The Prom Makes Broadway Herstory by Ending in Actual Same-Sex Marriage

The smash musical The Prom made history for the second time when a couple was married on stage following the curtain call, which marked Broadway's first-known onstage wedding. The cast of the new Broadway musical The Prom made history last November when they ended their Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade performance with the parade's first-ever same-sex kiss.

After a performance of the show at Broadway's Longacre Theatre on Saturday, Armelle Kay Harper, a script coordinator on the show, and Jody Kay Smith (an actor and singer who recently worked with The Prom's musical director) said their "I dos." The ceremony, for which audience members were invited to stay to witness and become a part of history, was officiated by The Prom's co-book writer Bob Martin.

The women met and became engaged 19 days after their first date in 2017. The couple have a ceremony planned for next month in Smith's hometown but considering that some of Harper's family disowned her after they sent out their "save the date" announcements, they wanted to share their big moment with the cast and crew of the show that has been open and accepting, according to Playbill.

The musical, directed by Casey Nicholaw and culled from real-life stories of LGBTQ kids banned from taking the person of their choice to prom, stars Caitlin Kinnunen as Emma, a lesbian teen in a small Indiana town. Rather than allow Emma to take her girlfriend Alyssa (Isabelle McCalla) to prom, the PTA opts to cancel the teen rite of passage entirely. Eventually, a group of theater people (because of course) discover Emma's plight and offer to help pull off a prom.

Since starring as Emma, Kinnunen came out as queer, saying that while she had long considered herself a straight ally, her world had opened up and she'd begun dating a woman.