- Matthew Sklar and Bob Martin are two of the creators,
of Broadways The Prom.
And now the film version of the musical comedy
is hitting Netflix on December 11th.
Produced and directed by Ryan Murphy,
the film features a star-studded cast,
including Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman,
and many more.
I'm here to talk to the composer and co-screenwriter,
about building a prom for the masses.
- Let's get this party started.
♪ It's time to build a prom ♪
♪ For everyone ♪
♪ Show them all it can be done ♪
♪ If music plays and no one cares ♪
♪ Who your unruly heart loves ♪
♪ Build it now ♪
Well I just saw the premiere,
and I can't tell you how excited I was
to let some Zazz into my home.
So tell me about what it was like for you
to watch The Prom the first time.
- The first time we saw an early director's cut,
I think we were just kind of blown away.
We were kind of shocked at how close it was
to the original show and thrilled.
And we were crying all the way through.
I mean, - Oh yeah.
- you know there's like absurd moments seeing your name
in the vicinity of Meryl Streep's name.
And then there's just the moments like the final prom
and everyone enters or, so many moments when I was just
weeping, anyway.
I, yeah Matt when--
And well, just, the scale of everything
is you know, something we just can't do on stage and,
and we can't create in the orchestra pit either.
You know, so just that coming at you
in this beautiful world, you know,
and through, you know, Ryan's lens,
but also really being faithful to the show.
He kind of, you know, was able to create a real balance
of those things and it made it so satisfying.
And, and yeah, I mean,
the first time I saw it and those kids came out
and it's time to dance and,
- Yeah. - You know,
I was there that day when they shot that
and all those kids are LGBTQ, you know, youth
and they were, you know, and they didn't let them see
the set until they rolled.
So those reactions are genuine from them.
And it's just every time I see it,
I'm just a bucket of tears.
It's just so moving.
- Yeah.
- It's very emotional.
- Yeah.
- But let's go back to when the prom was on Broadway.
I love the prom on Broadway.
And Ryan Murphy went to see it.
And then I guess you guys got a call.
How did that all work out?
And what was your reaction?
- Go ahead Matt.
You remember - Sure.
- this better than I do.
- Yeah.
Bill Damaschke one of our lead producers on Broadway
had been trying to get Ryan to see the show for a while.
And then finally, you know, one night in January of 2019,
we had only been open for a couple of months.
Ryan showed up with Bill.
And I knew he was gonna be there so I, you know,
I snuck in the back of the theater
to see what was going on.
And, and at the end of the show,
Bill introduced me to Ryan and Ryan said,
he just looked at me and he said,
"I don't know you,
"but I'm very proud of you.
"And I have some thoughts, some good thoughts."
And then he and Bill left.
And then a couple of days later,
we got this phone call saying that he wanted to make it.
And make it a feature film.
So it was, you know, it was,
it came as a complete surprise to us.
But it really spoke to him.
You know, he grew up gay in Indiana,
and he faced a lot of the same problems that Emma faced.
So it's very, very personal to him.
And, you know, he said,
and then Bob and I met him in Los Angeles when he was,
you know, trying to, when we were getting everything going.
And he just said--
- On the set of Ratched actually.
- Yeah on the set of Ratched,
we were in like a haunted house.
- Yeah.
- And we were like sitting on set
and Ryan was behind this giant desk
and Bob and I were in these little chairs.
And he basically just told us, you know,
his thoughts and his, and his vision for it.
And the fact that he, you know,
he wanted Casey to stage all the numbers.
And, you know, he really said he wanted to honor
what we did but he could open it up in a cinematic way.
And it's exactly what he did.
- So Bob, tell me about writing the screenplay with Chad.
It's not a foregone conclusion that the writers
of the Broadway musical will get the chance
to adapt their own work.
- That's right.
So we were so grateful to be, you know,
to be able to work directly with Ryan
on writing the thing and not having to deal
with additional writers who might be hired onto the project,
which is fairly typical for these types of things.
So it was just the two of us and Ryan.
And because we were in different cities and,
and eventually because of the pandemic,
we did it all pretty well all of it remotely.
And Ryan would say,
"I wanna go deeper into Barry's backstory, you know,
"and write me a scene that allows us to understand
"what his relationship was like."
(mumbles) or something like that.
And we would write that material and send it back and forth.
This is great.
We get the response.
(Bob laughs)
But, you know,
it's a big machine, a major Hollywood film like this.
So, and we're just sort of throwing material
into the machine, not knowing exactly
what will happen in the end.
But as I say, he was so surprisingly respectful.
(Bob laughs)
And just kept everything intact.
And it was really fun to, you know,
write the scene on the bus the going down to Indiana
on the tour bus and, you know, things that we just simply
couldn't do on stage.
Yeah.
So it was, it was really, really
a really positive experience.
- This piece attracted such a top-notch cast on Broadway,
and of course, in the film, I mean,
you've got Meryl Streep and James Corden, Nicole Kidman.
