THE PROM to Open on Broadway in November 2018

[BroadwayConcierge]

http://www.playbill.com/article/musical-comedy-the-prom-will-open-on-broadway-in-2018

What is with all these shows announcing well over a year before opening these days?

[Call_me_jorge]

Didn’t this get panned in Atlanta? The idea of it just seems stupid 

[newintown]

Pans no longer prevent shows from coming in - look at Chaplin, which no one ever liked. Producers and investors tend to live in their own fantasy worlds.

[OhHiii]

http://variety.com/2016/legit/reviews/the-prom-review-musical-alliance-theater-1201855171/

I'd hardly call this a pan.

[ladypresent]

producers do this so they can raise money. Its hard to raise money when you don't actually have the broadway theater. putting down the deposit to hold the theater then makes it a ton easier to go to people and say "look we are actually going! give us 500k"

 

[Fordham2015]

newintown said: "Pans no longer prevent shows from coming in - look atChaplin, which no one ever liked. Producers and investors tend to live in their own fantasy worlds."

If nothing else, Chaplin gave Rob McClure and Jenn Colella the increased exposure they deserved

[Itonlytakesajourney]

This seems like it'll be a cute show, and it's definitely giving me Bring It On/Heathers vibes. I hope Beth Leavel transfers with the show, same thing with the two leads. Any idea as to what theater it could go into? Maybe the Longacre, the Jacobs, or the John Golden. 

[GottaHaveAGimmick]

Saw this in Atlanta last year. Although it has some winning performers (Beth Leavel and Chris Seiber), an energetic young ensemble to bring life to the choreography by Nicolaw, and a heartfelt script, there were plenty of adjustments needed before moving to Broadway.

The themes of tolerance, mutual acceptance, and religious hypocrisy have been done before (La Cage, Kinky  Boots, Priscilla, Hairspray). So The Prom seemed to be just preaching to the choir of already accepting audience members. One of the characters was the screaming queen type set up to get laughs (played by Brooks Ashmanskas). Haven't we seen this too many times? And how are you going to get someone to think about accepting gays when one of the characters is an effeminate stereotype from decades ago?

In short, I believe it needs a great deal of work to be a hit. It really covers no new ground on the subject.

[IdinaBellFoster]

This will be the second time Nicolaw has four shows running on Broadway. Previously it was TUCK EVERLASTING, SOMETHING ROTTEN, ALADDIN  & THE BOOK OF MORMON. Now it will be those last two, plus MEAN GIRLS and THE PROM. That's quite the accomplishment. 

[bdn223]

This is the second out of no where show to announce a 2018 opening...along with Getting the Band Back Together, the difference is that I think The Prom will actually make it to Broadway.

[Alex Kulak2]

Who panned it? I haven't seen it, but the premise sounds really good. I love Chad Begulin and Matthew Sklar from The Wedding Singer. This sounds like it could work.

[RippedMan]

The name is incredibly boring. 

[RippedMan]

The name is incredibly boring. 

[10086sunset]

It certainly has the potential to be commercial.

[VintageSnarker]

GottaHaveAGimmick said: One of the characters was the screaming queen type set up to get laughs (played by Brooks Ashmanskas). Haven't we seen this too many times? And how are you going to get someone to think about accepting gays when one of the characters is an effeminate stereotype from decades ago?"

Again (after Something Rotten)?

I agree the name doesn't... make a confident statement.

 

[newintown]

There seems to be a small pool of actors who regularly get recruited to play stereotype queens to amuse the straights - Ashmanskas, David Turner, Ed Hibbert, Jeff Blumenkranz, Peter Bartlett, etc.; it's always rare and refreshing when (if) one of them gets to play something else.

[hellobroadway]

Saw this in ATL...one of the best musicals I’ve ever seen. It was such a fun night!

[mlsheehan]

Those performers, also, amuse this 50-something gay man.  They are some of my favorites.  And, yes, they tend to play stereotypes, but I am usually up for a quippy, sassy, gay sissy type as I have know so many in real life.  Just saying ...

[newintown]

And you're well within your rights to do so. As are those who see that kind of character as our people's Uncle Tom or Aunt Jemima.

[mlsheehan]

Yup, mostly the same people that want to rewrite history in their own images, but that's a completely different discussion.  Back to The Prom

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

I didn't see the Atlanta production, but all the promo material and things I read about it felt...I don't know...pretentious? It felt like it was trying too hard to "preach" about the subject matter, which was partly ripped from the headlines I believe.

[RippedMan]

Is it? The name doesn't make that statement at all. I would think it'd be about...a prom? 

[newintown]

"Yup, mostly the same people that want to rewrite history in their own images..."

I believe that "evolving" and "rewriting history" can be two very different things; but people will tend to try to demean dissenting opinion. It's easier than actually discussing them. As is saying "back to the Prom," in an effort to avoid discussion.

[245601]

Ado Annie D'Ysquith said: "I didn't see the Atlanta production, but all the promo material and things I read about it felt...I don't know...pretentious? It felt like it was trying too hard to "preach" about the subject matter, which was partly ripped from the headlines I believe."

I saw it in Atlanta, and yes you are exactly right. It felt completely pretentious and altogether contrived. I don't see how it could possibly do well on Broadway, but then again stranger things have happened.

[mlsheehan]

newintown, you are so easily provoked that is amusing.

However, to your point, if sissy types were the only type that we see now a days, I would agree with you, but to call them "Uncle Toms" and "Aunt Jemimas" is not only a bit inaccurate, but pretty untrue.  Those sissy types, that you are "evolving" out of our culture, happen to be the ones that were leading the charge for whatever rights and change we see now.   They were at Stonewall, leading marches, protesting, and doing die ins for Act Up.  So to call them that is pretty disrespectful.  I am happy that there are more "butch" types represented in culture (I tend to lean that way myself).  And I say this as a person that grew up with the Paul Lynde and Alan Sues types being pretty much all I saw in the media as a younger person.

I'm all for diversity, and believe that whatever people want to label themselves is fine (including the much maligned "questioning" and "fluid".  I have been out for almost 40 years now, and today I still see these "sissy" folks at festivals, at school proms (sometimes even running for Prom King - or Queen), at political rallies, at rights demonstrations, at women's marches, and at all manner of other functions.  So, if you are uncomfortable with that "stereotype", perhaps it says more about you, than the actual stereotype. 

BTW, it's the same argument that has been heard in the gay community, for decades, "If we weren't represented by those people, and, if gay people just acted more "normal", than we would be accepted (or sometimes folks might say, more accepted)".  I don't agree with this ideology, and never will.  Those people are the ones that are part of our community, have been there and probably will be there always.  To "pink" wash them away is a disservice to history.

Thanks for the "discussion".