Ryan Murphy and his well-chosen cast help THE PROM go on to bigger, glossier things

There are those who say that Ryan Murphy (shown below), director of the new film version of the Broadway musical THE PROM has de-charmed the thing, removing spontaneity and genuineness from the proceedings. Others -- those who don't understand or appreciate musical comedy -- will counter that those attributes were never present in the first place. Bullshit. The Prom, in either aspect, has plenty of both -- and many more amazements, too. In fact, it defines what musical comedy is and simultaneously redefines it for our current age of inclusivity/diversity (as well as the unfortunate and ever-present desire and need to wipe these off the face of the earth). In short, it couldn't be more true to its 2020 time period.

TrustMovies didn't see the original Broadway show, but he did catch its musical number from the telecast during the Tony Awards a couple of years back. Based on what he saw of this and the other nominees' numbers, The Prom was the only show whose musical score and lyrics he wanted to hear more of. So he brought the Broadway cast album and by now has just about worn it out from mucho multiple plays. 

And, yes, TM was worried, given Mr. Murphy's off-and-on track record, that he might gussy things up past the boiling point. But, no. Sure, he's a little busier than he need be now and then, but the show's distinct charm, energy and sweetness, as well as its delightful digs at the narcissism of theater folk, remain front and center. 

Best of all, Murphy has kept the score mostly intact and up to snuff. Matthew Sklar's music --  maybe the bounciest since Baby -- combines with Chad Beguelin's witty and full-of-real-rhyme lyrics to keep our ears consistently alert and gratified. The book (by Bob Martin and Beguelin does a grand job of bringing together its two tales -- one about a troupe of near over-the-hill actors seeking some publicity that will kickstart their careers, the other of a high school girl in Indiana who wants to bring another girl to the prom as her date but is stymied by the local PTA.

While I adore the original cast of the Broadway album, we all can understand the need for casting big names in starring roles. And we surely do get them here -- from Meryl Streep (above, center right) as the belting diva ("Can I get softer lighting?") and James Corden (above, left) as her gay co-star to Nicole Kidman (center,  left) as the forever chorus girl who can't get a break and Keegan-Michael Key (above, right) as the sympathetic principal of the school that these kids attend -- the whole cast is first class.

I don't want to give away much more because the situations and songs are all so much fun that you deserve to experience them freshly and first-hand. (That's Ariana Debose, above, left, with Kerry Washington, as daughter and mother on either side of the GLBT divide.) 

But I will just call attention to a couple of brilliant moments of heart-stopping/jaw-dropping intimacy and surprise in the middle of all this joyous bounce: One arrives as Mr. Key sings a quiet song to Ms Streep about what theater -- and her own part in this -- has meant to him over the years. The song sweetly, humorously calls attention to both the mysteries and seeming ridiculousness of the musical form, even as it celebrrates them so beautifully.

The other moment comes as Ms Debose sings to her girlfriend Emma about the many hoops her mother puts her through so that she can become the perfect girl. All this seems both truthful and rueful (witty, too) until suddenly there's a single line -- regarding why mom is doing all this -- that stops you in your tracks. The Prom is filled with these little surprises, as much as it is chock-a-block with feel-good fun. 

 

From Netflix, running 130 minutes, and a much-needed gift for the holidays, The Prom is available now on the popular streaming service. (Above, right, with Ms Kidman and further above, left, with Ms Debose is Jo Ellen Pellman, making her auspicious movie debut as our heroine, Emma. )

She is risen! CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND's third season brings Rachel Bloom/Aline Brosh McKenna's brilliant show back to former glory

After the usual sophomore slump of a second season (not bad, mind you, but just a little "less"), CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND has bounced back to all of its buoyant glory, creativity and entertainment that knocked our socks off during season one. TrustMovies' spouse declares it his favorite television series of all time, and if I can't quite go that far, I must admit that it is up there with the very best.

The brainchild of its star Rachel Bloom (above) and writer Aline Brosh McKenna (shown at right), the series is comparable to The Mary Tyler Moore Show -- with which it has a surprising amount in common: the workplace and a bunch of wonderfully goofy and memorable characters, and a young woman heroine negotiating career and love. The differences are (1) a much more modern, internet-age time frame and all that entails and (2) a heroine who, rather than being re-active to all the people around her, is absolutely pro-active (or pro-negative) so that all those around her become satellites.

Plus -- and this of course is the clincher -- the show is dotted, episode after episode, with its own fabulously funny and entertaining musical numbers that comment trenchantly on all the characters, while giving each one the chance to perform and shine.

From their handling of one musical number after another, it seems clear that Bloom and McKenna must have an encyclopedic knowledge of musical theater (and a bunch of other musical genres, too), for their riffs and take-offs are simply and delightfully on-target.

Has there ever been a heroine quite as simultaneously enchanting and appalling as Rebecca Bunch? I doubt it. The word crazy in the title proves absolutely on the mark. Toward the end of season two, it sometimes seemed that our girl was going too far over the top. The particular beauty of season three is that it finally addresses Rebecca's craziness and even allows her to -- at least try -- to address it, too.

As with all the best series, the supporting characters grow and change in ways that make them ever more precious to us. And this show treats almost all its characters as something special -- whether they're friends, work-mates, love objects or blackmailing stalkers.

How Crazy Ex-Girlfriend movies its plot along so handily is another of its miracles. Eventually, you quit wondering and/or worrying about who is going to end up with whom and simply lean back and enjoy these wonderfully crazy (and just real enough to make you identify and quiver a bit) folk for who they are and what they might become.

I had thought perhaps season three would be the capper and finale. But no, there will be more. If the creators can keep their next season up to this level, we're in for a continuing and rare treat.