Did you feel like you had won the lottery?
Was it like a pinch me moment when you were hearing
about the casting of this, of this film?
- Yeah well again, Matt, you can confirm this,
but there was a sort of slow parade of major celebrities
coming to the show on Broadway and we were starting
to get suspicious that something was a foot.
- Yeah. - And, yeah.
And then it turned out that most of those people
were in this movie.
- Yeah.
- So yeah, it was, it was wonderful.
I mean, because of their presence in the film,
this thing is able to be made,
and is going to have a global audience.
It was frustrating because we were,
we had a really solid following of fans of the show
and we had great critical reception, but we, you know,
we were struggling on Broadway
and it wasn't as long a run as we had hoped.
So now with the movie,
more people will see it, you know,
on the first day that it's streamed then saw the entire run.
And, you know this message,
and these conversations will take place in homes
all over the world on that first day,
in a way that we could never have imagined.
Yeah. - Yeah.
And I just hope that, you know, all these people will
discover this movie and then they will go discover
the original Broadway company who is extraordinary
and the cast album, and, you know,
they can co-exist in this world,
cause they're they're both extraordinary.
- Matt, tell me what it was like on the set.
Give me a taste.
- I went, I was there for two months.
I just said, I'm not missing this.
I need to see this in person.
So they let me, they let me be on set as often as I wanted.
And it was just an amazing experience
watching a film get made.
It's so different than theater, you know,
theater, you know, you throw it all up and it's all there.
And, you know, the movie making process is slow.
It's kind of like being in tech rehearsal for a long time,
cause everything, you know, there's lots of setup time
and downtime and, but one thing that, you know,
struck me was just how much fun everybody was having.
The cast, you know, was constantly joking around
and having a great time and rehearsing.
You know, I remember I walked out, you know,
you know, in the holding area one day and I just saw
all of the leads, just practicing "It's Time To Dance".
Just together you know,
nobody was watching, they were just,
they were just rehearsing, just like, you know,
you would any show.
And it was so thrilling.
And, but one day that I'll never forget is,
we were at an Applebee's somewhere in California.
And I was in a little video village out on the grass
and watching the closeup take of Meryl Streep
just listening to Keegan-Michael Key sing, "We Look To You."
And I think they did it three times.
Watching her react for the entire length of the song,
it was extraordinary.
Just to see a film actor of that caliber, just do her thing
and reacting to the song that Chad and I wrote
in this apartment is just kind of surreal.
And it was really a wonderful thing.
And you know what I mean, what an experience.
- And Bob, you got to revisit these characters,
were there some discoveries that you made
that you hadn't made during the time of the musical
on Broadway?
- Yeah, absolutely.
Well, first of all,
we got to actually bring the grandmother into the story,
Emma's grandmother, which we couldn't do on stage.
As I think it was Matt, you said, you know,
Casey was just not interested in having an ensemble member
and a gray wig for one scene.
- Yeah.
- We just couldn't do it in the Broadway show.
So but we were able to do it there.
So getting, getting into that story and hearing how
from her lips, how difficult Emma's coming out was,
was a significant addition to the story.
And then there's, Barry's whole backstory and eventual.
I don't wanna give anything away, but we,
we get to understand more about his relationship
with his mother.
And that becomes actually a third storyline in the show
really.
So that was, that was great to be able to do that.
But the thing that's significantly different I think is,
is how deep we went into the final prom itself.
How, what an incredibly optimistic message it is at the end
of the movie.
Just simply, just flashy or more beautiful,
more exuberant than we could have done
on the Broadway stage.
Plus Matt and Chad wrote this great song that sort of,
it's an additional song at the end of the show that sort of
embraces that feeling of energy and celebration.
- Yeah, that was really fun.
Ryan asked us, Chad and me to collaborate with the,
his frequent music team.
And they produce all the music for the film,
but they're like pop music, geniuses.
So Ryan wanted a pop song to play over the end credits.
And what I love about it, it was, first of all
it was really fun to write.
But second of all, it just allows you to sit
in the feeling of joy at the end of it's time to dance,
for another three minutes.
And the story keeps going the way Ryan cut it with picture,
but I think it it's really effective in the movie
and I'm just glad that you know, that it's there,
it's just a big party and you feel like you're in the middle
of the greatest party of all time.
- Yeah.
- How did you write that song?
And did you know which characters would be singing it?
- Well, Ryan said I want something for the women.
I think the women of the cast should sing this
it's about female empowerment, it's about pride.
So, basically the guys,
Adam Anders and Peer Astrom
who are the co-writers on the song,
they produce this great track and then they wrote the hook
and then Chad and I took the verse and the bridge.
And then Chad wrote this crazy rap that ended up being
performed by Miss Meryl Streep.
- I guess, maybe Into the Woods there's
a little witches rap, maybe.
- Absolutely.
