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[0:00] Adam Anders: Hi, I'm Adam Anders, producer and executive music producer of The Prom.

[0:24] Gordon Cox: Hi, I'm Gordon Cox. I am the contributing theater editor at Variety and the host of Variety's StageCraft podcast. Tell us a little bit about your involvement in Ryan's latest film project, The Prom. It's a movie musical that's now streaming on Netflix. What was your role in taking these songs that were originally composed and orchestrated for the stage and for, you know, a stage-sized orchestra and adapting it for the screen?

[0:49] Adam Anders: Yeah, so Ryan called me. I was on vacation with my family and we actually hadn't worked together for a few years after Glee. I think both of us needed a break. Ryan hadn't done any musicals after that. But, you know, to his credit, he's such a loyal guy. As soon as he had a musical, he's like, he calls me, you know. And he said, you got to go listen to this soundtrack for The Prom and then call me back. And I listened to it and I called him back. Okay, what's going on? He's like, we're doing a movie with Meryl Streep and it's going to be awesome. And he was so enthusiastic. And he's like, come see me as soon as you're back in the country. So I did. And, you know, at that point in those few years, I'd evolved into producing and executive producing TV shows and movies.

And so he was, I think, aware of that and very supportive of making me a producer on this movie and not just music producer, which was important to me. You know how this business is. If you achieve one of those little steps in your career, you don't want to go backwards. And he was super supportive. And he's like, you're going to produce it. And I'm like, what an opportunity. I mean, gosh, like Ryan making me a producer on a Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman film is like, you know, pinch me. So it was a pretty special moment for me. And then we got about doing it, you know, and it was how do we take this really well-crafted musical and adapt it into this film version and make it more cinematic without, you know, ruining the essence of what it was. And, you know, a lot of these adaptations go horribly wrong, you know, whether it's a book to the screen or Broadway to screen.

[2:29] Gordon Cox: What is the cause of like, what, as you looked at these things that went wrong, what were some of the pitfalls that you consciously tried to avoid as you thought about bringing The Prom to the screen?

[2:40] Adam Anders: Well I think a lot of things go wrong when you choose the wrong project to begin with to make into a movie. You know, there's certain, you know, even recently you can think of that probably shouldn't have been done. I won't name names, but where you just kind of know, you know, this probably isn't going to work. I think The Prom when I saw it, I felt like this can be, dare I say, even better. You know, we can even improve this. And I think why do it if you can't make it even better? You know, there's too much of let's just make it okay. Or if it's a little worse than the original, it's fine. You know, but I think Ryan really felt like he could expand on this with the resources he had. And that was exciting in itself, you know, but I think he stayed so true to what we loved about it.

And as long as you do that, and again, it's going back to Ryan's brilliance of protecting the creative process like nobody else I've ever worked with. A lot of times the committee will get in there and screw it up, you know, but there was no committee screwing up The Prom, you know, the committee is Ryan, you know, at the end of the day. And that's a very rare situation in Hollywood. So it affords all the creatives and producers and, you know, the opportunity to do their best work, I think, whether it's the production designer or costume designer or choreography or music producer.

[4:03] Gordon Cox: You alluded to the idea of, you know, getting in there and making it better making the score, you know, doing things that wouldn't be possible on a Broadway version. Can you tell us a little bit specifically about what that work was in terms of what you did with the music, what you sort of thought the music, what struck you about the music, when you first saw it on Broadway, and then the ideas that you had for, you know, making it live on the big screen?

[4:27] Adam Anders: A few things, you know, that I remember jotting down when I was watching it. One, all the dance breaks, all the moments with the kids, you know, and having the opportunity to drill down on those and actually create score that would sound like it's going to be at the prom today, you know, and that's not the easiest thing to do. And you need time to do that. And we had that time. I think, I think about it's not about me with the Evita references in there. And how do we make this even more grand and more Evita, you know, and more lush and cinematic? Well, for one, you record 100 piece orchestra in London, you know, the things you just don't do with a pit orchestra. It's impossible.

[5:10] Gordon Cox: Yeah, I was gonna say the pit orchestra was much smaller in the Broadway house, right? I mean, it's like nine people.

[5:13] Adam Anders: So I think that alone, and when I say making things better, not that there's anything wrong with what it was, I just having the time and resources to fully realize the vision of the songs really, you know, and that's what we had.