A slew of Hollywood favorites are poised to appear in the Netflix film adaptation of The Prom.
Director Ryan Murphy has recruited Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, and Andrew Rannells to play the quartet of Broadway eccentrics: two-time Tony winner Dee Dee Allen, Drama Desk winner Barry Glickman, Angie Dickinson, and Trent Oliver, respectively, according to Deadline.
Awkwafina would play the group’s publicist, Ms. Sheldon (a genderbent take on the musical's Sheldon Saperstein), as the group decides to find a cause that will boost their name in the papers after a disastrous Broadway opening. In small-town Indiana, they find Emma, whose the prom is canceled after she tries to bring her girlfriend as her date.
Also eyeing roles are Ariana Grande as Emma's girlfriend Alyssa Greene and Keegan-Michael Key as Principal Hawkins.
Transferring from stage to screen is The Prom’s creative team; book writers Bob Martin and Chad Beguelin will pen the script, with Beguelin and Matthew Sklar collaborating on the score. Murphy will produce with Alexis Woodall, as well as with the musical's Broadway producers Bill Damaschke, and Dori Berinstein.
The musical comedy opened to critical acclaim last year at the Longacre Theatre and went on to earn seven Tony Award nomination. Though it will play its final performance August 11, the show will also serve as inspiration for an upcoming young adult novel, to be released in September. A national tour will launch in 2021.
This isn’t the only show from last season to make its way to Netflix at the hands of Murphy, either. Beginning this summer, Joe Mantello will helm an adaptation of recent Tony winner for Best Revival of a Play, The Boys in the Band, with its entire Broadway cast (including Rannells) reprising their performances.