Originally shown on The CW (the cable channel owned jointly by CBS and Warner Brothers) and now streaming now on Netflix, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend can be seen -- binged or doled out in pleasurable mini-doses -- in all its three-season glory. 

Theater on film: the Menier Chocolate Factory revival of Sondheim's MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG gets well-deserved, encore screenings nationally

There was a time, long ago, when TrustMovies used to attend legitimate theater several times a week. Prices were much more affordable back then, but even he missed the original Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along because the show closed suddenly, so all he ended up with were tickets to be refunded. He bought the original cast album however, wore it out, and always imagined that the critics must have had their heads up their posteriors not to love a show with music and lyrics this wonderful.

Over the years much tinkering has been done on this musical, resulting in various "revivals" that still, according to the sources, didn't quite make it. Even so, my partner and I several years ago happened to catch a small, off-off-Broadway revival down in the East Village done by, I believe, a group of players that originated in Brooklyn and was mostly amateur. No matter, they did such a staggeringly good job with this show that we sat there in our seats, crying for joy at the wondrous finale and applauding like mad with the rest of the audience at the curtain call. (What's more, the little group's rendition of the show's final song, Our Time, proved even better and more moving than that of this new production.)

Now comes a version of Merrily... that Mr. Sondheim himself has decreed the best ever. I haven't seen enough of those many productions to say for sure, but this "videod" version of one of the performances from London's Menier Chocolate Factory -- which won a host of awards and had an extended, sold-out run earlier this year --  is so wonderful in almost every way that, at last, critics and audiences alike can rejoice. It seems they finally got it right.

"They" would be the director Maria Friedman, and her terrific cast, all of whom do justice to the book (by the late George Furth), and music and lyrics by Sondheim. The three leads -- Damian Humbley (above, center) as Charley Kringas, Olivier award winner and Tony nominee Jenna Russell (above, right) as Mary Flynn, and Mark Umbers (above, left) as Franklin Shepard -- are splendid, first moment to last. Every bit as wonderful is the young woman who plays Beth Spencer, Claire Foster (below). Together these four produce the kind of musical theater magic that creates permanent golden memories.

As anyone interested in musical theater by now knows, Merrily..., based on the play by Kaufman and Hart, proceeds backwards in time from our trio's pinnacle of "success" until they are kids again, just beginning their adult life. This makes for plenty of irony and sadness as plans and dreams go by the wayside to be replaced with... well, other things.

Sondheim's score makes the most of this, and he delivers some of his most beautiful songs -- Our Time (above), Not A Day Goes By, and Good Thing Going, as well as some of his finest up-tempo, "pattery" numbers like Old Friends and Opening Doors (below). The fun and the surprisingly deep emotions engendered by these songs and scenes, as performed by the expert cast -- which speak to all of us about dreams deferred and ambitions unfulfilled -- should leave musical theater-lovers somewhere near seventh heaven.

If what we saw in the video link that we watched is anything like what theater audiences will see, do not expect ravishing visuals. This is pretty standard stuff, with the usual close-ups and such that call attention to the moment but do not allow, as does the real theater experience, the viewer to look where s/he prefers at any particular time. The sound however is excellent, so the music and lyrics come across full-strength.

After successful and often sold out nationwide screenings last month, this filmed (well, "videoed") presentation, distributed by Specticast, will be making its encore showing around the country, beginning Monday, Dec. 23, through Feb. 28 of next year. So there should be plenty of opportunity to view this soon to be legendary production -- and at prices far below what you'd have to pay to see it in London (or on Broadway -- the hoped-for move to which no longer appears to be in the cards).

To see the complete listing of which cities and theaters will be screening Merrily We Roll Along, and when, simply click here and then scroll down to the very lengthy list.

Pressure-cooker creativity: Trish Dalton and Elisabeth Sperling's ONE NIGHT STAND

A few years back somebody or bodies had the odd idea of bringing together a bunch of writers, directors, choreographers, composers and performers -- and giving them 24 hours to write, compose, produce and perform four very short (maybe 10- or 12-minute) musicals before an audience. Why? Musicals are hard enough to get right when you give the creative process weeks/months/years to percolate. Well, they say that working under a deadline sometimes brings out the best. So why not?

Filmmakers Trish Dalton and Elisabeth Sperling (above, with Sperling on the right) have now made a documentary about this fated day and night which culls those 24 hours down to 74 minutes and shows us the coming together of this batch of creative folk, and then the creative process in action (or not) as the hours pass, and finally not the actual musicals themselves but what I am guessing are only the highlights from them, with the numbers edited together so that we jump from one to another to another to another and keep going around until a song or three are finished.

This is weird, and to use a further metaphor for sex (as does the movie's title), it's a bit like constant coitus interruptus. So for folk who love musicals -- as does TrustMovies, even though he can no longer afford to go see them (who da thunk Broadway would someday be a purely upper-class activity?) -- this is not, I suspect, all that entertaining a thing to watch. There are moments throughout that are pointed and fun, but overall you may keep coming back and back again to your original question: Why?

Still, the performers -- Cheyenne Jackson (above), Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Tamara Tunie (at right, two photos above), Richard Kind, Nellie McKay, Rachel Dratch, Tracie Thoms, Roger Bart, Mandy Gonzales and more -- are game and have OK-to-good voices, and in some of those final numbers there are moments of lovely harmonies and some nice singing, even if the actual music and lyrics rarely rise above average.  But come on: 24 hours? Gimme a break!

When this film first opened, a short time ago, it was shown in theaters for only, like its title, a one night stand. Now it is back again, this time for a full week's run at Manhattan's Quad Theater. So, if this sounds like your cup of musical theater, take a chance. You can see the schedule of performances, special events and personal appearance, as well as procure tickets, by clicking here.