Who’s ready to go to gay prom?

I was lucky enough, thanks largely in part to my living in New York City, to see The Prom on stage during it’s (arguably too short) run on Broadway, and I won’t lie, I was originally wary of the concept. Would a story about a girl whose school wouldn’t let her take another girl to prom (based on a true story that happened in 2010 in Mississippi) hold up in 2020? In New York?? On Broadway??? But then the original cast performed at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the leads of the show (queer Broadway stars Caitlin Kinnunen and Isabelle McCalla) kissed and the world got ANGRY. So I knew we still needed a musical like this.

Plus, as a queer person who has loved musicals for as long as she can remember (technically I saw my first musical in the womb), it was nice to be the point of one. It wasn’t the first time, and I reckon it won’t be the last, but it was a sweet, wholesome, very approachable musical that hopefully melted a few hearts. Or at least helped some young people know their unruly hearts are perfect just the way they are.

I was once again wary when I heard Netflix was going to let Ryan Murphy tell yet another lesbian story (“wary” is my default setting these days) but with an all-star cast of Hollywood greats like Meryl Streep, Kerry Washington, and Nicole Kidman, and queer Broadway performers Ariana Debose and Jo Ellen Pellmen at the helm of it all, there’s no way it isn’t a romp. Right?

Enjoy this trailer full of glitz and glamour and hope with me, if you will, that this will be sparkly and fun and gay, more like peak Glee than American Horror Story: Cult, if you know what I mean.

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