When it premiered on Broadway in 2018, the musical “The Prom” was praised for its deft combination of old-school musical theater style with a contemporary tale of a lesbian teen who is castigated by the small town she lives in for daring to want to attend her high school prom. Playhouse on Park has chosen the joyous, consciousness-raising musical comedy as its summer musical this year, running July 10 through Aug. 18.
On Broadway, “The Prom” was a classic proscenium stage musical with deliberately tacky high school prom sets and grand classic Broadway-friendly performances. The musical was made into a similarly flashy movie starring James Corden, Meryl Streep and Ariana DeBose in 2020. The show has profound messages about community, family, acceptance and understanding, but it’s also a wild comedy anchored by outrageous stereotypes of self-absorbed Broadway stars, oblivious high school principals and domineering parents.
Robert Mintz, who is directing and choreographing “The Prom” for Playhouse on Park, knows that bringing such unrestrained Broadway oomph would be wrong for the room. The Playhouse on Park performance area is floor-level and surrounded on three sides by the audience, with the front rows just a few feet from the edge of the stage. Mintz envisions a production that “seeks to make stronger human connections.
I’m slightly daunted because it is a big old-fashioned musical, but I am excited to do it in this intimate space.” “The Prom,” Mintz .
