“The Prom” at Playhouse on Park is an ideal example of using bodies, energy and imagination when big splashy sets and special effects aren’t really an option. Playhouse on Park likes to scale down shows — and often has to. The space has low ceilings, no backstage unless one is built into the set and the stage is on the floor surrounded on three sides by the audience.
There’s no room for clutter. “ The Prom ” doesn’t require fancy designs. It’s set largely in a midwestern high school or in some of the students’ homes.
Scenes can be quickly set by whisking in a school locker or a hotel room bed. There is one scene set at a monster truck rally, and the Playhouse designers go all out for that without actually bringing in a wheeled vehicle. Mostly what you get is energetic actors knocking themselves out to entertain at close quarters.
It’s a tricky balance, since some of the performers are playing larger-than-life characters, including narcissistic Broadway stars, helicopter moms, a theater publicist and high school jocks and cheerleaders. They are contrasted with less exhibitionistic folks like a high school principal, less ostentatious students and the person around whom the action swirls: Emma Nolan, a shy student who doesn’t want to cause trouble but feels she must speak up when she is denied the opportunity to take a female student as her date to the school prom. The school administration is on Emma’s side.
The local PTA is not. In a burst of musical.