HTI’s ‘The Prom’ is fun, but it needs better staging
A musical that makes you laugh while tugging at the heartstrings
Pride came early this year.
It came from Hamilton Theatre Inc’s musical “The Prom.”
Yes, it’s riddled with clichés. Yes, it’s cheesy in every way. And yes, it’s obvious in the way it tugs at your heartstrings.
But guess what, that’s what makes it a sweet theatre treat.
“The Prom” is more than that, though. It ought to sneak up on you and tell you some wonderful things.
It’s OK to love who you love. It’s OK to be who you are. And it’s OK to take your same sex partner out on the dance floor for a great big whirl.
So, here’s to every gay guy, or queer girl who had to go to the big high school knees-up alone, or with some friend.
Here’s to those who couldn’t dance with their heart’s soulmate. And here’s to every homophobe who went slightly nuts when the dance floor was finally liberated and made inclusive.
Are things getting better? Maybe, but you still need plenty of courage to come out and say who you are.
So, let’s hear it especially for 16year-old Emma. She wants to make prom night the right night to come out on the dance floor with her love, Alyssa, in her arms.
A joyous, exuberant affair, “The Prom” makes you care for the kids in a repressive Edgerton, Ind., town where folks know what they like. And no honey it isn’t you, if you’re queer.
This show may not have the greatest score written, but Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin’s feelgood rhythms and witty lyrics are appropriate. And the book by Beguelin and Bob Martin, though a tad bogged down in the second act, is involving.
There are even links to better musicals like “Chicago” and “The Music Man,” as well as references to Broadway icons, like Sondheim and Fosse.
The trouble is, the show is packaged in an unfortunately messy, unimaginative way at HTI. There are just so many roadblocks plopped in its way.
For one thing, this is a large show on a small stage. OK. But, if you’re going to do it, you better figure out ways to make it work.
It’s perfectly fine to have the action spill into the aisles and onto the floor, at the front of the stage.
But unfortunately, director Nikole Beda’s staging is awkward, with actors speaking and singing upstage, often looking uncomfortable, waving their hands about, teetering on their feet and flapping the wing curtains as they trounce in and out.
Then too, Madie Lawrence’s too loud, sometimes shrill orchestra, causes balance problems. And there are too many moments spent in the dark, waiting for often unnecessary set changes.
You just can’t have stagehands, wandering on and off with beds and set pieces and crossing surreptitiously at the back of the set, in full view of the audience, while someone is singing a big number. Community theatre here is way past that.
The nadir happened as we watched two backstage folks futz with a recalcitrant bed comforter, finally causing understandable audience titters.
What Beda does get mostly right is finding the show’s sense of fun and spirit, even when the choreography she’s stuck with is a lot of arm wafting and messy footwork.
The story begins slowly. Some New York celebrities, down on their luck, look for a cause that will boost their popularity.
They hit on a young Indiana girl who is the focal point in a gender issue. Wanting to bring her girlfriend to the school prom she’s told that’s out, in a town where homophobes rule.
Things heat up when the Broadway “stars” roll into town on a Godspell tour bus. We know, of course, their true mission is to gain the spotlight and get publicity for themselves.
So, does Emma get to dance with — but strangely not kiss — her sweetheart Alyssa at the final fadeout? Well, it is a musical.
The chorus here does its best to inject spirit and life, but vocally there are rough spots.
Matthew Moore is sometimes over the top, yet always a standout as Billy, the flamboyant, aging gay guy, who loves pink dresses and lots of bling. Cecelia MacDonald sings her heart out as Emma and Sarah Gazzola is fine as her true love, even if the physical chemistry between them wouldn’t cause a forest fire.
Oviya Sivakkumaran as Angie, the gal who dreams of dancing as Roxie Hart in the musical “Chicago,” is difficult to hear, but then she suddenly lets loose and wails her big song “Zazz” like a trouper. What’s that about?
Nathan Farmer, as washed-up stage star Trent Oliver, has a big voice and sells his song and dance number “Love Thy Neighbour.”
Harriet Rice’s sometimes too-soft Broadway diva Dee Dee Allen, needs more narcissistic fury and a bigger presence.
Presence, come to that, is something in short supply in this troubled HTI show.
GARY SMITH HAS WRITTEN ABOUT THEATRE AND DANCE FOR THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR, AS WELL AS A VARIETY OF INTERNATIONAL PUBLICATIONS, FOR MORE THAN 40 YEARS.