I'm just a basic middle aged white lady from the Midwest who had never even heard of this musical on Broadway. But I thought the movie was delightful. It's just an old-school campy shiny musical with a really great message. It's exactly what you would expect it to be. And by the way James Corden is great I don't know why everybody felt the need to call him out on the other reviews. His performance actually brought me to tears twice. All the actors were great.

Self-centered Broadway stars, Dee Dee Allen (Meryl Streep) and Barry Glickman (James Corden),are devastated by their latest review. Barry decides to take on an advocacy issue to raise their profiles. Dee Dee, Barry, Trent Oliver (Andrew Rannells),and chorus girl Angie Dickinson (Nicole Kidman) descend upon Edgewater, Indiana to fight for lesbian teen Emma Nolan (Jo Ellen Pellman) and her right to take her girlfriend to the prom. Tom Hawkins (Keegan-Michael Key) is the supportive principal. Mrs. Greene (Kerry Washington) is the opposing head of the PTA.

Liberals from Broadway are the worst. That's how this Ryan Murphy movie starts. They are the most annoying characters. It may work on Broadway as irony but it's off-putting on film. It's meant as a joke but it's utterly unfunny. There is some controversy about Corden playing a gay character. I have a bigger problem with the way he's playing the character. I don't want to hate on the man but I hate his character. He is both too light for the comedy and too self-concerned for the appeal. The turn with his parents is diminished and I don't want him doing this.

While I don't hate musicals, it's not my favorite genre. I don't particularly like any of these songs and quite frankly, I don't remember them a few hours afterwards. This movie is way too long at over two hours. Ryan could easily cut out a couple of the songs. I wish that he would cut out the entire Broadway group and hand this story to the kids. I guess that's not the objective. The objective is for liberals from Broadway to force their way into the kids' story and make themselves the story.

Having seen this on Broadway three times from different angles to get the full perspective of one of the most original new musicals in quite a while (not based on a movie or a catalog of someone's songs),I was quite delighted that this was quickly chosen to be made into a movie. Not many musicals are filmed within five years of its Broadway run, let alone two.

Two years ago, the Macy's Day Parade scored a victory for gay people by showing two young women romantically kiss. The show had an extraordinarily talented ensemble led by Beth Leavel and Brooks Ashmanakas whom I suppose outside of Broadway didn't mean box office.

So who to cast? Who else gets to play the top stage roles on film? Why Meryl Streep of course and if she's not exactly in the league of Leavel as a belter, Meryl equals her with a commanding presence and manages to make the egotistical Dee Dee Allen still as big as she was on stage yet show those human elements to make her not a complete monster even in her most self centered moments. Her Dee Dee could easily have been a variation of Madeline Ashton from "Death Becomes Her", and there's not one sign of the star of that musical version of "Sweet Bird of Youth" present.

As for James Corden, he's not among my favorite modern performers, having found Brooks to be completely loveable in everything I've seen him in on stage, but in spite of that found him to be quite a bit more subtle than what I've been lead to believe. He just doesn't have that certain stage bravado that I expected for the role of Barry so it's a slight mismatch for a role that required someone less reserved. His Barry doesn't feel like a big Broadway star who may or may have replaced Nathan Lane in "The Producers". He does have a pleasant singing voice, just not Broadway lead quality.

While Jo Ellen Pellman, as teenager Emma, certainly can sing and has a nice personality, what she's missing is an edge that someone who's had to defend herself from a bunch of bullies would have. These teenagers, basically nice kids manipulated into being homophobic, are a product of their upbringing, but oh what a lesson that this small town will learn when Streep and Corden arrive in toe with "Chicago" chorus girl Nicole Kidman, former sitcom star Andrew Rannels and press agent Kevin Chamberlain.

To adapt this to screen, the producers have allowed it to remain nearly 100% faithful to the Broadway show, keeping the score and only making select edits, some for the better. This is still great for everything it is fighting for, whether being acceptance (something that younger generations seem to embrace a bit more) or showing that people can change either through wake-up calls (Barry and Dee Dee),revelations of their own bigotry (Kerry Washington's PTA president) or seeing the world through a bigger light (the young people).

In one of the few roles in the show where someone doesn't have a lesson to learn, Keegan-Michael Key is a big ball of heart as the completely accepting principal, aiding Pellman in achieving her desire to go to prom. Flashbacks showing him seeing Dee Dee in her first big show expressed what every Broadway fan feels when that curtain goes up, and that even includes the straight male members of the audience. Kidman and Chamberlain are the others, with Kidman scoring in her big Fosse number. Smaller roles played by Tracey Ullman and Mary Kay Place (not in the stage version) bring on more story perspective.

By opening this up to outdoor scenes and sets other than the hotel, the school and the Broadway theaters, this really does indicate the heart that audience members on Broadway saw and brings it to a much larger viewing capacity. This is not for those who hate musicals, or anything that expresses the gooey feeling you get in big brassy numbers on the stage or the rare movie version or anything more accepting out of their own comfort zone. The power of theater rarely transfers over to film, and this one is quite a delight in spite of the magic I felt those three visits to the Longacre Theater and missing Beth and Brooks.