Zombie Prom | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Music | Dana P. Rowe |
Lyrics | John Dempsey |
Book | John Dempsey |
Productions | 1993 Key West 1996 Off-Broadway |
Zombie Prom is an Off-Broadway musical with music by Dana P. Rowe and a book and lyrics by John Dempsey, [1] later adapted into a short film. It was first produced at the Red Barn Theatre, Key West, Florida in 1993. It opened off-Broadway in New York City at the Variety Arts Theatre in 1996. It also opened November 2009 in London with a UK Premiere at the off-West End Landor Theatre.
Zombie Prom is set at Enrico Fermi High School, a school located near a very unstable nuclear power plant. The students and staff go through their daily routine ("Enrico Fermi High"); among them is Jonny, a rebel who spells his name without the traditional 'H', the good-girl heroine, Toffee, and Miss Strict, the principal of Enrico Fermi High School. The day is interrupted by an air raid siren, signalling a duck-and-cover drill. Jonny and Toffee meet and fall in love ("Ain't No Goin' Back"). They date for several months before Toffee's parents forbid her from seeing Jonny. She reluctantly breaks up with him, and Jonny commits suicide by hurling himself into the Francis Gary Powers nuclear power plant, causing a "class 3 nuclear disaster". He is buried at sea in international waters, with the rest of the nuclear waste.
Three weeks pass. Toffee's friends notice that she is upset and distracted. She expresses sadness over Jonny's death, and retells the night from her point of view ("Jonny Don't Go").
As the rest of the school gets ready for the senior prom, Toffee continues to wear black clothing in mourning for Jonny ("Good As It Gets"). Her friends insist that she should go to prom and get over Jonny's death, but she refuses. She also occasionally hears Jonny's voice ("The C Word"). Frustrated at constantly being told to get over Jonny, she states that "life's a trap of the same old crap." 'Crap,' however, is a taboo word at Enrico Fermi High; Toffee's friend Ginger tells on her to Miss Strict, and Miss Strict reminds her of the school's philosophy, something the students are very familiar with ("Rules, Regulations, and Respect").
Toffee continues to hear Jonny's voice, eventually hearing it coming from inside her locker. He begs to be let free and bursts from the locker, shocking the other students ("Blast From The Past"). This is not well-received, and the students are scared and disgusted by Jonny's deteriorating appearance. Not to miss out on a story, reporter Eddie Flagrante picks up on the story from Josh, a cub reporter from Enrico Fermi High ("That's the Beat For Me"). He elaborates on his job, and his goal in journalism: "Tamer than Playboy, but bigger than Life."
Trying to cope with Jonny's unexpected reappearance, Toffee talks with him about what brought him back - her voice, as it turns out ("The Voice in the Ocean"). Inspired to return to school, Jonny is ready to graduate ("It's Alive"). Miss Strict, however, adamantly refuses to allow him to re-enroll and bans him from school, despite Jonny's new appreciation for Miss Strict and her ideals.
Overwhelmed, Toffee struggles to decide what to do next. Her friends urge her to give up on Jonny and move on, while Jonny's friends encourage him to do the same to her, as they believe Toffee has made her answer clear by not immediately taking him back. Jonny pleads with Toffee to get back together with him, unsuccessfully ("Where Do We Go From Here?"). Josh points Jonny out to a visiting Flagrante, who recognizes Miss Strict. He states that it has been "a very long time" and the two have a cryptic conversation, in which Miss Strict is defensive and angry for an unknown reason. The three then begin to argue over Jonny's rights; Flagrante believes Jonny should be allowed to return and preventing him from doing so is an infringement on his civil rights, while Miss Strict believes the school rules should be enforced and breaking tradition even once is too dangerous to risk, especially for a student as unremarkable as Jonny (who genuinely just wants to return to school). Neither side gives in, and the argument ends in a stalemate ("Trio [Case Closed]").
The students at Enrico Fermi High school protest that Jonny should be let back into school ("Then Came Jonny"). Miss Strict retaliates by canceling the pep squad; not slowed by her tactics, they begin to disobey the dress code. Miss Strict dismantles the baseball team, but even so, the students make a petition to reinstate Jonny as a student. Miss Strict puts all seniors on probation, threatens to cancel all after-school events, and promises that at the next transgression, she can and will cancel the senior prom.
Flagrante has continued to report on Jonny's story on television ("Come Join Us"). During a commercial break, he asks for the number to Our Lady of Divine Masochism, a Catholic orphanage, for unspecified reasons. While being interviewed by Flagrante, Jonny explains that he cannot give up love because it is what brought him back ("How Can I Say Good-Bye?").
Meanwhile, Toffee can't keep focused on her schoolwork. She debates with herself if she should take back Jonny. Her friends call on a party line and talk with her about her situation. None of them missed Jonny's TV appearance, which was broadcast on "all three channels". In the end, Toffee chooses to take Jonny back ("Easy to Say").
Flagrante tracks down Miss Strict and begins flirting with her ("Exposé"). It is revealed that they were lovers in high school, with a very physical relationship - the last time they were together, Miss Strict reminds him, was in the back seat of his father's Studebaker. Each feels that the other had abandoned them, but no specifics are revealed.
