Butler's Cinema Scene

Andrew Rannells, Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman

“THE PROM”  My rating: B+

130 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

Sabre-toothed cynicism and squishy-hearted sentiment are unusual bedfellows, but they get it on quite swimmingly in “The Prom,” Ryan Murphy’s winning screen adaptation of the gay-centric Broadway musical.

Here’s a movie I’d pay to see in a theater.  And I say that from the depths of my pandemic-panicked heart.

Simultaneously a celebration/sendup of show-biz hamminess and a touching coming-out story, “The Prom” depicts how a handful of Broadway has-beens and wannabes descend upon a tiny Indiana burg to champion the cause of a teenage lesbian named Emma (a winning Jo Ellen Pellman) who only wants to take her gal to the high school prom.

That simple desire is complicated. First, because the PTA president Mrs. Greene (Kerry Washington) would rather cancel the prom than let a gay couple attend; second because Emma’s squeeze is none other than Mrs. Greene’s daughter Alyssa (Ariana DeBose), who is yet to come out to her mom.

Meanwhile in New  York, Broadway diva Dee Dee Allen (Meryl Streep) has been trashed for  her new musical about Eleanor Roosevelt.

“What didn’t they like?” asked co-star Barry Glickman (James Corden), who plays FDR. “Was it the hip hop?”

Actually, no.  The critics find Dee Dee and Barry to be insufferably narcissistic. They need an image makeover, something that will let them “love ourselves but appear to be caring human beings.”  Hey, what if they help out that little gay girl in Indiana?

They are joined on their mission  by Angie Dickinson (Nicole Kidman), who after 20 years in the biz is still stuck in the chorus, and actor/bartender Trent Oliver (Andrew Rannells), whose career high point is his degree from Juilliard.

Ariana DeBose, Jo Ellen Pellman

The cast is rounded out by Keegan-Michael Key, terrifically good as the school principal who nurses a closet case of Broadway fever and falls hard for the self-absorbed Dee Dee.

She: “You’re not my usual demographic.”

He: “Because I’m black?”

She: “Because you’re straight.”

And there are brief but satisfying appearances by Mary Kay Place and Tracey Ullman.

The real stars of the show, though, are the lyrics by creators Chad Beguelin, Bob Martin and Matthew Sklar. “The Prom” must be watched with the captions on.  Don’t miss a scintillating word of this great libretto.

The sardonic tone is set in the opening number, when Dee Dee and Barry celebrate their self-importance by singing proudly of how they are “nightly changing lives.”

Later they set out on their version of the Yellow Brick Road with the lyric: “We’re going down where the necks are red.”

Meanwhile in Podunkville, Emma sings a solo: “Note to self. Don’t be gay in Indiana.”

Just about every speaking role in the cast also has a musical number.  Hard to pick highlights, but I’ve got to go with Rannells’ delivery on “Love Thy Neighbor,” a gospel-tinged tune in which he enumerates to homophobic teens the ways in which most of us violate Biblical injunctions daily:

“There’s no way to separate/what scriptures you may violate/Let’s hope you don’t masturbate/
‘Cause the scripture says we’ll have to cut off your hands.”

Kidman gets to put her long legs to good use in a Fosse-tinged number that almost makes up for “The Undoing.”

Just in case you’ve forgotten, Meryl Streep is a terrific singer.  But who knew Keegan-Michael Key had Broadway-level pipes?

Wow. After writing this I think it may be time to watch “The Prom” again.  It provides just the lift we’ve been needing.

| Robert W. Butler