4 minute read
You’ve never had it so good
By Craig Hanlon-Smith
I avoided Netflix’ latest star-studded Ryan Murphy extravaganza The Prom, for no other reason than I was saving it for Christmas. It’s not as though there would be any parties on the horizon to occupy my time through the festive lockdown. I had every intention of getting there eventually, after all a mainstream broadcast with a young lesbian at the centre of the story is such a rare event that would be worth the time investment alone. Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and Tracey Ullman on the cast list, a useful bonus.
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The trouble with adding such a TV event to my list for later, is… well… gay people. Every Mary with a smart phone has used all conceivable forms of social media at their fingertips to offer their own thoughts on the programme within the first 24 hours of its release. Gays with opinions and iPhones is its own pandemic with hugely irritating consequences. God forbid you might not want to watch UK Drag Race on a Thursday evening. You have little chance of not knowing the result of the latest elimination prior to watching unless of course you avoid each and every app for days. Notice how on BBC News right before the sport, the announcer says to anyone playing catch up “those who do not wish to know the result look away now”? Perhaps Twitter and Facebook should worry less about blocking Donald Trump and provide warnings for all homo posts related to RuPaul content. Give me a frickin’ break guys.
Such was the case with The Prom. I had been given detailed amateur reviews of James Corden’s performance as a Broadway homoshow-queen countless times. These reviews on the whole lacked nuance or anything one might describe as subtle but then, with only 280 characters, Twitter encourages us to be blunt. The comments ranged from the more general “he’s awful” through “his performance is offensive” to “who does he think he is?”.
He is, of course, James Corden, nothing short on an international superstar and jealously is always ugly even when you’re shouting in 280 characters. OK – I get it, blah blah he’s not gay blah blah. The part could have gone to a gay actor blah blah, yes we know. And it isn’t that I disagree with that as a concept. Let us celebrate the LGBTQ+ cast of Russell T Davies’ new AIDS drama It’s A Sin and the apparently cruelly Emmy ignored trans cast of Pose. Not cruelly really, some of them are not great actors. For me the point is they are trans actors playing trans parts, if that compromises on the best performances on television, then that’s the point, right?
James Corden is Marmite. Some people love him, some do not. I confess to being a little ‘meh’ but the guy’s a star. He has a chat show in the US which is watched by millions. His Carpool Karaoke pulls in the biggest hitters, we’re talking Adele, Mariah, Celine, Madonna. He is an enormous deal in the States and highprofile Netflix releases are an equally massive event for its 200 million subscribers. I am not here to judge the quality of Corden’s acting in The Prom, I thought it was OK, a bit cheesy and ham-fisted at times, but I thought that about the whole thing. That isn’t the point.
Corden’s fan base will watch that show, there are 75 million Netflix subscribers in the US alone and some of them will now have been introduced to a story with a young lesbian as the central protagonist. A young lesbian who challenges the PTA of her school to be allowed to attend the prom with her girlfriend. Corden plays a 40-year-old gay man whose family turfed him out (it’s more complicated than that – watch it) and he unexpectedly has a long-awaited meeting with his mother (Tracey Ullman) in the latter part of the film. It is an important story to tell and one many in our community share. Corden in the role will take that story to a bigger audience. He is therefore the right man to cast in the role. It’s not relevant that he’s not gay. Some actors are straight, get over it.
We have also never had it so good. I thought The Prom was overall a bit meh. And yet I felt uplifted at the idea that somewhere a teenage lesbian is watching this and feeling better about herself. Another is seeing a version of herself on a television subscription service supported by hundreds of millions all over the world. What’s not amazing about that? I grew up with no representation in the media, who were my role models? Where were the stories of gay me being in love at 17? In a show that is nothing more than a joyous musical explosion of love and acceptance? A gay show where no-one had AIDS, no-one was sexually abused as a teenager, the central character was not recovering from drug and alcohol abuse. Sure, along with Corden she was rejected by her mother (this was a theme in The Prom) and, spoiler alert in case you’ve not seen it, I shan’t tell you if there’s a happy ending, but hey, it is a musical – you may guess.
So up yours twitterati and your Corden-hating focus. What a shame none of you recognised this was a lesbian story on mainstream international television with a positive twist. You’ve never had it so good.
