Culture

"The Prom": The First Trailer for Ryan Murphy’s Netflix Adaptation is Here


 

In 2018 and 2019, The Prom took Broadway by storm. But in 2020, the award-winning musical has its sights set on the small screen. An uplifting tale about discrimination, love, LGBTQ+ rights, and the pursuit of relevance, The Prom follows four washed-up Broadway performers as they attempt to revive their careers by traveling to a small, conservative Indiana town to help a high school senior fight for her right to take her girlfriend to prom. After netting seven Tony nominations (including two for Best Leading Actress) and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical, Ryan Murphy, who’s never met a showy gay story he didn’t want to make his own, decided to direct a film version of the stage musical. On December 11, Netflix will release Murphy’s adaptation — and today, the streaming service has released its first teaser trailer.

While Ariana Grande and her ponytail won’t be making any appearances in this adaptation (as was once believed), Murphy has still managed to assemble a remarkably impressive cast that boasts two Oscar winners (Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman), three Emmy winners (James Corden, Kerry Washington, and Keegan-Michael Key), at least one Grammy winner (Andrew Rannells), and two very promising newcomers (Ariana DeBose and Jo Ellen Pellman).

Judging from the trailer, Murphy’s adaptation will be every bit the flashy, star-studded spectacle that fans of the musical would expect from him. Awash in bisexual lighting, the trailer is soundtracked by a new recording of “Tonight Belongs To You,” the sweeping song Barry (James Corden) sings to Emma (Jo Ellen Pellman) as he helps her get ready for the prom.

In the two-minute preview alone, you can watch one student perform a dangerous cartwheel down the high school hallway, monster trucks do tricks at a rally, two girls walk hand-in-hand through a neon-lit entryway, Andrew Rannells painfully break into a split, Nicole Kidman don a wig that’s actually good, and Meryl Streep slam not one but two Tonys on a hotel clerk’s desk as she demands to be put up in a suite that the hotel simply cannot offer her.

THE PROM (L to R) JAMES CORDEN as BARRY GLICKMAN, NICOLE KIDMAN as ANGIE DICKINSON, ANDREW RANNELLS as TRENT OLIVER, MERYL STREEP as DEE DEE ALLEN in THE PROM. Cr. MELINDA SUE GORDON/NETFLIX © 2020MELINDA SUE GORDON/NETFLIX

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter for their October cover story, Ryan Murphy described The Prom as “summing up [his] whole existence.” When asked what drew him to this story, the Emmy-winning producer responded, “In a weird way, I was both things. I’m from Indiana. In high school, I was not allowed to bring my date to the prom. So, that was personal to me. I ended up taking my best girlfriend. When I saw it, it was so joyful and it was so optimistic, and it was fun, and yet it had something to say.”

That we are even getting The Prom this year is an impressive feat, though, especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic caused production to shut down just three days before they were set to wrap. But notably, The Prom worked against all odds to become one of the first Hollywood productions to resume filming several months later. Let’s hope it was all worth it!

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