Casey Nicholaw-Helmed The Prom Sets Dates at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre; Next Stop Broadway?

We now have dates for the hotly anticipated world premiere of new musical The Prom. The previously announced production will kick off Atlanta's Alliance Theatre's upcoming season, beginning performances on August 18. Directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, whose Broadway credits include Aladdin, Something Rotten!, The Book of Mormon and Tuck Everlasting, the limited engagement will run through September 25. With a book by Tony winner Bob Martin (The Drowsy Chaperone) and Chad Beguelin (Aladdin), music by Matthew Sklar (Elf), and lyrics by Beguelin, the show is based on an original concept by Jack Viertel. Casting will be announced later.

Emma becomes an instant outcast—and a national headline—when her high school cancels the prom rather than let her attend with her girlfriend. Sensing a chance to correct an injustice—and maybe get some good publicity along the way—a group of fading celebrities takes up the cause, and invades Emma's small Indiana town. But their bumbling attempts at social activism make the situation far worse than they—or Emma—could have ever imagined. Cultures clash and the town erupts in chaos. The community's reputation, Emma's future, and the celebrities' careers, all hang in the balance, until a true hero emerges to save the day. Uproarious and ultimately uplifting, this new musical proves that standing up for yourself—and inspiring others to accept their differences—can make you the star you were always meant to be.

Other shows in the upcoming season's lineup include a re-imagined adaptation of Moby Dick, Lindsey Ferrentino’s off-Broadway hit Ugly Lies the Bone, Jiréh Breon Holder’s Too Heavy for Your Pocket, Mark Kendall’s The Magic Negro and other Blackity Blackness, as told by an African-American Man, who also happens to be Black, Greg Changnon’s Slur, Janece Shaffer’s Cinderella and Fella and the world premieres of Troubadour and The Temple Bombing.