Diana: The Musical (2021) - Review

it’s safe to say, creatives have been fascinated by the life of the British monarchy, specifically that of the life and tragic death of the Princess of Wales Diana Spencer. From screen to stage, stories have ranged from poignant dramas, critical satire and then there’s the downright ludicrous.

Then there’s the Diana Musical, which definitely landed in the ludicrous category. This is a show that has been continuously postponed due to the pandemic, but Netflix have di a staged screening before it heads to Broadway to this autumn. I had intentionally avoided spoilers and went into this film without any prior knowledge of the show. I was still shocked by what I saw, surprised by the creative decisions of the team behind this show.

DIANA The Musical tells the story of one of the most beloved women of modern times. Engaged to a prince she barely knows, 19-year-old Diana Spencer is thrust onto the world stage and, overnight, becomes the most famous woman in the world. As she struggles to navigate her way within the rigid structure of the royal family, Princess Diana finds herself trapped in a loveless marriage, eventually finding her voice by devoting herself to those in need. Forced to endure a media spotlight brighter than the world has ever known, Princess Diana defies all expectations to emerge as her own woman and create a legacy that will endure forever.

With the score written by Tony Award® winners JOE DiPIETRO and DAVID BRYAN (Memphis), direction by Tony winner CHRISTOPHER ASHLEY (Come From Away), choreography by Olivier Award winner KELLY DEVINE (Rock of Ages) and music supervision and arrangements by Olivier Award winner IAN EISENDRATH (Come From Away).

The timeline of this show follows the courtship, marriage and doomed relationship of Charles and Diana. While the Prince of Wales continues his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, Diana struggles under the media scrutiny of her work and personal life while Queen Elizabeth attempts to maintain the family’s image of self control falls on deaf ears.

This was a surprisingly small cast, without the ensemble and the handful of actors who played supporting roles of palace staff, biographers and respective family members/love interests of Diana and Camilla, the main cast actually only consisted of Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, Camilla and Diana.

Now, this production was hilariously awful, very easily delving into the campy flamboyance and then attempting to hard pivot into seriousness without any real success. I was tearfully laughing at times for all the wrong reasons, mainly to do with the forced dialogue or ridiculous song lyrics. This was very clearly an American’s inaccurate interpretation of British characterisations, riddled with cliches and unrealistic stereotypes.

The love triangle between Charles, Camilla and Diana was given surprising complexity and nuance. In reality, this entire set up was flawed from the beginning and unhealthy for all parties involved – however, there were moments where I surprisingly felt bad for all three parties in this doomed affair. So there were moments of good writing, but the creatives took this musical into silly and ridiculous areas too many times.

Returning to the Americanisation of being British, one glaring red flag was how the media was portrayed and specifically the journalists’ costumes - which looked very Magnum PI, trench coats and unsubtle hats included. There were also quite a few jabs that the characters would say, specifically insults directed at the British by British people themselves. A lot of these moments were very forced and made me think that this was written only for an American audience in mind. I really don’t know how this would translate to the West End, if it makes the dive across the pond.

While Jeanna de Waal plays the titular role well performance wise, her imitation of Diana’s accent felt like she had difficulty maintaining that distinctive voice at times. I also think Diana in the early scenes should’ve been played by a younger actress, to really highlight the vast differences between the royal courtship. Erin Davie (Camilla Parker Bowles) and Roe Hartrampf (Prince Charles) were actually two of my favourite casting, which surprised me - they brought real depth and emotion to their roles.

This production also had a very strong ensemble cast, which I find it amazing these actors really get enough credit on stage. There is definitely the strongest performances. Even Judy Keye’s Queen Elizabeth was actually good, but even these actors couldn’t save the show with this material.

What really stopped me from giving this a higher rating or even enjoying the craziness, aside from the on the nose dialogue and hilariously awful lyrics within the musical numbers (a couple calling Prince Harry the ginger goofball of the family), was how poorly the plot progressed. The writing team could never quite find the balance between dark and light, serious or fluffy – instead they try force the two together and the result is absolutely awful. The tone of the show was off and didn’t work as a drama, romance or even a comedy.

Starting with the novelist known best for her historical romances, Keye plays Barbara Cartland when isn’t on stage as the Queen and this character can be summed up in one word: Pantomime. Barbara Cartland’s character was essentially the dame character you’d find in a Christmas pantomime. Inappropriate jokes and poorly executed satire included.

And then you had Gareth Keegan’s James Hewitt and this musical actually made me research the real life counterpart, which had me concluding that the writing team did not understand this character at all. Instead of delving into Hewitt’s flaws and the fact he even tried to profit off his relationship with Diana before and after her death, he was portrayed as a handsome “stable boy” who falls for the misunderstood princess. The romance elements of the character were clearly heightened to amplified the drama, but it failed miserably. Cartland’s satire was even used in the introduction of Hewitt. He quite literally ascends onto stage shirtless in an intensely sexualised manner (riding a horse saddle I might add) with every female lusting after him - the most horrendous lines had to be the innuendos involving horse riding, which made for uncomfortable viewing when the jokes played up for laughs had no response from the empty theatre. Then you had Diana’s trusted butler Paul Burrell played by Bruce Dow, whose purpose was apparently only to be a walking embodiment of the gay best friend trope and the fairy godmother archetype. For a show that had a lot of gay characters and in theory this musical could’ve landed well with LGBTQ theatre goers as well as its female or royalist demographic it was aiming for - Diana dispelled many negative and dangerous stigmas against the gay community in her life - many of the characters who identified as gay were portrayed in a way which came across as lazy characterisation because no one was unique.

As I’ve said before, the tone of this show was shaky, never finding the balance of when to be comedic and when to be serious. Honestly, the funniest moment was during the Happiness/Just Breathe number - Charles and Diana duet a sweet lullaby to baby William and then when we jump forward to Harry’s birth, Diana starts singing with the line “Harry, my ginger haired son” I actually had to pause the film because I was so unprepared and it took a good five minutes for me to compose myself.

I believe it’s safe to say I enjoyed this show for all the wrong reasons. Diana’s costumes and set designs were good, even some of the theatrical transitions were impressive at times. The show definitely had a good cast and there were some diamonds in the rough songs. However, just because it looks good doesn’t mean the show itself is good. The problems stem from the writing and characterisation. If this show got rid of the quirkiness silliness and took itself a bit more seriously, I believe this musical could’ve been well received by critics.

We won’t really know the outcome of this musical until it hits Broadway. With the campy nature of this musical, this can go one of two ways - either this production will fade into obscurity after a short run or become an unlikely cult classic.

This was almost a slightly higher rating, but after the overall experience of this musical I had to give it a ★.