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.
The surprise of 'Diana the Musical,' which is opening tonight at the Longacre Theater, is that it's more enjoyable - better! - on Broadway than it is on Netflix, where a recording of this stage musical about the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, has been streaming since October 1. Critics, especially British ones, eviscerated it: 'comically misconceived' (The Times of London) 'cringey...confusing..ickiest' (The Standard) 'What? What? WHAT?' (The Guardian.) Now, nobody on this side of the Atlantic is going to nominate 'Diana' for a Pulitzer Prize. But the show I saw on stage has several things going for it.
'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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