Review: THE PROM at White Theatre

Running now at the White Theatre inside the Jewish Community Center is a production of a new musical dealing with the serious subjects of celebrity, gender identity and social intolerance run wild that somehow still offers the audience a real feel-good experience.  

"The Prom" energizes the classic entertainment style musical theater form composed by Matthew Sklar, with lyrics by Chad Beguelin, a book by Bob Martin and Chad Beguelin, all based on an original concept by Jack Viertel.   “The Prom” is an exuberant celebration  and a well-written statement for today that explores today’s cultural divides on political grounds masquerading as morality.

Based on a true event at a Fulton, Mississippi high school back in 2010, the school board banned an openly gay female student from attending the school prom with her partner.  Legal action forced the school board to reschedule the event, but a group of conservative parents cruelly and secretly scheduled a competing prom for the same night.  Only seven students showed up at the school sponsored prom.  The seven students were, of course, devastated by the meanness of it all.   

Word of what the parents had secretly done leaked to the media and the internet.  It garners the attention of a group of celebrities who rally together to support and pay the costs of a “second chance” prom event that was open to everyone.

And that is the jumping off place for “The Prom” which opened in Atlanta in 2016 and ran on Broadway in 2018-2019. The show toured in 2021 and in translations to Swiss/German in Switzerland during 2021 and to Spanish for Mexico City in 2021-2022.

This production of “The Prom” at the White Theatre inside the Jewish Community Center is one the cast, directors, and crew can be rightly proud.  Everyone in the twenty six member cast has the opportunity (at some point in the show) to solo. Any of these voices can sing for me anytime.   The seven featured actors are all excellent.

Direction by Tim Bair is tight.  Sets and lighting by John Rohr and Justin Dudzik set the proper mark for this one.

This is a show with complex scene changes, huge production numbers (with choreography by Kacy Christensen), seventeen individual pieces of music, and a fourteen piece orchestra (led by Kevin Bogan). 

The story has been altered a bit from the actual event on which it was based, but we get the point.  The audience opening night roared their approval. 

The libretto goes like this.  After opening a new, smash flop on Broadway,  multiple award winners Dee Dee Allen (Margo Mikkelson) and Barry Glickman (Brian Larios) are bereft and out of work.  They meet at the failed after-party with two other actors, Chorus Girl Angie Dickenson (JC Tatschi) and former sitcom actor and Julliard grad Trent Oliver (John Tanner Schartz). 

All four are between gigs and ruminate about their woes.  Together, they hatch a plan to find a cause they can affect positively with their celebrity and earn significant publicity attention for themselves. They latch on to the story of a gay high schooler from Indiana named Emma Nolan (Brooke Ariel) who has been forbidden to attend her prom because of who she is. 

I won’t quite go into all the twists and turns, but “The Prom” is a skillfully written, broadly acted theater piece with excellent musical anthems, multiple character transformations, and a heartwarming ending. I really like this cast.  

“The Prom” was made into a 2020 filmed version in with a super cast headed by Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, and Andrew Rannells. The teenagers were played by Jo Ellen Pellman and Ariana Dubose. I mention the film actors because it is evident that these people have their choice of projects.  They have agreed to participate in “The Prom” because it represents the reason they all began doing what they do.  It is, for the stars, and for the excellent cast of this show, a labor of love, and that is why this show works for the cast and for the audience.

This is musical theater of the sort we don’t see often enough.  It makes a point, but it is just a plain old hoot.  I was reminded of the excellent Hugh Jackman 2017 vehicle “The Greatest Showman,” a very loose biography of P.T. Barnum.  This one kind of feels like that.

Some of the excellent tunes that may survive the show are “Dance with Me,” “It’s Not About Me,” “Zazz,” “Love Thy Neighbor,” “Unruly Heart,” and “It’s Time To Dance.”    

“The Prom” at the White Theatre is a fun evening that teaches tolerance in a way anyone with an open mind can happily swallow.  It will run through February 18.  Tickets can be purchased on the web at www.thejkc.org or by telephone at  913-327-8054.

Photos courtesy of the White Theatre

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