Dicks

Dicks: The Musical promises to be raunchy, boundary-pushing, and packed with low brow comedy just from the title alone. Written by leads Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp, the film marries the premise of The Parent Trap with the trappings of musical theatre.

Twins separated at birth, Jackson and Sharp play straight men who love straight men sex and are the best salesmen at their dull corporate jobs. Then, when they realize their birth times are one minute apart, they quickly realize that the one thing they have been missing their entire lives is in reach: They can have a nuclear family!

Despite the wacky setup, Dicks: The Musical feels more like an extra-long SNL skit than an actual movie, which is not too far off from director Larry Charles ventures with Sacha Baron Cohen, like Borat or Brüno.

That isn’t to say Dicks: The Musical doesn’t have some laugh out loud moments. Nathan Lane does a bang-up job in his role as the twins’ flamboyant father, and his shenanigans with the Sewer Boys is possibly his most bizarre work to date, delivering consistently good laughs. Lane makes the most of his character’s limitations, whereas Megan Mullally’s two run-on jokes don’t offer her much room for creativity. Mullally’s the boys’ zany mother, whose only bits are that her vagina fell off and that she maybe has dementia. They are two-hitters that are dragged out for way too long, and it’s painful to watch the incredibly funny Mullally just lose steam after one scene.

A musical is also only as good at its songs, and there are no memorable, catchy tunes in Dicks: The Musical. Jackson and Sharp certainly understand the mechanics of a musical, but each song is more forgettable than the last – even Megan Thee Stallion’s number feels deflated, and she walks men on leashes! There’s not a single foot-tapping tune in the bunch, which is the film’s largest weakness since it advertises itself as a musical. Where’s the pomp? Where’s the pizzazz? Silliness only gets you so far: You need real songs to propel any musical, and without any standouts, there’s sadly no hope for it to become iconic.

It’s strange to watch something that on paper is so outlandish fall so flat in practice. Dicks: The Musical seems like a fun, boundary-pushing LGBTQIA+ romp, but there’s no juice. Even Bowen Yang seems to be on autopilot as God, which is such a shame since he’s usually the beacon of light whenever he shows up in something. It all seems as if it was a riot to film, but the finished product is just a few bombastic jokes stitched together to create a mid riff.