Prom Queen: The Marc Hall Story is a 2004 Canadian biographical drama television film directed by John L'Ecuyer and written by Michael MacLennan. Aaron Ashmore stars as Marc Hall, a gay Canadian teenager whose legal fight (Marc Hall v. Durham Catholic School Board) to bring a same-sex date to his Catholic high school prom made headlines in 2002. The film aired on CTV on 1 June 2004.
Contents
Plot
In Inniston, Marc Hall is popular and his sexuality relatively well-accepted by his classmates and later his parents. But when he decides to take his boyfriend to the prom as his date, he finds he has stepped over the line straight into the fight of his young life and sends ripples through Canada's media. From just an ordinary teenager, he becomes an icon for LGBT rights across the nation when he discovers he is battling discrimination to date whomever he wants within the spotlight of the nation's media.
Cast
Aaron Ashmore as Marc Hall
Mac Fyfe as Jason
Tamara Hope as Carly
Trevor Blumas as Beau
Dave Foley as Principal Warrick
Fiona Reid as the school board chief
Laura Vandervoort as Young Girl (uncredited)
Jean-Pierre Bergeron as Andy Hall
Marie Tifo as Emily Hall
Production
The offices of Toronto-based Tapestry Pictures were vandalised one week before the film's television premiere, and the producers feared the vandalism was linked to its controversial film it was about to release. It was shown on terrestrial TV on CTV on 1 June 2004.
Theatrical adaptation
A musical adaptation of Prom Queen entitled The Louder We Get directed by Lonny Price with songs by Colleen Dauncey and lyrics by Akiva-Romer Segal premiered in January 2020 at Theatre Calgary after a developmental production in September 2018 in London, Ontario. Selections were featured in the 2017 NAMT festival in New York.