‘The Prom’ Offers Messages of Acceptance Through Dance, Song, Sequins and Sass

Chad Beguelin noticed a trend after the Tony-winning musical “The Prom” made its debut in Atlanta in 2016.

Beguelin had worked with composer Matthew Sklar and fellow writer Bob Martin to create an engaging musical that encouraged self-acceptance and spread a message of tolerance. The musical focuses on Emma, an Indiana teenager whose high school prom has been canceled because she had planned to bring her girlfriend to the celebration.

A quartet of washed-up Broadway actors come to the young couple’s aid, adopting their crisis as a cause célèbre in an effort to revive their careers and boost their public images. In the process, the students launch an alternative prom of their own, despite resistance from the school and local bigots, and the four performers learn their own important lessons about the power of art.

The show is full of references to the musical theater genre and is packed with energy, humor and sass. It’s an energetic, effusive and fun show, one that the New York Times calls a “joyful hoot” that “makes you believe in musical comedy again.” Following its launch in Georgia, the play went on to conquer Broadway, enjoy successful national and international runs and even serve as the inspiration for a Netflix film adaptation in 2020.

But for the show’s creators, the real mark of the show’s success wasn’t in the awards, tours and film adaptations. As Beguelin told Theatre Mania in 2020, the show’s creators knew the musical was a legitimate success because of the feedback they received in person from audience members.

“So many people would come up to me at the stage door and say, ‘I’m going to come out to my mom tonight and this show is helping that conversation start,’” Beguelin said.

That gets to the heart of the show’s message and has made it a valuable conversation starter in venues beyond big stages and glitzy film adaptations. In 2023, a high school in Florida was the first to mount the musical on its stage. Similarly, the upcoming production at the Roe Green Theater at the University of Colorado in April will offer a valuable message for a university setting, an environment where young people are still dealing with questions of identity.

Amid the dances, sequins and comedy of the show, that message comes through in the tone of the production, and in lyrics like these, from “Unruly Heart”: “I won't stay hidden anymore/I’m who I am/And I think that’s worth fighting for.”

The CU Boulder Department of Theatre & Dance presents “The Prom” in the Roe Green Theatre from April 10 through 19, 2026. All audience members are encouraged to wear their most fabulous Queer Prom attire (sequins, suits, gowns and glitter) to this outrageously fun musical!