Sequins and spotlights
Rising stars of ‘Prom’ revel in Ryan Murphy’s magic
When Jo Ellen Pellman walked in to shoot her first scene in “The Prom,” she looked across the room and saw Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Andrew Rannells, James Corden and KeeganMichael Key all sitting together, laughing and chatting. Then Streep caught Pellman’s eye.
“Meryl scoots over and pats the seat next to her and says, ‘Come sit by me,’’’ Pellman told the Boston Herald on a Zoom call with co-star Ariana DeBose. “In that moment, she literally made room for me and she also made sure that I knew I was at home here.”
Pellman has talent for days. DeBose has talent plus a Broadway resume that includes key roles in “Hamilton,” “A Bronx Tale” and “Summer: The Donna Summer Musical.” But both felt a little star-struck when meeting the A+ cast of Ryan Murphy’s film adaptation of the Broadway hit of the same name, which debuts Friday on Netflix.
“I don’t think you look at a (cast) list like that and not feel some sort of nervous energy,” DeBose said.
“The Prom” celebrates a love story rarely seen in Hollywood but one that exists in a million iterations across America. The narrative follows Emma Nolan (Jo Ellen Pellman), an openly gay student in a small town in Indiana, who just wants to take her girlfriend, Alyssa (Ariana DeBose), to the prom against the wishes of the conservative PTA. Streep, Corden, Kidman and Rannells play well-meaning if cartoonishly narcissistic theater actors who rush to Emma’s side to help her (and get a little publicity of their own).
Both Pellman and DeBose felt the weight of their roles while making “The Prom.”
“Ryan didn’t set out to alienate anyone, he did not want to demonize anyone,” Pellman said. “He really wanted to show that if we come together and have these really tough conversations in search of a better, more just world then we all have a possibility of a happy ending.”
“There was an immense responsibility that came with telling this portion of the story,” added DeBose as she discussed how her character confronted and came out to her mother, played by Kerry Washington. “This might be one of the first times that a coming out and coming of age story has been presented with a face like (mine) and a face like Jo Ellen’s.”
“The Prom” says a lot, both explicitly and implicitly, about bias, bigotry, entitlement, celebrity and love. It’s also a campy, kooky musical from the creator of “Glee,” “American Horror Story,” “Pose” and more.
For Pellman, a relative newcomer, the glitz and glamour of “The Prom” was a novel experience. But DeBose had a suspicion the big stage show would expand to a bright, bold epic on the screen under Murphy’s direction.
“The second you hear the name Ryan Murphy, you know his work is going to be a beautiful explosion of color,” DeBose said. “I love the use of color. I love how many sequins and sparkles there are. … This man and his team know what they are doing in regards to color and storytelling through color.”