Broadway’s new musical comedy comes to the screen in the exact sort of fashion that we had thought was long gone. However this really is the most 2020 version of a musical adaptation one could want, if that’s what somebody wants; it is packed to the rafters with stars, most of whom on top form, it’s glitzy and glossy and packed with unnecessary CGI, but keeps it’s songs and script intact and all in all is a rather fabulous little watch, if not a little overlong and needing a trim and nip and tuck here and there. The Prom has been made out to be the saviour film of 2020 (by its own marketing and others comments on it), the hyper fun joy-ride that we’ve all been waiting for to bring us out of the doldrums of the year from hell. Now I personally won’t go that far, but I’ll certainly give the film its props for being a very funny musical that I enjoyed an awful lot.
The film tells the tale of a group of self-obsessed Broadway performers venturing to a small town to fight for the cause of a young lesbian girl’s issue of not being able to go to the prom. The film keeps it’s songs and musical book and all has been adapted by the original writers, Chad Beguelin and Bob Martin, with music by Matthew Sklar. The script is very funny and frequently rather touching, with boundless musical theatre self-love and a glut of references that most will enjoy, fans of the great white way or not. The music and songs are also largely great, this was my first time with the score, despite being an avid musical fan and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the excellence of what I heard. This was based off rock-bottom expectations due to a few spare clips here and there from the original production, that really didn’t sell the show in the slightest. The film is brought to the screen by Ryan Murphy, seemingly as a bit of a passion project. Murphy can never be underestimated for using his capital to bring diverse and intriguing stories to the silver screen. Despite seeing Murphy’s immense talents for producing and writing multiple times, I have only however seen the true talent of his directing abilities once, with his excellent adaptation of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart. This is I feel is not as successful, but still a pretty shining example of work that Murphy is capable of when the material is right, and perhaps not of his own pen.
The crop of talent collated for the flick is immense and as aforementioned most of them are on absolute top-form. Meryl Streep is sensational and wonderfully eccentric as Dee Dee Allen, a pseudo-Lupone-Channing-Middler-Stritch-every other Diva you can think off. Her early number “It’s not about me”, is indeed a film stealer and if there’s one thing I’ll hold dear from this film it’s Meryl being able to go full camp once more, with lots of great humanity and affecting moments sparingly dotted throughout also. It’s a hard early act to follow but the film does at least add a few more possible contenders, with Streep’s realistic and lovely surprising relationship with Keegan-Michael Key being a very nice addition to the film. Nicole Kidman stars as Angie Dickinson and although appearing for less time in the film, wows just as much as Meryl with her incredible dance scenes and physical work in the film. It goes without saying, as it’s common knowledge now, that both women do fantastic jobs with their singing and are as usual not once out of their depth amongst a litany of Broadway professionals. A real runner-up though is Andrew Rannels as Trent Oliver, whose largely choreographed and expansive “second act” number blows us away and really helps with the rather dower pacing of the second half of the film. Rannels also has some of the best comedic beats in the film.
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If the film has a major problem it’s that it’s central characters of Emma Nolan and Alyssa Greene, despite offering us the heart and the soul of the piece, as well as some great scenes and couple of nice songs; just are no way near as interesting as the rest of our cast. Jo Ellen Pellman as Emma Nolan is very endearing and Ariana DeBose as Alyssa Green is similarly complex and great in her role. It’s just every time that they’re on screen, we can’t help but long to be back with Streep or Kidman or Rannels, hell even Corden! Further issues arise with Tracey Ullman’s bizarre late film appearance in a scene of supposed great emotion that just comes off as laughable. It’s not that Ullman can’t do serious work, she can and I’ve seen it, but here it just comes off as bizarre, out of place and indeed laughable. This is further troubled by our other elephant in the room – James Corden. A lot has been made regarding whether or not Corden should have taken the role, as a straight man, with the character being notably flamboyantly gay (as noted in the script with his own line “I’m as gay as bucket of wigs”). I have read many articles on the issue from LGBT writers as to widen my horizon the issue, none of which talk about the fact that the reason Corden doesn’t work is because of his lack of acting capability, in actuality every article I read said that he could indeed act and sing, which I personally don’t think he can do all that well actually. Corden’s biggest issue here is that the flamboyance is all he has brought to the character; there is no human drama underneath. Perhaps in a world where Corden’s scenes of drama and letting his guard down, were a little more realistic and three-dimensional, than the overt mannerisms and speech patterns wouldn’t be so noticeable and garish, and offensive to many people in and out of the community, but this is not the case and Corden is indeed, way out of his depth here – not because he is straight, but because he is a bad actor.
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Murphy however does have some serious problems when it comes to directing pieces, because quite simply a lot of the time the gloss and overly hectic nature gets in the way of the material. There is a major trouble with the musical numbers in that they all of the same visual styling and that styling is overly choppy and frantic. There is also more of Murphy’s incessant desire to fill his products with glossy CGI that just add nothing to the world and in actuality take us out of it to no end. Further odd choices appear in the early numbers where our lead is seen doing extremely extraneous sports activities and still managing to belt the notes, due to their pre-recording and dubbing, which is no issue, just a little odd when the characters are swimming underwater and still singing. Just some very odd choices that seep into the film at every turn and turn it into more of a spectacle than perhaps it actually is. The film makes every single scene and musical number into the most extreme possible version of that number that anyone could conceive (including even a very intimate acoustic guitar performance, becoming a spinning bed number like some brand of Exorcist: The Musical!) and all in all it just adds a numbing quality that removes the power from the final number. In other words it gets tiring. Albeit the numbers are still fun and there are plenty I will watch again in isolation, even if I don’t venture to watch the entirety of the picture anytime soon.
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An undoubtedly glossy and relentlessly enjoyable 6/10, this review should serve as the sort of “Mixed-positive” that Streep’s character hopes for in the film. As a matter of fact that is the only real summation I can give, it’s a real mixed bag and I’m not sure the sum of its parts make a solid whole, but all in all my view of it is really quite positive.
-Thomas Carruthers
P.S. It feels as though I have been granted my wish for more Madeline Ashton, I just wish it was more so the actual character, instead of this rather lesser version. For god’s sake already, somebody make Death Becomes Her a musical already, they’ve already given you an incredible opening number.
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