The Prom at Orpheum Theatre

Throw on a corsage, grab your dance partner, and throw up those jazz hands because… You belong at THE PROM!
The musical follows four Broadway actors, who are lamenting their by-gone days of fame and are in desperate need of a new stage. So, when they hear that trouble is brewing around a small-town Indiana prom, and the press is involved, they just can’t resist their last shot at the limelight and travel to the conservative town of Edgewater, Indiana, to help a lesbian student banned from wearing her tuxedo or bringing her girlfriend to high school prom. But the town’s parents will do absolutely anything to keep the dance on the straight and narrow.

“Comic Gold” – The Hollywood Reporter

“The kind of show that would make the world a better place if everyone saw it.” – O, The Oprah Magazine

“A smart, big-hearted musical! I seldom stopped laughing.” – New York Magazine

With a book by Bob Martin and Chad Beguelin, music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin, a story based on an original concept by Jack Viertel, directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw.

The musical was tested at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2016 and premiered on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre in October 2018 and won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical in 2019. A young adult novel of the show was released in 2019, and a film adaptation, produced and directed by Ryan Murphy, was released on Netflix in December 2020, starring Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, Keegan-Michael Key, Andrew Rannells, Ariana DeBose, Tracey Ullman, Kevin Chamberlin, Mary Kay Place, Kerry Washington, and introducing Jo Ellen Pellman as Emma Nolan.

“So full of happiness that you think your heart is about to burst!” – Variety

“Think Hairspray meets Dear Evan Hansen.” – Billboard

The 2010 Itawamba County School District prom controversy took place in Itawamba County, Mississippi, and began when a lesbian student, Constance McMillen, was refused permission to wear a tuxedo and take her girlfriend to the Itawamba County Agricultural High School prom.

On March 23, 2010, U.S. District Court Judge Glen H. Davidson issued a ruling partly in favor of McMillen and partly favorable to the Itawamba County School District. Judge Davidson ruled that Itawamba County School District did violate McMillen’s First Amendment rights by not allowing her to attend the prom with her girlfriend, not allowing her to wear a tuxedo and cancelling the prom. Judge Davidson wrote, “The court finds this expression and communication of her viewpoint is the type of speech that falls squarely within the purview of the First Amendment.” The school district settled the lawsuit by agreeing to a payment to McMillen and adoption of a sexual orientation non-discrimination policy.

As a result of a lawsuit brought against the school, the school canceled the prom, and Parents were encouraged to organize a private prom, but they canceled it. Instead, a second private prom was organized and represented to be the official prom, meanwhile, parents organized a secret prom to which McMillen was not invited and which almost all the rest of the student body attended.

As a result of the discrimination some celebrities, Green Day, Cat Cora, and Lance Bass, rallied together via social media to show their support for McMillen and agreed to help sponsor a “Second-Chance” prom, where McMillen and her girlfriend could attend without homophobic backlash. McMillen was also presented with a scholarship from The Ellen DeGeneres Show, was chosen as a Grand Marshal of the 2010 New York City Gay Pride March.