Kerry Washington Joins Ryan Murphy’s Screen Adaptation of ‘The Prom’

Scandal’s Kerry Washington is headed to prom as she comes on board Ryan Murphy’s screen adaptation of the Broadway musical The Prom. According to Deadline, She will be joining A-list stars Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman along with James Corden, Andrew Rannells, Keegan-Michael Key, and Awkwafina.

The original musical based on the concept of Jack Viertel earned seven Tony award nominations in 2018. In Murphy’s film, Streep will be taking on the role of Dee Dee Allen who teams up with James Corden’s Barry Glickman. Together, they create a bio-musical about Eleanor Roosevelt. However, this ends up to be a catastrophic move for their careers after it was bashed with negative reviews from critics.

Looking for salvation, Allen and Glickman team up with broadway veterans Angie Dickinson (Kidman) and Trent Oliver (Rannells) to champion a cause to bring their careers back into the positive light. This is where they find Emma Nolan, a lesbian student banned from going to prom with her girlfriend, Alyssa, in their conservative town of Edgewater, Indiana. Key will be playing school principal Tom Hawkins who’ll be serving as Dee Dee’s love interest. And Awkwafina will be playing publicist, Ms. Sheldon.

Chad Beguelin and Bob Martin wrote the screenplay with Beguelin also working with Matthew Sklar to produce the music and lyrics based on Viertel’s original. Murphy alongside Bill Damaschke, Dori Berinstein, and Alexis Woodall will be producing.

Washington’s role has not yet been revealed. Her other upcoming works include the action-drama Shadow Force where she’ll be starring with This Is Us’, Sterling K. Brown. She is also set to c0-star alongside Reese Witherspoon in Hulu’s limited series Little Fires Everywhere. Kerry Washington has also just recently produced the film American Son which will premiere on Netflix in November. She is repped by CAA, Gretchen Rush, and Washington Square Arts.

The Prom marks Murphy’s first movie under his $300 million deal with Netflix after leaving 20th Century Fox. But the producer is also currently working with Netflix on his dramedy The Politician. Some of his other upcoming projects with Netflix include a prequel to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest titled Ratched which will star Sarah Paulson. He’ll also be working on a series adaptation of A Chorus Line and a Marlene Dietrich project starring Jessica Lange.