Review: PTC’s ‘The Prom’ offers audiences songs, dance, option to invite date of your own choice

"The Prom." Photo: Pioneer Theatre Company/BW Productions

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, May 16, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — “The Prom” has it all: top quality song and dance, the heart of a Broadway musical, the sweetness of teens’ first love, youth rebellion, and testaments to the powers of narcissism and pettiness when followed by some degree of redemption.

That’s a lot to tackle in 2 hours and 30 minutes, but Pioneer Theatre Company’s production of “The Prom” handles those extremes with aplomb.

It starts with the pure comedy of totally self-absorbed former Broadway stars reading scathing reviews just after an opening night. Could their best days really be behind them? Or could they maybe boost their images with publicity for a “selfless act”? They really don’t care what selfless act. They just want something easy and quick that will appear relevant and deliver happy headlines.

In their search, they find a news brief about an Indiana teen who wants to invite her girlfriend — the person she most wants to dance with — to the prom. That dance is quickly cancelled by the small town’s conservative P.T.A.

The four full-of-themselves actors descend on a quiet berg that has never heard of them, and present themselves as heavy handed celebrity LGBTQ activists ready to educate the (small) masses.

Josh Adamson JP Qualters Anne Tolpegin Wendy Waring and Bernard Dotson Photo Pioneer Theatre CompanyBW Productions

Emma, the young lesbian who just wants to dance with her girlfriend, finds the whole development highly embarrassing, but slowly begins to warm to the quartet of overly dramatic and overdressed showoffs and their laughable antics.

But then, opinions begin to change.

Celeste Rose is great as Emma, and seems totally authentic and as if she is not acting. Broadway actor Barry (Branch Woodman), finds himself drawn to Emma as a kind of younger version of his gay self, and starts to care about her prom outfit and how she can make the most of her prom, since he never went to his own. Mia Cherise Hall, as Alyssa, is totally relatable as a complex girl stuck between her past and a possible future.

Branch Woodman and Celeste Rose Photo Pioneer Theatre CompanyBW Productions

Anne Tolpegin is perfect as Broadway diva Dee Dee, who suddenly begins to see, with the help of a new friend, that sincerity and empathy are actually things she can begin to recognize and even begin to model.

Anne Tolpegin and Bernard Dotson Photo Pioneer Theatre CompanyBW Productions

Josh Adamson and Wendy Waring shine as lower-tier Broadway actors who come into their own during the course of the story, and Bernard Dawson is mostly strong as Mr. Dawson, who bridges the stories as the school’s principal and a fan of Broadway at its best.

The entire ensemble is filled with wonderful singers and dancers, some of them with gymnastic skills, and all capturing teenage caprice and energy.

Mia Cherise Hall Celeste Rose and company Photo Pioneer Theatre CompanyBW Productions

Costume designer Patrick Holt has a wide range of character personalities, offering up prom-worthy dresses and suits for the “kids” and grownup formal wear for the Broadway veterans. Scene design by Jo Winiarski recreates everything from a modest teen bedroom to locker-lined school hallway, and a glittery disco-inspired prom.

And musical director/conductor Phil Reno leads his musicians through much higher quality music than ever offered at most people’s proms. Director/choreographer Karen Azenberg delivers the goods in this fun, upbeat, energetic musical about inclusion and the fact that no one is beyond improvement.

This show — by Chad Beguelin, Bob Martin and Matthew Sklar, based on an original concept by Jack Viertel — is a visual delight and well worth seeing, It runs through May 27 at Pioneer Theatre Company. For ticket information, click here.

Resa Mishina Chelsea P Freeman Branch Woodman Wendy Waring Howard Kaye Anne Tolpegin and Evan Latta Photo Pioneer Theatre CompanyBW Productions

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