Prom night arrives, and the students marvel at how the school has been decorated ("Isn't It?"). Toffee approaches Jonny, who has snuck into the prom, and tells him that she'll always be with him. They dance and continue to profess their love for each other ("Forbidden Love"). However, Jonny is then caught by Miss Strict, who stops everything to kick him out. Before she can do so, Eddie Flagrante appears in order to confront Miss Strict about her secrets and her hostility towards Jonny, but she refuses to explain herself ("The Lid's Been Blown"). Pushed by Flagrante, Miss Strict reveals her past ("Delilah's Confession"); despite her mother's warnings, she had been dating "a boy from the wrong side of the tracks" - Flagrante. On the evening of her own prom, she and Flagrante drove around before stopping off an old highway and slept together, resulting in Miss Strict becoming pregnant. Once her parents found out, she was sent to a home for unwed mothers in Santa Fe, New Mexico to give birth. Her son was taken away to an orphanage, and Miss Strict was never able to identify the child. Flagrante, who had investigated the orphanage, reveals that Jonny is their long-lost son and proposes to Miss Strict. Overjoyed, Miss Strict allows the prom to continue and permits Jonny to come back to school. The students reflect on how their realities are so much different than their dreams, but still life's worth living, and Toffee and Jonny have one more dance before the curtain drops ("Zombie Prom").
|
|
The cast of the 1996 Off-Broadway Production was as follows: [2]
Eddie Flagrante – Richard Muenz
Delilah Strict – Karen Murphey
Jonny Warner – Richard Roland
Toffee – Jessica-Snow Wilson
Coco – Cathy Trien
Ginger – Natalie Toro
Candy – Rebecca Rich
Joey – Marc Lovci
Jake – Stephen Bienskie
Josh – Jeff Skowron
Swings – Ronit Mitzner, DJ Salisbury
Reviews of the original Off-Broadway production were generally mixed to negative, with critics praising the cast and the show's humor while also criticizing the book. In his review for The New York Times, critic Ben Brantley wrote:
"Zombie Prom, ... is itself like a model high school student: it's genial and hard working, and it doesn't embarrass you. But for a musical whose hero is a gangrenous corpse, it is also exceptionally bland. ... [the show] relies heavily on this sort of straight-faced pairing of Eisenhower-era perkiness with the nuclear nightmare sensibility of horror movies of the same time. It is essentially a one-joke show, very much in need of more bite than the director Philip William McKinley seems willing to give it, that would have worked better as an extended sketch in a revue." [3]
Greg Evans, in his review for Variety praised the performances from the cast, but compared the show unfavorably to Grease and Little Shop of Horrors , writing "Lacking the spark of the former or bite of the latter, “Zombie Prom” is like any old human prom, a lot of fuss for a very little fun." [4]
A short film adaptation of Zombie Prom (with a running time of only 36 minutes) was released in 2006 at a number of film festivals, receiving a 4-star review on Film Threat [5] and awards including Best Short Film at the Palm Beach International Film Festival. The cast includes drag queen RuPaul as Principal Strict. The film was directed by Vince Marcello. [6]
In June 2015, Variety reported that a feature film adaptation was in production with Vince Marcello and Mark Landry writing the screenplay, and Marcello directing. [7] [6] As of 2024, no new information has surfaced about the film.
Enrico Fermi was an Italian and later naturalized American physicist, renowned for being the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1, and a member of the Manhattan Project. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" and the "architect of the atomic bomb". He was one of very few physicists to excel in both theoretical physics and experimental physics. Fermi was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on induced radioactivity by neutron bombardment and for the discovery of transuranium elements. With his colleagues, Fermi filed several patents related to the use of nuclear power, all of which were taken over by the US government. He made significant contributions to the development of statistical mechanics, quantum theory, and nuclear and particle physics.
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starring role in Kitty Foyle (1940), and performed during the 1930s in RKO's musical films with Fred Astaire. Her career continued on stage, radio and television throughout much of the 20th century.
James Emil Coco was an American stage and screen actor. He was the recipient of a Primetime Emmy Award, a Drama Desk Award, a Cable ACE Award and three Obie Awards, as well as nominations for a Tony Award, an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. Coco is remembered for his supporting roles in the films Man of La Mancha (1972), Murder by Death (1976) and Only When I Laugh (1981).
My Boyfriend's Back is a 1993 American zombie horror comedy film directed by Bob Balaban which tells the story of Johnny Dingle, a teenage boy who returns from the dead as a zombie to meet Missy McCloud, the girl he's in love with, for a date. The film received negative reviews.
Road Trip is a 2000 American road sex comedy film directed by Todd Phillips and written by Scot Armstrong and Phillips. The film stars Breckin Meyer, Seann William Scott, Paulo Costanzo, and DJ Qualls as four college friends who embark on an 1,800-mile (2,900 km) road trip to retrieve an illicit tape mistakenly mailed to a girlfriend. The film gathered a cult following over the years.
