Synopsis

A former Broadway performer now working as a production manager faces a backstage catastrophe when his eccentric cast and crew begin falling apart just before the opening of a one-hit-wonder musical. As romantic tensions, personal rivalries, accidents, and drug-fueled chaos threaten the production, he must keep everyone focused long enough to get the show onstage.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film was originally titled "One Shot." The name was changed to "Opening Night" before its 2016 premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

• The story unfolds in real time, restricting the action to the backstage turmoil surrounding a single opening-night performance.

• The musical-within-the-film, "One Hit Wonderland," was created around songs by one-hit wonders. The filmmakers reportedly assembled a list of several hundred possibilities while seeking affordable music rights.

• According to Isaac Rentz, obtaining the rights to "To Be with You" involved personal favors, including Topher Grace attending a record executive's birthday party.

• JC Chasez plays an exaggerated version of himself, with the film using NSYNC memorabilia and jokes about his former boy-band career as part of the character's comic presentation.

• A sequence involving Chasez's character at a drug-fueled Hollywood orgy, with guests dressed as dogs and an orchestral version of "Who Let the Dogs Out," was filmed in concept but removed because the filmmakers felt it went too far.

• The production filmed in Mexico City, standing in for the backstage world of a Broadway musical in New York.

• The film had its world premiere on June 3, 2016, at the Los Angeles Film Festival, followed by a limited United States theatrical release on June 2, 2017.