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The Prom On Broadway. Now She s Its Film Lead The actress tells MTV News about her journey working with Meryl Streep and other icons for the LGBTQ+ story adaptation
By Alex Gonzalez
The Prom is ostensibly the story of 17-year-old Emma Nolan, played by newcomer Jo Ellen Pellman, a friendly, outspoken girl who is banned from attending her schoolâs dance with her girlfriend in the fictional, conservative Edgewater, Indiana. But it also relies on what happens next, when a troupe of struggling Broadway actors â played by marquee icons Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, James Corden, and Andrew Rannells â see Emmaâs story on social media and visit her town in an attempt to resurrect their public images.
The Biggest Problem For The Prom Is James Corden s Casting
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There s a fine line when it comes to straight actors playing LGBTQ+ roles. When it s an important public or historical figure, there s no question they should be portrayed by someone from the LGBTQ+ community. When it s a fictional role like Barry Glickman from
The Prom, there s more of a gray area. That said, James Corden should not have been cast as Barry in Netflix s adaptation of the Broadway musical due to his over-the-top and, at times, offensive portrayal.
While
The Prom features a heartwarming story about a girl just wanting to take her girlfriend to prom with the help of a few down-and-out Broadway actors, Corden s casting taints the message it s trying to say.
Ratched hit Netflix, his adaptation of the 2018 Broadway musical
The Prom arrives to the platform gussied up in a technicolor version of the same worshipful high school nostalgia as
Glee, and riddled with the same condescension toward “average” people that has defined so much of his output, from
Nip/Tuck to
The Politician. Murphy’s fondness for smashing down the walls surrounding certain American institutions and making them available for all to enjoy has never been particularly nuanced, and he directs
The Prom with the same bluntness. The film’s ultimate admiration of celebrity is only vaguely tolerable because its concurrent message of inclusivity is theoretically admirable but must it be delivered by the likes of a thoroughly exhausting, irredeemably self-satisfied James Corden?
Melinda Sue Gordon / Netflix
Look who s going to
The Prom with Jo Ellen Pellman: Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Kerry Washington, Keegan-Michael Key and late-night talk host James Corden.
Jo Ellen Pellman attended Walnut Hills High School and the University of Michigan.
Credit Ambe J.
The 2014 Walnut Hills High School graduate plays Emma, an Indiana high school senior who was banned from taking her girlfriend to the prom, in the Netflix version of the Tony Award-nominated Broadway musical.
The Prom will be released today.
Streep, Kidman, Corden and Andrew Rannells play self-obsessed Broadway stars who try to repair their careers by invading a tiny conservative Indiana town to support Emma.