American Pie is a 1999 American coming-of-age teen sex comedy film directed and co-produced by Paul Weitz and written by Adam Herz. It is the first film in the American Pie theatrical series and stars an ensemble cast that includes Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Alyson Hannigan, Natasha Lyonne, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Tara Reid, Mena Suvari, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Seann William Scott, Eugene Levy, Shannon Elizabeth, and Jennifer Coolidge. The film's story centers on a group of five classmates who attend the fictional East Great Falls High School. The youths make a pact to lose their virginity before their high school graduation.
The Barkleys of Broadway is a 1949 American Technicolor musical comedy film from the Arthur Freed unit at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that reunited Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers after ten years apart. Directed by Charles Walters, the screenplay is by Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Sidney Sheldon, the songs are by Harry Warren (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics) with the addition of "They Can't Take That Away from Me" by George and Ira Gershwin, and the choreography was created by Robert Alton and Hermes Pan. Also featured in the cast were Oscar Levant, Billie Burke, Jacques François and Gale Robbins. It is the last film that Astaire and Rogers made together, and their only film together in color. Rogers came in as a last-minute replacement for Judy Garland, whose frequent absences due to a dependence on prescription medication cost her the role.
Junior Prom is a 1946 American musical comedy film directed by Arthur Dreifuss and produced by Sam Katzman and Maurice Duke. It was released by Monogram Pictures.
Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II is a 1987 Canadian supernatural slasher film directed by Bruce Pittman, and starring Michael Ironside, Wendy Lyon, Louis Ferreira, and Lisa Schrage. It follows a high school student who becomes possessed by Mary Lou Maloney, a student who died at her high school prom in 1957. A sequel to the slasher film Prom Night (1980), it was originally intended to be a standalone film titled The Haunting of Hamilton High, but was retitled in order to capitalize on the success of the original Prom Night. The only story connection between the two films is that they are set at the same high school. However, both films were executive produced by Peter R. Simpson.
Carrie is a musical with a book by Lawrence D. Cohen, lyrics by Dean Pitchford, and music by Michael Gore. It is based on the 1974 Stephen King's horror novel of the same name, and integrates elements from its 1976 Brian De Palma's film adaptation.
Leona Harriet Woods, later known as Leona Woods Marshall and Leona Woods Marshall Libby, was an American physicist who helped build the first nuclear reactor and the first atomic bomb.
Miss Rita L. Desjardin [sic] is a fictional character created by American author Stephen King in his first published 1974 horror novel Carrie. In the 1976 film adaptation, the character was renamed Miss Collins and portrayed by Betty Buckley. In the 2002 and 2013 versions, she was played by Rena Sofer and Judy Greer, respectively. She was renamed Miss Lynn Gardner in the 1988 musical, portrayed by Darlene Love and Carmen Cusack, amongst other productions.
Dance of the Dead is a 2008 American independent zombie comedy film, directed by Gregg Bishop and written by Joe Ballarini. The film featured Jared Kusnitz, Greyson Chadwick, Chandler Darby, Lucas Till, Blair Redford and Carissa Capobianco. The plot revolves around the mysterious reanimation of the dead and the efforts of several students to save their high school prom from attack.
Detention of the Dead is a 2012 American zombie comedy film written and directed by Alex Craig Mann, based on the Rob Rinow stage play of the same name. Filming began in spring 2011. It had a small theatrical release in Los Angeles on June 28, 2013, and was released on DVD on July 23, 2013.
4 O'Clock Club is a British comedy drama and musical children's television series set in a secondary school, which premiered on 13 January 2012 on CBBC.
F the Prom is a 2017 American teen comedy film directed and produced by Benny Fine and written by him, Rafi Fine, and Molly Prather. In the film, two estranged best friends reunite due to unfortunate circumstances and conspire to destroy the senior prom. The film stars Danielle Campbell, Joel Courtney, Madelaine Petsch, and Cameron Palatas, with Meg DeLacy, Nicholle Tom, Richard Karn, Jill Cimorelli, Luke Bilyk, Brendan Calton, Michael Chey, Adan Allende, Diamond White, Cheri Oteri, and Ian Ziering in supporting roles. It was released online and on-demand on December 5, 2017.
The Prom is a 2020 American musical comedy film directed by Ryan Murphy and adapted to the screen by Chad Beguelin and Bob Martin, from their and Matthew Sklar's 2018 Broadway musical of the same name. The film stars Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, Keegan-Michael Key, Andrew Rannells, Ariana DeBose, Tracy Ullman, Kevin Chamberlin, Mary Kay Place, Kerry Washington, and introducing Jo Ellen Pellman in her film debut as Emma Nolan.
Spin is an American Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM) directed by Manjari Makijany from a screenplay by Carley Steiner and Josh A. Cagan. Produced by Disney Channel Original Productions, the film stars Avantika Vandanapu, Meera Syal, Abhay Deol, Aryan Simhadri, Michael Bishop, Jahbril Cook, Kerri Medders, and Anna Cathcart and premiered on August 13, 2021. The film received positive reviews, especially for its performances.