Dicks Lyrics – All Songs from the Musical

“Dicks: The Musical” – The Musical Guide & Song Meanings

Review

Can a movie be filthy and formal at the same time? “Dicks: The Musical” keeps insisting it can. The writing weaponizes the polite grammar of show tunes: clear set-ups, clean rhymes, tidy button endings. Then it feeds those shapes grotesque information, like a greeting card that bites back. That tension is the point. The lyrics are a confidence game. They make you accept a world where performative masculinity is sung as doctrine, then cracked open as cosplay, and the crack is where the comedy lives.

Musically, it plays with Broadway’s “credible” surfaces while refusing Broadway’s usual emotional contract. The score and songs aim straight-faced, even when the scenario is surreal, and that straight face is a strategy: the more sincerely a chorus lands, the more the script can smuggle in its next left turn. Reviewers who clicked with it often described the songs as real-deal musical writing rather than a genre dunk, while skeptics tended to call out the staging and momentum. Both reactions trace back to the same central choice: this is camp that treats craft as a weapon, not a wink.

How it was made

Before A24, before the festival premiere, this started as a short, two-person piece at New York’s Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. It was built for a room that likes the sound of a joke landing more than the idea of “taste.” That origin never leaves the movie. Even when the film expands the ensemble and adds orchestral scale, it still behaves like a basement show that accidentally got a budget.

The adaptation path is almost as strange as the plot. The stage piece was set up for a studio film deal years before A24 ultimately acquired it, with the creators still attached as writers and performers. In interviews around release, the team described a music process that leaned on live vocal recording on set and orchestration that kept evolving late, as if the film was still rewriting itself with a mic turned on. One number was reportedly re-engineered quickly to fit a newly cast star’s voice and rhythmic identity, a move that explains why the soundtrack can feel like it’s switching genres mid-argument while still sounding intentional.

Key tracks & scenes

“I’ll Always Be On Top” (Craig & Trevor)

The Scene:

Early in the film, work-life becomes a pageant. Bright office lighting. The camera treats salesmanship like a sporting event, with smiles that look glued on.

Lyrical Meaning:

This opener is the manifesto of their self-mythology. The lyric posture is conquest. The real joke is that the song is so structurally sound, like classic musical theater swagger with the dial turned past safe.

“No One Understands” (Craig & Trevor)

The Scene:

After the twin revelation, certainty wobbles. The setting stays everyday, but the emotional temperature spikes. Faces are too close to the lens, like confessionals no one consented to.

Lyrical Meaning:

The lyric frame is grievance, but it’s also a pivot: from “I dominate” to “I’m the victim.” It’s the movie’s way of showing how masculinity can costume itself as injury to stay in control.

“Evelyn Song” (Evelyn)

The Scene:

A domestic space becomes a miniature cabaret. The rhythm is fast. The gestures are theatrical. The mood is both manic and practiced, like a party trick that’s been used to survive.

Lyrical Meaning:

Evelyn’s lyric logic is accumulation. One detail, then another, then a whole life of eccentricity stacked into tempo. It’s funny, but it’s also character biography delivered as patter, a way to make pain sound like entertainment.

“Gay Old Life” (Harris)

The Scene:

A reveal lands with theatrical flair. The lighting feels stagey, like a spotlight found its target. A private world is announced as spectacle, and the movie leans into the showmanship of it.

Lyrical Meaning:

The lyric approach is celebration with a grin that can cut. It frames identity as freedom while also making room for the character’s loneliness. The number’s confidence is part defense mechanism, part joy.

“Tea With Mommy” (Instrumental cue on the album; scene motif)

The Scene:

Transitional storytelling. Softer light. A ritualized pause where the film pretends it’s about feelings, even as it sets up the next escalation.

Lyrical Meaning:

Even without sung words, the cue functions like lyrical subtext. It frames “mother” as performance space: manners, roles, rehearsed affection. The joke lands harder because the music treats it tenderly.

“Out Alpha the Alpha” (Gloria)

The Scene:

The movie suddenly becomes a power anthem. Harder edges. Commanding presence. Movement that reads like domination staged as choreography.

Lyrical Meaning:

It’s an inversion of the twins’ worldview, delivered in a different musical language. The lyric attitude says: your alpha game is small. The film uses that to puncture their corporate bravado and reset the hierarchy in one number.

“All Love Is Love” (Ensemble, finale)

The Scene:

A grand-finale structure with singalong energy. Big gestures. A sense of communal ceremony that’s deliberately in tension with what the narrative has built.

Lyrical Meaning:

The lyric engine is a slogan, repeated until it becomes unstable. The film tests how far affirmation language can be stretched before it snaps into satire, and then asks you to laugh at the snap.

Live updates (2025/2026)

“Dicks: The Musical” functions less like a touring property and more like a cult object that circulates through platforms. A24’s official film page continues to point viewers toward major rental and purchase storefronts, keeping it evergreen for home viewing. The film also landed on Max in early 2024, and it remains easy to locate through standard “where to watch” listings depending on region and storefront availability.

