Tony Award-winning director Christopher Ashley (Come From Away) and the wrtiers behind the Tony Award-winning musical Memphis (Joe DiPietro and David Bryan) bring us face-to-face with one of the 20th century's most compelling figures in this landmark musical event, featuring an epic and sweeping contemporary score.
I'm ignorant as to whether or not Jeanna de Waal intends to live in the States, the German-born yet English-raised actress who stars in Diana: The Musical, but she may want to weigh options. If any of her countrymen catch her in this tedious tuner about the trials of Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales, she could be denied reentry. Actually, too late! Last year during lockdown, this Platonic ideal of a Broadway faceplant did an onstage video capture for Netflix. The tacky, bewildering result is there for all to stream, very useful for reviewers who suffered dissociative amnesia during the live event.
'Diana the Musical' offers no meaningful insights (nor even ones lacking in meaning) into a woman who really should be allowed to rest in much-deserved peace. Dramaturgically speaking, this trashy show makes 'The Crown' look like Tolstoy's 'War and Peace.' But director Christopher Ashley has pumped up the energy. The fearless choreographer Kelly Devine (anyone who puts a real Dancing Queen on a Broadway stage gains a lifetime of stories to tell at parties) takes, as her ubertext, revenge served cold. And the masked hordes thus fasten their seat belts (as if they could find the buckle after all those pregame cocktails) and settle down for a melodrama of retribution that is perhaps best summed up by another of the show's immortal lyrics, deftly referencing one of Diana's famous attempts at exacting revenge through her couture, 'a feckity-feckity, feckity-feckity, feck-you dress.'
2019 | San Diego, CA (Regional) |
World Premiere at La Jolla Playhouse San Diego, CA (Regional) |
2021 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2022 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Musical | Jeanna de Waal |
2022 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Lighting Design for a Musical | Natasha Katz |
2022 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Wig and Hair | Paul Huntley |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Costume Design of a Musical | William Ivey Long |
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