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The National Tour of the 2019 Drama Desk Award winner for Outstanding Musical, The Prom, will play Chicago's Cadillac Palace Theatre for a limited one-week engagement April 19-24, 2022. Featuring music by Matthew Sklar and lyrics by Chad Beguelin, The Prom is based on a Jack Viertel concept and has a book by Bob Martin, Beguelin and Bob Martin.
The show takes place in Edgewater, Indiana. It follows Emma, a high school student who wants to go to the prom with her girlfriend. The PTA, realizing that banning them from attending the prom would lead to unwanted civil rights backlash, instead decide to cancel prom altogether. This exacerbates bullying and resentment towards Emma from her classmates. The Prom is about big Broadway stars on a mission to change the world and the love they discover that unites them all.
The Prom musical is based on actual event that occurred in 2010 when Constance McMillen, a lesbian high school a senior at Itawamba Agricultural High School in Mississippi, planned to bring her girlfriend to their senior prom and wear a tuxedo. However, the school board banned her from attending. McMillen challenged that decision and in response, the board decided to cancel the senior prom for the year. McMillen and the ACLU sued her school district. A federal court found McMillen's Itawamba School District guilty for violating McMillen's First Amendment rights. The judge, however, did not force the school district to reinstate the prom.
The school board eventually did allow McMillen to go to prom, but only seven students attended. To avoid media attention, local parents secretly organized a separate prom for the rest of the students.
Celebrities like Lance Bass, Cat Cora and Green Day came together on social media to support McMillen. They agreed to sponsor a "Second-Chance" prom for McMillen, so that McMillen could attend with her girlfriend without fear of homophobic backlash.
The Prom was the first musical of the 2018-2019 Broadway season to be named a New York Times Critics Pick, with Jesse Green calling it "such a joyful hoot. With its kinetic dancing, broad mugging and belty anthems, it makes you believe in musical comedy again." It is a joyfully upbeat show. Yet, it doesn't hesitate to take shots at America's intolerance of LGBTQ+ issues.
Get your tickets now to see The Prom play at the Cadillac Palace Theatre from April 19-24, 2022.