“The Prom”

**** Last Spring, Jane and I went to see “The Prom” as Glenbrook High School’s Spring musical. Both the GB schools were involved and our granddaughter, Sarah , was a cast member, so we saw it three times. When we heard that Highland Park Players was doing the show this Summer, we knew that we had to see an “adult” version, and that as always, they would find the right people to play the key roles in this very important “message musical” written by Chad Beguelin ( book & lyrics), Bob Martin ( book) and Matthew Sklar (music). For those of you that are unaware of “The Prom” and it’s story, it is about a high school student in a small Indiana town, who wants to be allowed to come to her school prom with a female date, and the denial of the school.

The secondary part of the story is about a group of actors who have just been panned by reviews of their opening of “Eleanor” and called selfish, so they decide they will go help this young lady, Emma ( deftly played by Hannah Kipp) to clear the air about them and reboot their careers. In the film , the “adult” roles were played by a star-studded cast, who almost took over the characters and made them caricatures. I truly enjoyed the cast assembled by director Lauren Katz and her crew.

Barry is handled to perfection by Robin Trevino, Dee Dee by Christine Pfenninger ( who has an amazing range),Trent by Elijah Warfield, Sheldon ( the kinkiest of all kink) is played by Corey Mills and Angie by the voluptuous Jessica Means. Emma’s girlfriend is played by the lovely Chloe Hayes, whose mother is unaware of her relationship and is of course, the villain on the PTS (Abigail Adjei-Perberg). The principal, Mr. Hawkins (Drew Longo) turns out to be a lover of Broadway and loves Dee Dee, so he turns out to be on the side of the good guys.

The set (Erich Luchen) was very neat, allowing quick changes which were choreographed by either Dominique Ruffalo ( who did all the dances) or Director Katz, keeping the flow of the story on target. The costumes ( Ray Mindas and Martha Shuford) were right on, the sound and lighting (Alec Kinastowski) were perfect and the props (Carol Lee Wax) perfect. The orchestra led by Musical Director Ken Preuss never overpowered the voices of the performers , making for a wonderful evening of theater, and a story that is worth viewing by a cast that is worthy of the standing ovation they received.

“The Prom” will continue thru August 25th with performances as follows:

Friday      7:30 p.m.

Saturday 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Sunday    2 p.m.

Performances take place at the McGrath Family Performing Arts Center in Wilmette

3424 Illinois Road- plenty of free parking

Tickets are available by calling 224-212-0477

or at info@highlandarkplayers.org

For more information, visit www.highlandparkplayers.org

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “The Prom”.

Enjoy this conversation with the Highland Park Players musical’s director Lauren Katz and show leads: Hannah Kipp (who plays student Emma Nolan), Christine Cloutier Pfenninger (playing Broadway star DeeDee), and Robin Treviño Delgatto (playing Broadway star Barry Glickman).

The conversation is fun and the insights plenty.

The show runs from August 15th – 25th at Wilmette’s McGrath Family Performing Arts Center. Tickets can be purchased at: www.highlandparkplayers.org #theprommusical

Watch/listen here:

https://wgnradio.com/wgn-plus/paul-lisnek-behind-the-curtain/the-prom-is-a-musical-that-packs-an-impactful-punch-from-highland-park-players-through-august-25th/