For soundtrack collectors, A24 Music has kept the album positioned as merch-as-art: a physical pressing sold through A24’s shop, alongside the same digital release that hit streaming services in October 2023. If there’s a “live” trend to track here, it’s that the album’s afterlife has been steadier than the theatrical run: playlists, clips, and single-song virality do the work a long sit-down run usually does.

Notes & trivia

• The film is adapted from Sharp and Jackson’s earlier two-person stage show that began at Upright Citizens Brigade in New York.
• The soundtrack release strategy was coordinated with the film’s October 2023 rollout, with singles released ahead of the full album.
• Multiple sources describe the music approach as unusually “live” for film musicals, with vocals recorded on set rather than fully pre-lip-synced.
• “Out Alpha the Alpha” was reported as a late-shifting concept, reworked to fit Megan Thee Stallion’s performance style and cadence.
• The film premiered at TIFF in 2023 and later won the festival’s People’s Choice Award for Midnight Madness.
• A24 positioned it as the studio’s first movie musical, a branding choice that shaped how critics judged the songs and the craft.
• The official soundtrack album includes both songs and score cues, expanding the musical footprint beyond the film’s runtime.

Reception

In 2023, the critical split was immediate: some critics admired the commitment to musical craft inside a deliberately abrasive comic world; others found the film’s staging and escalation more exhausting than liberating. Over time, the conversation has drifted toward “cult status” language, especially as individual numbers circulate independently and the movie is consumed at home, where pause-and-rewatch is part of the experience.

A grotesque and often grotesquely funny musical … will prove an endurance test for many.

It’s a funny musical rather than a musical parody.

It’s always very joyful.

Quick facts

• Title: Dicks: The Musical
• Year: 2023 (film); soundtrack released October 2023
• Type: Original motion picture soundtrack (songs + score cues)
• Writers/Lyricists (film): Aaron Jackson, Josh Sharp
• Composers (score + songs): Marius de Vries, Karl Saint Lucy
• Director: Larry Charles
• Music producer: Marius de Vries
• Music supervisor: Fiora Cutler
• Label: A24 Music
• Release context: World premiere at Toronto International Film Festival (2023)
• Selected notable placements: Opening braggadocio (“I’ll Always Be On Top”); character introduction (“Gay Old Life”); power-showstopper (“Out Alpha the Alpha”); gospel-style finale (“All Love Is Love”)
• Availability: Digital album on major streaming services; physical vinyl sold via A24 shop; film available via major VOD storefronts and streaming (availability varies by region)

Frequently asked questions

Is this based on a stage musical?

Yes. It began as a short, two-person show at Upright Citizens Brigade in New York, later expanded and adapted for the screen.

Who wrote the lyrics?

The film’s creators and stars, Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp, are credited as the primary writers, with the music shaped in collaboration with Karl Saint Lucy and Marius de Vries across songs and score.

Is there an official soundtrack album, and what’s on it?

Yes. The official soundtrack includes both vocal numbers and score cues, released by A24 Music, with a full digital release and physical editions.

Where can I watch it now?

A24’s official page points to the main rental and purchase platforms, and the film also arrived on Max in 2024. Exact availability depends on your country and storefront.

Why does the finale keep repeating an affirmation slogan?

The repetition is the point: it turns a familiar phrase into a comedic stress test, pushing it until it becomes unstable and reveals what the movie is willing to mock, including itself.

Is the music “real” musical theater writing or pure spoof?

Many critics who responded positively argue it’s built like genuine musical comedy, using traditional structures to deliver very untraditional material.

Key contributors

Name	Role	Contribution
Aaron Jackson	Writer, actor, lyricist	Co-created the source stage show; co-wrote the screenplay and songs; performs as one of the twins.
Josh Sharp	Writer, actor, lyricist	Co-created the source stage show; co-wrote the screenplay and songs; performs as the other twin.
Karl Saint Lucy	Composer, songwriter	Co-composed score and songs; helped expand the musical language from stage scale to film scale.
Marius de Vries	Composer, music producer	Co-composed score and songs; produced the music and shaped orchestration and recording approach.
Larry Charles	Director	Directed the film adaptation and set the tone for straight-faced musical staging inside absurd comedy.
Fiora Cutler	Music supervisor	Supervised music integration and production coordination for the film’s musical elements.
Megan Mullally	Actor, vocalist	Plays Evelyn; performs key songs that define the film’s comic patter and emotional chaos.
Nathan Lane	Actor, vocalist	Plays Harris; anchors major musical-comedy moments with classic theater technique.
Bowen Yang	Actor, vocalist	Plays God/narrator; frames the story and participates in the finale’s provocation.
Megan Thee Stallion	Actor, performer	Plays Gloria; delivers the film’s show-stopping power number with a rap-forward approach.

Sources: A24 (official film page + shop), Vanity Fair, The Guardian, ABC News, Playbill, The Ringer, Entertainment Weekly, Film Music Reporter, Wikipedia, Apple Music, Spotify, TV Guide.