‘The Prom’ evaluation: Director Ryan Murphy unleashes his stars in a infectious, high-energy musical

Director Ryan Murphy is not identified for understatement, however a minimum of right here he is on turf nearer to “Glee” than “American Horror Story.” Perhaps foremost, he has supplied a best-seat-in-the-house view of the 2018 Tony-nominated musical, blowing it as much as ranges that would not be potential on stage and might barely be accommodated on a TV display.

The hook of Chad Beguelin, Bob Martin and Matthew Sklar’s manufacturing hinges on a group of self-involved Broadway performers who descend on a small Indiana city, on the lookout for an activist trigger and “some little injustice” to handle — in search of the nice publicity that may save their present after a disastrous opening. They choose serving to Emma (Jo Ellen Pellman), whose announcement that she wished to convey one other woman to the promenade as her date prompted the homophobic PTA president (Kerry Washington) to cancel the occasion totally.

Ellen’s uninvited benefactors, nevertheless, have bother initially placing the woman’s pursuits first, whereas offering a digital clinic on showbiz insecurities and self-obsession. The brightest gentle amongst them, naturally, is Meryl Streep’s Dee Dee, an imperious star with a contact of Norma Desmond in her, who tries to improve her three-star lodge room by brandishing one in every of her conveniently-packed Tonys.