A gleeful if clichéd Christmas musical
THE BIG RELEASE THE PROM 12 ★★★✩✩
THIS messy musical promised to be a glitter-covered turkey – the new Cats (if such a horror were even conceivable) – but these are not normal times. And if all you crave is to turn your brain off, slap a smile on your mush and dive-bomb into a massive pool of sequins, then The Prom is all you ever dreamed of. ‘Emotional journeys’ and Cinderella makeovers all wrapped up in an all-singing, alldancing happy, sparkly finale? You got it!
An A-list line-up reminiscent of an Oscar night celeb selfie casts Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and James Corden as failing Broadway stars who try to revive their fortunes by rebranding themselves as activists. They brainstorm various causes: ‘Parking?’ suggests Streep’s Dee Dee, before alighting on a Twitter story about a schoolgirl from Indiana who is banned from bringing her girlfriend to the prom. ‘We’re gonna help that little lesbian whether she likes it or not!’ they exclaim. So they descend on this Trump heartland with the cry: ‘We are liberals from Broadway!’
Hardly a stretch for Glee director Ryan Murphy, it’s a patchy watch. There’s a soggy mid-section and Kidman’s solo number, a Chicago/ Fosse tribute titled Give It Some Zazz, lacks exactly that.
Some may also, rightly, bridle at Corden’s ‘gayface’ GBF stereotype – but the script also sparks off just enough zingers and is winningly heartfelt. This is going to storm it at the Golden Globes. Adapted from the 2018 Broadway show, it also stars Andrew Rannells (Book Of Mormon), Keegan-Michael Key and Tracey Ullman in a showstoppingly terrible wig.
If you can’t stand musicals where ‘people dance in unison and no one wonders why’, to quote the best song here, you will, quite obviously, hate it. But I laughed, I (almost) cried and I openly warmed my cockles.
A camp Covid-era classic, it may not stand the test of time but I’m happy to have it just for this Christmas.