal was brokered by WME Independent on behalf of the filmmakers.

“For me, there is no greater rush than watching a comedy in a theater with an audience. I am forever grateful to these partners for providing The Musical with that opportunity” said director Giselle Bonilla.

“We’re excited to partner with Blue Harbor and Variance to release the wildest and funniest film we’ve made,” said Chris Quintos Cathcart and Tyler Boehm, Co-CEOs of Unapologetic Projects, in a joint statement. “We’re marketing the movie in innovative and exciting ways, which we hope will chart the path for future indie filmmakers to get their work out into the world.”

“The Musical is exactly the kind of bold, original filmmaking that reminds audiences why seeing a movie in a theater is so special. Giselle Bonilla and Alexander Heller have crafted something so wildly inventive, hilarious and completely unpredictable, which is further elevated by outstanding performances from Will Brill, Rob Lowe and Gillian Jacobs. Blue Harbor and Variance are thrilled to be working with this talented filmmaking team to bring this truly unforgettable movie to audiences nationwide,” said Blue Harbor Entertainment and Variance Films in a joint statement.

Unapologetic Projects Partners with Blue Harbor Entertainment and Variance Films to Release Sundance Break Out Revenge Comedy “The Musical” Starring Will Brill, Rob Lowe, and Gillian Jacobs from Director Giselle Bonilla

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ABOUT UNAPOLOGETIC PROJECTS

Co-founded by Chris Quintos Cathcart and Tyler Boehm, Unapologetic Projects works with underrepresented creators to tell authentic stories. As EPs, they had a successful 2024 theatrical release with Dìdi (弟弟) via Focus Features after premiering in competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it received critical and audience acclaim, winning both the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award and the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble Cast. After executive producing additional films including Last Days and All That We Love in 2025 and Mad Bills To Pay, Maddie’s Secret, and Stop! That! Train! in 2026, the film side of the company continues to change the traditional financing model by valuing diversity and cultural authenticity over star power and name recognition while the TV development fund provides creatives with a new path to share their experiences on screen.

ABOUT BLUE HARBOR ENTERTAINMENT

Blue Harbor Entertainment is a boutique distributor of independent films designed for the business needs of today’s filmmakers. Established in 2023 by industry veterans Amanda Sherwin, Mike Messina and Seth Needle, Blue Harbor offers a much-needed alternative in today’s challenging U.S. distribution environment with a structure that empowers filmmakers by providing a comprehensive and full-scale distribution and marketing solution covering theatrical releases, home entertainment, transactional and subscription digital streaming platforms, and television. Notable releases include the hit romantic comedy A Nice Indian Boystarring Karan Soni and Jonathan Groff, the award-winning, untold story of Ronald McDonald House founder Dr. Audrey Evans, Audrey’s Children, starring Natalie Dormer, Lilly, the powerful story of equal pay activist Lilly Ledbetter starring Patricia Clarkson, and Ricky, which stars Stephan James, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Titus Welliver, and won the directing award at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Recent releases include the Australian box office sensation Kangaroo Island, romantic drama An Autumn Summer, starring Lukita Maxwell and Mark McKenna, and adventure/action epic Storm Rider: Legend of Hammerhead.

ABOUT VARIANCE FILMS

Founded in 2008, Variance Films is a leading independent theatrical distributor, partnering directly with filmmakers, producers, streamers, and other distributors for innovative theatrical releases of incredible films from around the world. Recent work includes theatrical distribution services for Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car and Gints Zilbalodis’ Flow (for Sideshow/Janus Films), Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance and Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love (for MUBI), Bi Gan’s Resurrection (for Janus Films), and Roshan Sethi’s A Nice Indian Boy (for Blue Harbor Entertainment). Innovation is not just a buzzword for Variance: in 2022, Variance’s re-release of S.S. Rajamouli’s Telugu blockbuster masterpiece RRR just ten weeks after its initial release kicked off a wave of international appreciation that, after an awards campaign designed and executed by Variance, culminated in a historic Academy Award win for Best Original Song, India’s first Academy Award for a feature film. And in 2023, Variance was selected by AMC Theatres to power the US theatrical release for the first film of their new distribution division: TAYLOR SWIFT | THE ERAS TOUR. After a surprise announcement, an incredible $92m debut weekend and a $180m+ domestic gross, AMC tapped Variance again for its follow-up releases, RENAISSANCE: A FILM BY BEYONCÉ, and 2025’s TAYLOR SWIFT | THE OFFICIAL RELEASE PARTY OF A SHOWGIRL.