“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 theater coincidence, Emma’s date Alyssa is the daughter of the main instigator of a homophobic campaign against same-sex dancing at the prom. Cultures clash when Dee Dee Allen and Barry Glickman, fading Broadway stars whose lamentable musical “Eleanor” has just been shredded by critics, decide to grab some publicity by coming to Emma’s aid, thrusting Broadway attitude at small-town values.
Most of the show is wild comedy with catty remarks, parodies of songs about coming together for a cause, absurd examples of artistic self-absorption and “show must go on” insanity. But Emma’s dilemma is presented as real and disturbing. There are many tearful moments.
The Playhouse on Park production ramps up the sentimentality by bringing in a trio of real local LGBTQ teens in a couple of numbers near the end of the show. Director/choreographer Robert Mintz has carefully thought through “The Prom” so that the Playhouse on Park stage is never crowded. The cast is scaled down to 14 people (plus those three local teens) whereas the original Broadway cast of the show required over two dozen people and still seemed undersized.
Actors playing sizeable roles are also needed to do bit parts in the ensemble here. Likewise, Erin Kiernan’s scenic design is sparse and economical. The floor is painted like a high school auditorium/gym, and the basketball court markings are there for every scene.
There are a few splashy moments — there is a prom in “The Prom,” after all — but the grandeur is conveyed mostly by lights (designed by Aaron Hochheiser) and sound (Rachel Landy). Mostly, the pizzazz — or just ‘zazz,” as a song in the second act has it — comes from the performers. As the divas Dee Dee and Barry, Susan Haefner and Benjamin Howes don’t pretend to be untalented, just obnoxiously vain.
Haefner (who previously starred in a Rosemary Clooney bio-musical at the playhouse) has the pipes and the posture for Dee Dee. She even throws a tantrum gracefully. Howes brings a towering Harvey Korman-type giddiness to Barry rather than the goofy cuddliness others (including James Corden in the movie version) brought to the role.
As Emma and Alyssa, Lucy D’Addario and Kendyl Grace Davis have real chemistry as a couple, and D’Addario has a real gift for rendering showtunes in a vulnerable real-person voice. Everyone works hard in this show. Supporting roles like the principal Mr.
Hawkins (Cole Campbell) and the panicky press agent Sheldon (Jordan Bunshaft) get an extraordinary amount of stage time and earn it. A core of four actor/dancers anchor the chorus/ensemble, playing key students and a whole host of other characters while in a state of perpetual dance motion. A stand-up in that foursome is the tireless and funny Mitchell Maguire, who seldom walks if he can do a flip instead.
Proms are big community gatherings with a lot of uniformity conformity, but this “Prom” is notable for how individual and expressive each of its performers is. The comedy is strong, and so are the sensitive scenes, and that’s all down to the specific cool people wrenching those emotions out of us. “The Prom,” with book by Chad Beguelin and Bob Martin, lyrics by Beguelin and music by Matthew Sklar, runs through Aug.
18 at Playhouse on Park, 244 Park Road, West Hartford. Performances are Tuesdays at 2 p.m.
, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.
m., Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m.
and Sundays at 2 p.m. $45-$55, $42.
50-$55.50 for seniors, students and military. Student rush tickets available 15 minutes prior to the performance for $15 cash or $17.
50 credit/debit card; student ID required and only one ticket can be purchased per student. playhouseonpark.org .
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