2/4/2019
It’s strange to admit, not to you, but to
myself, that The Prom is among my favorite musicals of the last several
years, alongside The Band’s Visit, School
of Rock and, I’m just going to say it and leave it, my own The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (in
collaboration with composer Alan Menken). I didn’t realize that until the
second time I saw it; sometimes knowing what to expect allows you to
concentrate on other things, and while I can’t say it hit me differently and I
hope this makes sense…I became very aware
of how it was hitting me.
Much
like the Canadian musical, Prom Queen, this
one has, at its center, a gay student, this time a lesbian (Caitlin Kinnunen), running into
conservative interference in her native Indiana for wanting to take her
girlfriend (Isabelle McCalla) to her
high school prom. The difference in storytelling is significant, though,
especially for a musical. Prom Queen (based
on the real life story of Marc Hall) is simply about its hero’s story; once he
embarks on his quest, there’s really no doubt how it will turn out (if he
doesn’t prevail, there’s no show), and he doesn’t have any 11th hour crisis in
which he has to overcome something within himself.
Whereas The Prom isn’t triggered by its student’s plight. It is, instead, triggered by two
Broadway musical theatre stars, Barry Glickman (Brooks Ashmanskas) and Dee Dee Allen (Beth Leavel) who have fallen out of critical favor—among charges of
being insufferably narcissistic—and who, in the wake of a flop opening, seek to
spin some good publicity for themselves by targeting some worthy cause they can
publicly champion. Coming along for the ride are former sitcom star and now
waiter Trent Oliver (Christopher Sieber);
the perhaps eponymously named Angie (Angie
Schworer), a featured dancer who has spent too long in Chicago without having been asked to play Roxie Hart;
and the publicist for Barry
and Dee Dee, Sheldon Saperstein (Josh
Lamon). Their less-than-noble motivations and their brash New York,
gay-friendly, liberal personalities (not forgetting their Jewish contingent)
make for a stark cultural contrast, and the collision of the two cultures
creates the needed element of narrative volatility and, at least to how the worthwhile ending will occur, if
not what (in the broad sense) it will
be.
The, for the current
climate, unusually stick-to-your-ears score, by Matthew Sklar (music) and Chad
Beguelin (lyrics) is delivered with top-craft Broadway and style-savvy
finesse, and the book, by Beguelin and the seemingly ubiquitous Bob Martin, is both very funny and very
moving. It’s deftly manipulative, but in the best sense of musical theatre
cookery. It earns its catharses genuinely, and delights in reversing the
expected. And the cast is just terrific. Given what the show is about and who
else is involved, I’ll just add that it is directed by Casey Nicholaw. Of course.
Speaking of the
cast, I also have to add: The reason why I was able to attend twice is because,
first time through, at the last minute Ms. Leavel was deemed too ill to
perform, and her standby, Kate Marilley,
went on. You’d hardly think it possible, as the standby in a musical,
especially on the heels of an opening, has an obligation to slot into the
ensemble and deliver a performance that doesn’t disrupt the group gestalt, but Ms. Marilley managed to do that and in addition, put her own spin
on things. If she’s still available when Ms. Leavel leaves, and not first
choice to replace…well, she’d have to be. Thus spake Zarathustra. And nothing
taken away from the extraordinary Ms. Leavel; but when Ms. Marilley wasn’t
there, I missed her.
Now everybody get the hell away from me while I find something worthwhile
to be cynical about.
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