From theatre to theater, how does the Netflix adaptation of “Prom” hold up? Photo from nerdsandbeyond.com.
When I sat down in my seat at the Longacre Theatre, I had no idea what to expect with “The Prom.” By the end of the night, I was on my feet clapping and in tears. Two years later, when I turned on the Netflix film adaptation, I made sure to lower my expectations as much as I possibly could, and still managed to come out of it incredibly disappointed.
“The Prom” tells the story of Emma, a teenage lesbian living in a small town in Indiana who gains media attention when her school’s Parent Teacher Association (PTA) cancelled the prom in protest of her wanting to bring her girlfriend. This news just happens to come out the same day “Eleanor: The Eleanor Roosevelt Musical” starring narcissistic, older, soon-to-be-washed up Broadway stars, Barry Glickman and Dee Dee Allen, both opens and closes. In an attempt to get some good publicity, they decide to make Emma and her prom their social justice cause. For over two hours, audiences can see the Broadway stars, accompanied by their publicist and actor friends, both ruin and put back together a prom for Emma and her girlfriend, Alyssa, with the support of Principal Hawkins and in spite of homophobic intervention from Alyssa’s mom, the PTA president.
Something so special about “The Prom” (2018) was that the parts of the Broadway actors (Dee Dee, Barry, Trent and Angie) were all written for their original actors, to the point where Angie (no last name) was named after and played by iconic chorus girl Angie Schworer. Beth Leavel took on the role of Dee Dee, the self-absorbed, lonely beltress with two Tony Awards (one more than Leavel). Trent Oliver, proud Juilliard alumni and current cocktail waiter, even had a recurring bit about an old sitcom he’d once appeared on, making him known as “the guy from ‘Talk to the Hand.’” This was a gag written specifically for Christopher Sieber, who had played the Olsen twins’ dad in “Two of a Kind,” a late 1990s sitcom. Brooks Ashmanskas embodied Barry Glickman, an out, proud, flamboyant, flirtatious, sometimes well-intentioned, but mainly self-involved actor who had always been in Dee Dee’s shadow and was willing to take any limelight he could get.
Caitlin Kinnunen took on the leading role of Emma, bringing a much needed groundedness to a show full of such wild, larger-than-life characters. Isabelle McCalla took over the supporting role as her closeted, perfectionist and anxious girlfriend, Alyssa Greene. Kinnunen, Ashmanskas and Leavel all received Tony nominations for their performances.
So, when the casting of the Netflix adaptation produced and directed Ryan Murphy (“Glee,” “American Horror Story”) was revealed to include Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, Keegan-Michael Key, Kerry Washington and Andrew Rannells, I had no idea what to think. Corden and Rannells are both Tony Award winners and Ariana DeBose (Alyssa Greene) is best-known for her stage work. Yet, the film was shaping itself up to be the most un-Broadway Broadway-film. It’s a Broadway musical specifically about Broadway actors. So, wouldn’t it make sense to cast all Broadway actors? Apparently not to Murphy.
I tried to give it the benefit of the doubt, but I can now confidently say that it pales in any and all comparison to the Broadway production and that practically everything that made the show work so well onstage was not only changed, but ruined when captured on film. Unnecessary changes were made and what remained the same no longer fit. It may even be the worst movie musical I’ve ever sat through – and I’ve seen “Cats.”
Still, I had high hopes for newcomer Jo Ellen Pellman as Emma. Instead, I wondered if she was even in the same show as everyone else. She sang well and she seemed sweet, but she was far from Emma Nolan. I didn’t expect her to be, nor did I want to see, a carbon copy of Kinnunen, but I did want her to feel like Emma. Instead, she grinned her way through with an unearned sense of optimism for someone who had been outed, kicked out of her parents’ home, rejected by her school and, eventually, (spoiler alert!) ditched by her girlfriend at the prom. It was almost like whenever someone said anything remotely involving her character, she couldn’t hear them and like someone was dubbing over her lines through the largest grin on the screen.
Kinnunen’s Emma was extremely anxious, cautious and wanted nothing to do with the actors’ attempts at putting a prom on. A lifelong fan of “Glee,” and, therefore, a lifelong hater of Murphy’s, I’m going to bet that this was more of a directional choice that hurt Pellman’s performance. I have a hard time believing that she wasn’t told to smile boldly through every scene, or at least I had hoped that someone would have told her to cut that out if she had chosen to do it on her own.
There’s honestly not much worth mentioning about anyone else’s performances (if I wrote about James Corden and the film’s poor excuse at representation, it would be 2922 words exactly), except for the (few) positive takeaways I have. Everyone else gave good, decent or subpar performances. Honestly, the worst part about the film is the location choices and sets; I want all of the sets burned to the ground. For some reason Murphy decided to not just create a Broadway avenue with more theatres than physically possible in the opening scene, but also made a working-class town in Indiana look like a Vegas strip, featuring large houses complete with long staircases to dance down. With the big sets also came the multiple flashback and fantasy sequences because apparently Murphy heard “show, don’t tell,” and said, “why not both!”
Yet, we have to talk about Meryl. How could we not? She’s Meryl Streep! Which is exactly why she was cast in this role. I was worried to see her play “a woman who’s known for her belt,” because that doesn’t exactly scream Streep for me. I’m still not convinced that her vocals weren’t sweetened, but the songs sounded amazing. I saw glimpses of Miranda Priestly (“The Devil Wears Prada”) mixed with the humanity that Streep brings so well to her roles and that was so desperately needed in the film. If you’re going to nominate anyone, it should have been Streep. If you want to watch her in her element, there are many other films you can watch, but “The Prom” isn’t necessarily a bad choice if you can manage to fast forward through or mute most of the scenes she isn’t in (and even some that she is).
My review is obviously incredibly biased as such a passionate lover of the original 2018 production, but if 2020 wanted to go out on a positive note, “The Prom” wasn’t a way to do it (maybe starting the year with “Cats” and ending it with “The Prom” was an omen). The most disappointing part really was all of the wasted potential. A truly talented and accomplished group of people came together and made … that.