Not the first time she's done this.
But it's, you know, it was just kind of, you know,
we were all in different places.
Adam was in Los Angeles, Chad was in the Hamptons I think,
I was in New York and Pier was in Sweden 'cause
almost the entire music team for the movie is Swedish.
And so it was just this back and forth for,
I think about a week or two,
where we were just kind of hammering it out.
And then we,
they presented it to Ryan and Ryan loved it and then they
cut it to picture and, and it just, you know,
it just is a joyful experience.
- And there's another song as well.
Isn't there?
With for James Corden. - Yes.
Yeah.
And then on the scrolling credits,
it's actually a song that we wrote to be in the body
of the film, but it, where it would have gone,
it would have been like after unruly heart
and after another scene that had a lot of emotion to it.
And it was just probably one too many.
And because of COVID, we didn't even get to shoot it.
So, but I'm very grateful that it's on the,
in the end credits and the scrolling credits and it's on
the soundtrack and it's a song I'm really proud of.
And it basically expands upon the moment in the show
where Barry says,
"You're gonna lose your daughter if you don't accept
"who she is, you're gonna lose her."
And Ryan asked us to write a song basically expanding
on that moment.
And we did.
And I, I actually am quite proud of that song.
- Now all creators have to kill their darlings.
It happens in every process.
So tell me what you had to cut that you miss.
- Well none of the songs weirdly enough.
- Every song is in there in some way, there,
there are some that absolutely are shortened, you know,
in a movie, you know, you have to keep moving things
forward, you know, on when you're doing something on stage,
you can have plant somebody center stage
and sing for four minutes and it's acceptable.
But I think in a movie,
if it's replaying the same beat,
especially because you have the ability to make a closeup,
some, you know, some things are shorter.
I had no, you know, inclination that every song
would make it into the movie and it did.
And most of them are intact.
Most of them are really intact.
And also I will add that every song is in the original
Broadway key.
Except for, "We Look To You"
which actually went up for Keegan-Michael.
- Yeah.
- So, it was a really extraordinary
and quite faithful adaptation.
So I really didn't answer your question.
- Well I threw it to you. - Well maybe Bob, are there lines that were cut
- Well yeah there're lines that are missing but you know,
I was actually talking to Jack Viertel this morning,
and he's the one who came up with the original idea
for the whole thing.
Right?
And we, and when he came to us with the idea,
we kind of jumped on it because we have a tendency to write
kind of smart ass material.
And so the Broadway show had this sort of a slightly,
an archaic smart ass tone,
and a lot of theater insights theater material,
like a lot of insight theater jokes.
So some of that tone is, you know,
some of the smartest material is removed
and much of the insider material is removed,
like references to, you know,
those of us who used to be called gypsies
and things like that.
Because, Ryan was consciously sort of re-sculpting
the material for a more global audience
and for a younger audience.
So although there,
there's a couple of lines that I'm missed, just because,
you know, I'm a comedian and I like,
I like my jokes.
I still think he did this, you know, he did the right thing.
He he's gonna get to these kids as he says,
you know, the little, the kid in Croatia who is, you know,
watching this and, and feels included,
sees himself in the film.
I mean, he's by making these adjustments,
he's going to hit a larger audience.
And that is, that is the most important thing.
- I mean, I really love the smart ass winking
with the Broadway version,
but I feel that this really did build a prom for everyone.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
- And everyone could relate to it, you know?
- Yeah.
It's such a celebration.
Yeah.
- It's such a celebration and it really hits
it's emotional places.
I didn't think I would get teary, but I did.
Very teary. - I'm a sobbing mess.
I'm a sobbing mess when I watch this movie.
- We look to you that the way he shot that sequence,
with Keegan going back and, you know,
us seeing swallow the moon on stage.
I mean, it was so moving.
I mean, Keegan, my God, he's, he's damn good.
- Yeah.
- They are all.
- I know we talk about Meryl, but Keegan is really fantastic
in the movie.
And they, you know, yeah.
They all, the whole cast is wonderful.
- And there are so many moments that made me just long
to be back in a theater.
And it kind of, - Yes.
- we kind of get to be for a few moments in this film.
And I think it's really something we could all really use
right now.
- It's a wonderful vacation from the COVID reality
where we get to go back and see the prom.
And it's so moving and so wonderful that you both should
be so proud and Chad and the whole team.
It's fantastic.
Thank you so much. - Thank you.
- All right.
Everyone needs to see the prom for all of those Prom virgins
out there.
What do you want them to take away from this movie?
- For me, it's just, you know,
you having a better future just means choosing
to have a better future.
I think that's the central message of the film.
And then, you know,
that includes forgiveness and love and understanding,
but it's really a choice in the end.
So I hope that's what people take away.
- Thank you both so much for joining me.
- Thank you so much for having us.
♪ It's time to dance ♪
♪ Dance ♪
♪ It's time to dance ♪