Netflix's New Musical 'The Prom' Is The Savior 2020 Needs

Meryl Streep to the rescue

Any trailer that features a fur-trimmed, blood-red coat-wearing Meryl Streep crooning “where’s the zazz, baby?” is a winner in our book. And this December on Netflix, we’ll get just that — and so, so much more — in the highly anticipated, star-studded, rhinestone-sprinkled musical The Prom.

The trailer for The Prom dropped today, and it’s pure perfection — as is the musical’s synopsis: Paisley-printed-scarf-wearing James Corden as Barry Glickman and Streep’s Dee Dee Allen are New York City Broadway stage stars who’ve gone from fabulous to failure. So, to rehab their public images, they’ve decided to help Emma Nolan (played by newcomer Jo Ellen Pellman), who has been banned from bringing her girlfriend, Alyssa (played by Ariana DeBose), to their high school prom. Streep and Corden’s sidekicks are actors you’ve might’ve heard of, too: Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman and Girls star and Tony Award nominated actor and Girls star Andrew Rannells.

“I feel honored to represent for Latinx and Queer representation,” DeBose tells Variety of playing a cheerleader coming to terms with her sexuality. “I’m really hoping that the mother-daughter relationship with Kerry will be something that is a great conversation starter for young, queer, beautiful girls of color,” she tells Vanity Fair. DeBose will also co-star in Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story, now slated to premiere in December 2021.

The list of stars in the Netflix musical doesn’t end there, either.

Directed by Ryan Murphy of Glee and AHS fame, The Prom also features Kerry Washington, Keegan-Michael Key, Tracey Ullman, Kevin Chamberlin, Mary Kay Place, Nico Greetham Logan Riley, Nathaniel J. Potvin and Sofia Deler.

“[DeBose] is Anita in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, and she’s just so brilliant. And she was the Bullet in Hamilton,” Washington says in an episode of Variety‘s The Big Ticket podcast. “I’m really excited for everybody to see her in the film.”

Washington added that Streep is “phenomenal.”

“She’s always phenomenal, but I’m telling you, in The Prom, it’s like just being there during filming. I was like, ‘She’s incredible,'” she says.

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Murphy previously teased The Prom on his Instagram back in September, writing, “On DECEMBER 11, let Netflix take you to THE PROM you didn’t get this year.” And since, musical fans have eagerly awaited the first trailer.

The Prom, which based on the award-winning, Tony-nominated Broadway musical of the same name that debuted in 2018, is Murphy’s first film project under his Netflix deal, which is estimated to be worth up to $300 million.

“I hope it provides a way back to some normalcy,” Murphy tells Variety. “This is the prom we all get to have this year. It celebrates movies and celebrates Broadway, and it comes at the end of a very hard year. I’m just incredibly thankful.”

The Prom will be available to stream on Netflix on Dec. 11. It’ll also open in select theaters.