Ryan Murphy shares first look at lesbian musical The Prom and its star-studded cast – including Meryl Streep and, urm, James Corden
Ryan Murphy with the cast of The Prom
Ryan Murphy has given a glimpse of the star-studded cast for his Netflix adaptation of the hit lesbian musical The Prom — revealing it’s coming a lot sooner than expected.
The prolific film and TV creator behind Pose and American Horror Story shows no sign of slowing down, with 2020 already seeing the launch of his new shows Hollywood and Ratched and a second instalment of The Politician — as well as the upcoming release of queer play adaptation The Boys in the Band.
Taking to Instagram, Murphy revealed that despite a literal pandemic, shooting has wrapped on yet another project — a film adaptation of the hilarious Broadway musical The Prom.
The musical revolves around a group of sanctimonious out-of-work actors, who decide to come to the aid of a lesbian high school student who is denied permission to bring a female date to prom, but end up creating more problems than they solve.
As you might expect, the cast itself is packed with acting royalty — including no less than Meryl Streep, Andrew Rannells, Nicole Kidman, Kerry Washington and Tracey Ullman.
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It’s safe to queer fans people are significantly less thrilled about the inclusion of James Corden, who took time out of his long career of gay panic jokes and getting weirdly defensive about people singing homophobic slurs in order to play Barry Glickman — one of the show’s lead gay characters.
Jo Ellen Pellman and Ariana DeBose play the two young high school students, Emma and Alyssa.
In his Instagram post, Murphy wrote: “Meet the incredible icon-packed cast of Netflix’s THE PROM. A group of true troopers who buckled up and finished shooting during COVID so we could give everybody an inspirational aspirational story that we all need right now.”
Teasing a surprisingly quick turnaround for the project, he added: “Christmas is right around the corner…”
The poster for the original Broadway production of The Prom
The Broadway musical that the Netflix film is based on made history in August 2019 by hosting a real-life lesbian wedding on stage.
A crew member tied the knot on stage, and was married by the co-author of the book The Prom, Bob Martin, who got ordained online for the on-stage ceremony.
Ryan Murphy’s The Prom comes with an important pro-LGBT+ message.
Speaking about the adaptation previously, Murphy said: “The Prom is one of the most uplifting, heartfelt and special musicals I have ever seen on Broadway.
“It’s truly an original that celebrates the underdog and says in a loving spectacular way that LGBTQ rights are human rights. I feel a special connection to it because it’s set in Indiana, and that’s where I grew up, too. I’m thrilled to announce I’m turning it into a MOVIE EVENT for Netflix, and I’m bringing producers Bill Damaschke and Dori Berinstein and the amazing creative team with me.”
He added: “It has a musical score that will leave you singing for days, a hilarious and moving book and some of the most show-stopping direction, choreography and performances I’ve ever seen on Broadway.”
