Last year’s Everything Everywhere All at Once showed audiences a different side of A24. Heading into the film, we already knew about A24’s reputation when it came to telling gut-wrenching stories about love, family, and trauma, and the precision with which they could inject levity in even the bleakest of stories without undermining themselves, so the emotional ride of a family coming together across the multiverse was, to an extent, expected. No, it was the fighting with double-ended dildos and butt plugs and the incorporation of kinks and fetishes that veritably opened our eyes to a raunchier side of the famed indie film studio.

“The Daniels walked, so we could run,” joked Josh Sharp, co-writer and -star of Dicks: The Musical, in our Zoom interview ahead of the film’s theatrical release. Of course, Dicks effectively sprints past EEAAO when it comes to boundary-pushing raunchiness and sex-forward themes. The film is adapted from Sharp and (also co-writer and -star) Aaron Jackson’s Off-Broadway musical F***ing Identical Twin Brothers — though maybe don’t search those words in Google — and follows long-lost twin brothers Craig and Trevor (Sharp and Jackson, respectively), who plot to reunite their mom and dad (Megan Mullally and Nathan Lane), à la The Parent Trap.

Coming on the heels of the Toronto International Film Festival, where Dicks: The Musical not only made its world premiere, but also walked away with the People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award (per IndieWire), MovieWeb had the opportunity to speak with Sharp, Jackson, Mullally, Lane, Bowen Yang (who plays a very gay God), and director Larry Charles (Seinfeld, Borat) about pulling off A24’s first-ever musical movie.

Bigger, Bolder, Crazier

“A24 and Chernin [Entertainment] really did let us run with the ball in a way that isn’t extremely common in Hollywood,” Jackson said when asked about marrying his and Sharp’s outrageous musical with the studios’ overall brands and storytelling sensibilities. Indeed, Dicks: The Musical inherently plays by its own rules, defying every expectation you might have about what the story is about and where it eventually goes. Nothing will be spoiled here, but know it’s an over-the-top musical that will certainly test many audience members’ limits. Of course, if anyone were to take up such a challenge, it would be A24 and the director of Borat.

“They should go to jail,” Sharp said cheekily. “No, they were encouraging, and especially Larry was — them seeing in Larry that he should shepherd this piece, and then Larry very much fanning the flames of like bigger, bolder, crazier.”

Related: Dicks: The Musical Trailer Brims With Singing, Dancing & Innuendo in Tale of Identical Twins

What’s interesting is that Dicks: The Musical, as big and bold as it is, maintains, as Charles put it, a “put-on-a-show vibe.” In fact, the director revealed the intention behind keeping the film on a lower budget and not “be indulgent about it.” Looking to classical Hollywood musicals like Singin’ in the Rain and On the Town, Charles said:

“They break the fourth wall, or they do an entire number against the blank wall. They don’t need to produce every single thing if it’s classic, and that’s what I felt with this. Every song was so great, it only needed to be presented and, through their performance, it would be a hit.”

A Gay Movie for Gay People
A24Chernin Entertainment

More than the music, the choreographed numbers, and the humor, perhaps what makes Dicks: The Musical so memorable is its cast of the zaniest characters you’ll see on the big screen this year. And it’s clear from the opening number in which Sharp and Jackson, who are gay in real life, introduce themselves as Craig and Trevor, the straightest, most virile, and, true to the film’s title, most well-endowed men on the planet.

Part of the main cast also includes: Lane as Harris, who has come out of the closet (and sings about it in the recently released clip “Gay Old Life”); Mullally as Evelyn, who may or may not have all her mental faculties; and Yang as Gay God, who has the best fashion sense a particular love of chrome and sparkles (“I think this God had gone to [Beyoncé’s] Renaissance World Tour, and went to the Atlanta show, where they did a perfect ‘mute’ challenge,” he said).

Related: Best A24 Movie in Every Genre

“This is really my favorite thing I’ve ever done,” Mullally said of Dicks: The Musical. The actress has consistently proven throughout her career, particularly during her days on the Will & Grace cast, a mastery of physical comedy and even singing, but playing Evelyn brings everything together. “I actually said to Nick [Offerman] early on when we were rehearsing that it plays into most of my strengths, which are singing, comedy, and then being weird.”

For Lane, playing Harris involved committing to bits that oscillated between very gay and very ridiculous — naturally, he was flawless — but the actor was all game. “It’s all a part of this younger generation of queer comics: it’s unapologetic, it’s audacious, and it really is a gay movie for gay people. It’s like a foreign film without subtitles, so straight people should be accompanied by [someone] gay, and they can explain it to them.”

Dicks: The Musical releases in theaters October 6.