Diana: The Musical on Netflix

When I met Mrs. Devereaux the other day in the theater district, she mentioned to me that she had seen the commercial for Diana: The Musical but she thought it was joke but now she had seen the theater where it would be playing. I told her I had thought the same – it looked like a SNL parody.

Then TLo posted that they had watched it on Netflix while high on edibles because that was the only way to get through it.

I don’t have edibles, so I drank two glasses of Albariño during the two-hour show on Netflix. Unfortunately, that was not enough. I agree that it is not so bad that it’s good but if you want to see it, I suggest you see it with friends (either in person on online) and have a ball making fun of it.

It was recorded in an empty theater, so there are no audience reactions.

As TLo said, the musical is almost one song that the characters step on and off stage and continue the action. All of them have lovely voices, so there is no criticism there. The music did remind me sometimes of The Who’s Tommy but not as memorable.

The lyricist must have struggled to find rhymes. “Marrying a Scorpio.”  “Holding our son, you did a jolly good job.” “Thrilla in Manila but with Diana and Camilla.”

But the best moment and when I laughed out loud and had to stop the movie in order to recover – Barbara Cartland introduces James Hewitt and he rises up from beneath the stage, bare-chested and on a “horse” while singing his own name out loud.

Jeanna de Waal’s (Diana) may get away with being a 19yo on Broadway but on your big screen TV it does not work. Her age is not listed anywhere but she looks older than Roe Hartrampf (Charles), who is 35.

The big love story is Charles and Camilla (Erin Davie). We never see Philip but we do see the Queen (Judy Kaye, who also plays Barbara Cartland).

There were several nice on-stage costume changes (they took pains to recreate her dresses accurately).

The show ends with Diana, all in white, and once she stops singing (“I’ll Light the World”) everyone sings her praises and it is as if they have elevated her to sainthood. The play begins and ends with flashbulbs going off all around the stage.

By Carene Lydia Lopez