REVIEWS BY IAN HORNER

THE PROM (Netflix)

Let’s face it, if anyone’s going to out-Glee Glee it’s Ryan Murphy. The Prom is a defiantly catchy meringue with everything: show-stopping dancing, swooping giddying dolly shots, a pulsing catchy score that demands you get up and dance, truckloads of sequins, enough spotlights to illuminate the Empire State, and a rousing queer message: “We’re gonna change the world one lesbian at a time”.

Plus, Meryl Streep (“Straight people like Broadway? I always thought that was a fairy tale”). What more could a gay boy want? These days, Murphy can call on a wish list of actors, and he has. James Corden plays the gay boy wanting acceptance, Nicole Kidman is the third standby showgirl desperate for the leads to break their legs, Andrew Rannells is the actor with stars in his eyes, Meryl is the narcissistic grande dame. Together, they’re a bunch of Broadway losers looking for a cause to champion to raise their profile and hopefully save their show. They discover two lesbian schoolgirls, denied their coming-out at the high school dance by the conservative administration, despite the wave of national LGBTIQA+ acceptance. (“This is not America, this is Indiana!”)