Courtney Balan, Patrick Wetzel, Bud Weber and Emily Borromeo steal “The Prom” with their egotistical Broadway diva characters. (photo by Deen van Meer)

I took one of my best friends to the prom my senior year. She was crowned the queen. I didn’t snag the ‘king’ title. We went our separate ways that evening, me with my “good kid” friends and she with her real-life boyfriend. The only time same-gendered people came to the prom together is when they didn’t have dates, largely because my small school had a shortage of boys and a proliferation of girls. “Inclusionary” wasn’t really a word anyone had considered.

In 2010, a high school in Mississippi denied Constance McMillen the chance to bring her girlfriend to prom, and when she challenged her school board’s decision, the prom was cancelled entirely. Later, McMillen was provided what was essentially a “fake” prom, while the other students were invited to a separate location on the same day for what appeared to be a “real” prom.

After drawn-out legal proceedings and internet outrage, celebrities like Lance Bass, Ellen DeGeneres and the band Green Day helped bolster support for another, inclusive prom, which McMillen was able to attend with her girlfriend.

The hot-button story was a snapshot of a moment, caught between California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in 2008, and 2015’s United States Supreme Court decision that made marriage equality the law of the land.

“The Prom,” which premiered on Broadway in 2016 and is at the Ahmanson Theatre through Sept. 11, tells a fictionalized, heartfelt yet hilarious version of McMillen’s tale, with the action transposed to a small Indiana community.

Instead of Constance, the play gives us Emma (Kaden Kearney) and her secret girlfriend Alyssa (Kalyn West). Alyssa is planning to come out at the high school prom, which could cause friction with her conservative, PTA-president mother (Ashanti J’Aria). Emma fights for an inclusive prom and is met with backlash and bullying by her peers and their parents.

When the play’s PTA cancels the prom, it causes a Twitter uproar, which reaches the ears and egos of a rag tag team of Broadway celebrities and almost-celebrities, who decide to reignite their careers by taking on Emma’s plight. The small Indiana town they invade with their “charity” isn’t quite prepared for their level of theatricality.

Some audience members, like myself, will be familiar with the 2020 Netflix adaptation, which featured an all-star cast led by Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, Keegan-Michael Key, Andrew Rannells, Ariana DeBose, Kerry Washington and Jo Ellen Pellman as Emma. In that version, Streep and Corden played the leaders of the Broadway gang, both multi-award winners down on their luck after a failed musical based on the life of Eleanor Roosevelt.

In the touring production, Courtney Balan and Patrick Wetzel take on these roles, easily the showiest in a show full of showy characters. This reviewer caught Balan’s understudy, Ashley Bruce, who more than filled Streep’s near-incomparable shoes. Wetzel, meanwhile, plays his out-and-proud diva to the hilt, tearing up the scenery and leaving the crowd in need of stitches at every opportunity. As secondary Broadway stars, Bud Weber and Emily Borromeo take their moments to shine and milk them ably.

The first half of the show is a laugh-riot, ending on a heart-wrenching note that sneaks up and guts you. Kearney is the “straight man” to her character’s off-the-wall musical theater saviors. In Kearney’s hands, Emma is emboldened as the sympathetic core necessary to ground the chuckles and high notes in reality. When Kearney sings the anthem “Dance With You,” and in the second act “Unruly Heart,” you’re 100% on Emma’s side. Emma’s girlfriend Alyssa, meanwhile, is matched in earnestness with West’s sympathetic portrayal.

The strongest scenes, though, come from the moments the show leans into the egotistical nature of the celebrity characters. “It’s Not About Me” is lyrical genius, with stanzas like “I read three quarters of a news story, and knew I had to come, and unless I’m doing ‘The Miracle Worker,’ I won’t play blind, deaf and dumb.”

Kaden Kearney and Kalyn West play the young lesbian couple at the center of “The Prom.” (photo by Deen van Meer)

The second half tilts away from the big-cast musical numbers that drive the high energy of the first act, opting instead for heavier schmaltz that, if not for Kearney’s and West’s performances, might come off cloying. By the time we get to the finale, however, the ensemble “zazz” driving “The Prom’s” spirit returns, and the audience is left clapping and dancing in their seats. Appropriately, the song “It’s Time to Dance” closes the show.

It’s all done with the best of intentions, with the show working to bring people to inclusionary acceptance without taxing their brains or consciousness too much. Spoiler: the bullies and the homophobes are converted to allies and all is right in the world. For a serious examination of intolerance, theater goers will have to look elsewhere. If scratched beneath its exterior, “The Prom” might collapse under its pervasive use of tropes, stock characters and heavy-handedness.

But perhaps acceptance doesn’t always have to be high art. Perhaps sometimes it is just as simple as a young girl wanting to love another girl, set, of course, to a backdrop of toe-tappers and belly laughs.

For those visiting the Music Center these next few weeks, “The Prom” offers a good time. While you could easily pull up the movie on Netflix and get the story and the songs, the live production offers an immersive experience that, if nothing else, is guaranteed to leave you smiling.

And it did make me wonder, just a little bit, what it might have been like to take the prom king instead of the prom queen to the big dance.

The show plays Tuesday through Saturday, along with a 2 p.m. performance on Saturdays and 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. performances on Sundays. There will be an additional 2 p.m. performance on Sept. 8 and no 6:30 p.m. performance on Sept. 11. It runs two hours and 30 minutes with intermission. Tickets start at $40.

The Ahmanson Theatre at the Music Center is located at 135 N. Grand Ave. For tickets and information, visit centertheatregroup.org or call (213)972-4400.