The Prom Review: Broadway’s New Musical Comedy

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The Prom is going to bring smiles and maybe a few tears into your living room.

What Happens in The Prom?

After finding her courage to come out, Emma faces many problems in her small Indiana town. She manages to handle the slander and rude comments to the best of her abilities, but when her high school’s prom is cancelled solely because she is a lesbian, it proves to be too much for her to handle herself.

After receiving more than a few horrid reviews about their newest Broadway performance, Barry and Dee Dee are desperate to find something, anything to revive their personal images. This is when Angie stumbles onto Emma’s story. Convinced they will be able to clear up this situation and fix their public image, the group heads for Indiana. Nothing could have prepared them for what they found.

Who Are The Characters in The Prom?

Emma Nolan is a 17-year-old girl who really wants to take her girlfriend to the prom, but the PTA of her school in Indiana says that the students must have a date of the opposite sex. Though the news makes national headlines, Emma doesn’t want to be a symbol, she just wants to be able to be like every other student and go to her prom with her date.

Emma is just a normal girl, but she is braver than most as she is proudly gay and does not shy away from who she is. She is also an understanding and kind person who is just trying to live her life.

Dee Dee Allen is a Broadway star who has won multiple Tony awards and has just had a show that got panned by critics. Dee Dee and some of her fellow Broadway stars decide to try and get good press by helping Emma. Dee Dee is a typical narcissist as she only cares about herself and her image. but this is due to years of cultivating her Broadway persona and caring about herself because others didn’t care about her.

Barry Glickman is another Broadway star who goes along with Dee Dee to gain good press as well. Having also been accused of being a narcissist, Barry tries to change that perception while also learning to overcome his past trauma as there are many similarities between him and Emma.

The Prom Review

The Prom had the songs, the dances, and the story to create a great musical with all the jazz the characters talk about having. I love musicals. They have always been something I have gravitated towards whether watching them or performing in them I love them.

This movie really plays into the musical elements, which I thought added to this adaptation and made it fun. There were a lot of songs in this movie and way more than I expected which was a fantastic surprise as 90% of the songs were really catchy or heartfelt and the choreography of the dancing was superb.

They utilized the fact that this was a musical to great results with many elaborate and cool musical numbers that each have a different style but all fit with each other. The movie also has a star-studded cast with such actors as Meryl Streep, James Cordon, Nicole Kidman, and Keegan-Michael Key who each play their roles well and add to the music and comedy throughout the film.

My favourite character was Barry (played by James Cordon). I felt he had a pretty good character arc as he gained confidence and reconciled with some people in his past. I just felt that James Cordon gave a heartfelt performance with some good comedic moments as well.

While the big stars shined throughout, I feel that the young cast should be given props as well. Their acting felt quite natural and their singing and dancing were fantastic. Jo Ellen Pellman as Emma had a really deep performance and she excelled at conveying the emotions that someone might feel in this type of situation and also how much she just wants to be treated like everyone else.

The story in this movie was powerful as it touched on issues that are still being dealt with today in many places and the movie deals with universal messages of wanting to fit in, be yourself, and be accepted for your differences. Somewhat like Turning Red, The Prom is another movie that reienfoces being yourself on the big screen. I felt that the comedic scenes were well done and the emotional moments worked well and were quite believable.

All in all, I thought this was a great musical movie that makes me want to see the musical it is based on and has music that I am still humming. I recommend this to anyone who’s looking for a movie with an important message and a fun Broadway style of presenting it!