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Its the song that plays after that one, a narrative ballad sung by James Corden entitled Simply Love.
Early one morning, youll wake up and find a notes been slipped beneath your door.
(Consider this your spoiler warning.)
(Corden is flanked by Meryl Streep, Andrew Rannells, and Nicole Kidman.)
The distinction, as a queer viewer, largely boils down to a you-know-it-when-you-see-it judgment.
It wasnt perfect, but it was just weird enough to work.
This magazines then-theater critic called it giddy, smart, big-hearted.
The 2020 take is still giddy, but Ryan MurphysThe Promis all flash.
Jewel-toned colors and sequins and dramatic pink and blue bisexual lighting at every turn.
But smart, no.
Its bizarre to watch Emma sing her first number, Just Breathe, and grin through the whole thing.
Even while doing backstroke laps in the school pool.
Being the only out gay kid at a conservative high school would likely be painful.
It would make you want to scream and cry and vomit at the same time.
Like, the show was operating on multiple levels of queer understanding.
It was the first moment I really remember laughing in the audience.
Thinking,Heh, there might be sometherethere.
These sorts of changes appear over and over in the film.
(Ive had one tacked to my office cubicle for years.)
Where once you got edge and specificity, now you just get predictability.
Mrs. Greene tells her daughter she doesnt want her to have a hard life.
On Broadway, that was it.
In Murphys version, Mrs. Greene turns her homophobic self around in record time.
They all dance the shows final number.
Even more jarring is the films addition of a familial reconciliation plot for Barry.
Barry, emotionally, tells her no; that his parents essentially threw him away.
He ran away from home before they could make good on their threats of dangerous conversion therapy.
Let your parents see who you are before its too late, Dee Dee says.
If you dont, youll regret it.
Im not the one who should have regrets.
And that should have been the end of it.
Later on, Barrys mother appears.
Shes sobbing and begging her son for forgiveness.
She only came because Dee Dee called her.
I knew you couldnt do it on your own, Dee Dee tells Barry.
Barrys father is noticeably absent.
His father still does not want him.
In thisProm, every queer lead character winds up with some form of a loving, accepting biological family.
Queer people so often build their families anew, pieced together from found community, friends who become family.
Bonds forged on a deep understanding and shared life experience.
Its a beautiful tradition, if one all too often rooted in trauma.
The best moment in the film comes in Unruly Heart.
Its sappy, but it gets me every time.
Which brings us back to Cordens credits song.
But the impulse to give everyone a happy ending undermines the very community this film is supposed to serve.
(Murphy, coincidentally, was once himself a gay teenager in Indiana.)
Suddenly, Alyssas extremely valid fears were for nothing.
