Is James Corden’s Role in ‘The Prom’ Homophobic?

The backlash towards James Corden’s efficiency as a homosexual man in Netflix’s new musical The Promenade had already started earlier than I might had the possibility to look at it. One critic claimed it was “gross and offensive, the worst gayface in a protracted, very long time…horrifically unhealthy”, whereas another chastised the British actor for “leaning into effeminate homosexual stereotypes each probability he will get”.

This left me with an issue: my need to be contrarian and my long-standing dislike of James Corden have been raging inside me, an unstoppable power assembly an immovable object. Would I actually be compelled to write down an “In Defence Of…” piece about my sworn nemesis, merely to face out from the gang and annoy some individuals on Twitter? Fortunately, it seems that the backlash is unfounded and James Corden isn’t excellent within the movie (which I in any other case thought was first rate), that means I can have my cake and eat it.

Based mostly on a musical, which in flip was loosely based mostly on a real-life story, The Promenade considerations a troupe of washed-up musical theatre actors who, recent after being panned for his or her newest Broadway efficiency, determine to turn into activists in an try to jumpstart their careers.

After listening to a few lesbian teenager in Indiana, whose highschool has cancelled its promenade fairly than enable her to attend together with her girlfriend, they determine to descend on small-town America to avoid wasting the day. The plot is paying homage to British comedy Pride, a narrative about queer activists from London who staff up with a bunch of Welsh miners of their battle towards Thatcher, besides it’s so tacky that it makes Pleasure appear to be an Ingmar Bergman movie.

Corden has been accused of homophobic behaviour on multiple event. For a begin, there’s his long-standing schtick of kissing male celebrities, including Harry Styles, which solely actually works as a joke in case you take into account the sight of two males kissing to be inherently absurd. Regardless of this, in 2018 he was shortlisted for an “LBGT Ally” award, presumably for educating us the vital lesson that males expressing affection with one different isn’t simply okay — it’s additionally actually humorous.

Final Christmas, following a particular episode of Gavin and Stacey, Corden was slammed for pointedly singing the f-word in a rendition of “Fairytale of New York”. I used to be truly fairly grateful for this one, as a result of my household needed to look at the episode when it aired and the controversy gave me a strong purpose to persuade them to placed on one thing higher. “Y’all would severely to topic me, a homosexual man, to a homophobic slur?” I shrieked at them whereas reaching for my Shrek 2 DVD — thanks, Mr Corden, for saving Christmas.

As beforehand acknowledged, I’m no fan of Mr Corden. When he turned up midway by way of Ocean’s 8, I discovered his presence so insufferable that I virtually acquired up from my seat and walked out — and folk, I used to be watching the movie on a airplane!

However The Promenade was the primary time I’ve seen Corden play a task which wasn’t merely a model of himself and, in direct correlation to that, it’s the least I’ve ever hated him. The camp, American character he’s enjoying is rather more likeable than… no matter James Corden is. I wouldn’t say his efficiency is nice (the accent is iffy, for a begin) nevertheless it’s hardly price writing a livid think-piece about.

The troubling facet of the backlash, for me, is the implication James Corden enjoying “an effeminate stereotype” is a nasty factor — absolutely this solely follows in case you take into account “effeminacy” to be a damaging trait. The explanation this stereotype exists is as a result of there are hundreds and a great deal of effeminate homosexual males, and there’s nothing fallacious with that.

James Corden’s character is simply an affable, camp, fats homosexual man. Positive, it might need been higher to seek out somebody who belongs to this demographic to play the function, however in case you discover such a portrayal offensive itself, I’d query why that’s — I might be compelled to guess it’s in all probability resulting from some type of deep-seated pathology! I don’t assume it’s an excessive amount of of a attain to recommend there’s a component of effeminophobia right here (a well-documented form of discrimination, usually intra-community, in the direction of female males), though Corden himself is clearly not himself effeminate. I think about the character would nonetheless have been acquired by some as an “offensive stereotype” had he been performed by a homosexual actor.

Describing Corden’s efficiency as “gayface”, in the meantime, is extra offensive than something within the movie. Even in case you settle for {that a} straight man enjoying a homosexual character badly is an appalling transgression, this isn’t equal to blackface. Making the comparability trivialises the very actual harm that blackface has prompted, each traditionally and in the present day. James Corden starring in a Netflix musical just isn’t oppressing anybody.

Some critics additionally objected to Corden’s line, “I’m as homosexual as a bucket of wigs!” What a cliche, proper! Perhaps, however I’ve watched Drag Race and spent lots of time on gay Twitter, and I can inform you that that’s precisely the type of inane assertion that homosexual males come out with on a regular basis— possibly if Corden’s character was sizzling, the road could be declared “iconic” or a “serve”.

Regardless of being a homosexual man, musicals simply aren’t my cup of tea (no shade: I simply occur to be a straight-acting and non-scene type of man, who prefers extra blokey fare like Lana del Rey and Charli XCX), so it’s exhausting for me to guage whether or not The Promenade succeeds by itself phrases.

However you understand what? I didn’t assume it was completely unhealthy. If a Ryan Murphy-directed musical a few lesbian promenade sounds just like the type of factor you’d like, I’d be actually shocked in case you didn’t take pleasure in it. I chuckled out loud just a few occasions, welled up a few times, and sometimes discovered myself tapping my toes. Even for a bitter, irony-poisoned previous codger like me, it was exhausting to not really feel moved by the movie’s emotive crescendos.

“New York actors head to a provincial city to show its feeble-minded inhabitants about tolerance” sounds prefer it’s going to be the smuggest, most annoying liberal fantasy possible – and partly it’s — nevertheless it’s additionally a satire of that very same fantasy. To start with, the characters are self-aggrandising, patronising and out-of-touch, and their efforts to assist backfire in consequence.

When the group gate-crashes a PTA assembly, Meryl Streep performs the movie’s finest music, which begins with, “Pay attention, you bigoted monsters, simply who do you assume you’re? Your prejudice and your repression, gained’t get previous this Broadway star!” This intervention succeeds solely in making issues worse, as does Andrew Rannells’ character singing, in a unique quantity, “right here’s what I realized at Juilliard: bigotries not huge of me, and it’s not huge of you”. I believed these scenes have been a reasonably sharp piss-take of condescending celeb activism.

The efficiency of this satire is undermined later, nonetheless, when Rannells truly does achieve persuading a bunch of spiritual youngsters to cease being homophobic with a jaunty musical quantity. He achieves this by declaring all of the methods wherein they’re hypocrites (it’s principally, “so you may have a tattoo, which is forbidden by the Bible, but you hate homosexual individuals? How curious!”)

This music, with its attraction to “widespread sense”, was so annoying I discovered myself sympathising with the homophobic bullies. To make issues worse, the movie’s queer activism culminates with Meryl Streep reaching for her AmEx card and paying for a lavish promenade (“why does being good price a lot cash?”). Pleasure tells its viewers that oppressed individuals can band collectively and, even when they don’t fairly succeed, construct significant and enduring solidarity. The lesson of The Promenade is “befriend a wealthy celeb and every thing will work out positive”.

However Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep, enjoying a pair of washed-up divas, are each a superb chuckle. There’s loads to take pleasure in, if you may get previous the presence of James Corden. In dereliction of my obligation as a severe critic of cinéma, I’m tempted to finish with: “certain, The Promenade is a bit tacky, however after the loopy, messed-up 12 months we’ve simply had, isn’t that precisely what we want?”

@jamesdgreig