The Prom
CLIENT
Situation Interactive
TECHNOLOGIES
WordPress, PHP, JavaScript, CSS3 Animations, Gravity Forms
YEAR
2018
EXTERNAL URL
The most animation-heavy Broadway build in my portfolio — CSS3 keyframe backgrounds, parallax depth effects, and a saturated color palette that had to feel celebratory without tipping into chaos. Custom WordPress theme for the Longacre Theatre production, later extended to support a national tour and the Ryan Murphy Netflix adaptation.
Delivered as development lead at Situation Interactive.
Background
A show that made history at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade needed a website with the same fearless energy.
The Prom opened at the Longacre Theatre on November 15, 2018 — the fourth Broadway production I was building simultaneously that year alongside Dear Evan Hansen, The Band’s Visit, and Pretty Woman. With book by Bob Martin and Chad Beguelin, music by Matthew Sklar, and direction and choreography by Casey Nicholaw, the show told the story of four fading Broadway stars descending on a small Indiana town to champion a lesbian student banned from bringing her girlfriend to prom. The principal cast included Brooks Ashmanskas, Beth Leavel, Caitlin Kinnunen, Isabelle McCalla, Christopher Sieber, and Michael Potts. A week after opening, Kinnunen and McCalla shared the first LGBTQ kiss in the history of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade during a live performance of “It’s Time to Dance.” The show earned six Tony nominations including Best Musical and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical. The message and the marketing were inseparable — the platform had to carry the same spirit of joy that defined the production.
This was part of a 2018 cluster of Broadway builds that sharpened every part of my process — each production demanding a distinct visual identity while sharing underlying architectural patterns.
Implementation
Animated backgrounds, a demanding color palette, and the trickiest design translation in my Broadway portfolio.
The custom WordPress theme launched ahead of the show’s first preview and evolved through the Broadway run, tour announcement, and Netflix adaptation. The Prom’s visual identity leaned heavily on saturated purples, pinks, and aquas — a celebratory aesthetic that demanded precision in CSS to land across breakpoints without feeling overwrought. Interactive backgrounds used CSS3 animations and JavaScript-driven parallax to create depth and movement, reinforcing the show’s exuberance without dragging page performance. The ticketing calendar handled the Longacre’s weekly schedule with availability states and direct purchase routing. When the national tour was announced, I extended the platform with city-by-city scheduling, venue details, and tour-specific ticketing endpoints — all editable by the production team through the CMS. Cast and creative sections carried structured profiles for the full principal company (Ashmanskas, Leavel, Kinnunen, McCalla, Sieber, Potts, Angie Schworer, Josh Lamon) and the creative team from Nicholaw through Pask, Pachtman, Roth, and Katz. The site also served as the central hub for press materials, media assets, and social content as the show’s cultural footprint grew.
Every keyframe in the background animations had to feel intentional — celebratory without being distracting, colorful without being garish. That balance was the hardest part of the build.
Results
Six Tony nominations, a Drama Desk Award, 309 performances, a national tour, and a Netflix film starring Meryl Streep.
The site served as the production’s primary digital platform through 309 performances at the Longacre Theatre, closing August 11, 2019. The production grossed over $25 million at an average capacity of 85%. The tour system scaled to support the national tour launching in November 2021 at Playhouse Square in Cleveland, playing over 20 cities through October 2022. When Ryan Murphy adapted the musical into a Netflix film released December 11, 2020 — starring Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, Kerry Washington, and Keegan-Michael Key — the site transitioned into a bridge between the stage production and its second life on screen, without requiring a rebuild.
A site designed for an opening night at the Longacre scaled into a tour platform and a film marketing hub — the architecture absorbed each new phase without breaking.
