The Crown. Diana (the film). Spencer (also the film). And now, Diana... the musical.
Whether or not we're all fatigued by biopics of the late Princess of Wales is a moot point — Diana the musical is coming to London, following a stint as an Off- and then On-Broadway show between 2019 and 2021.
Billed as a "radical new version" of Diana: The Musical (and now rebranded simply as Diana), the show comes to the Hammersmith Apollo in December 2023, with both West End actor Kerry Ellis, and Six the Musical's Maiya Quansah-Breed taking joint lead as the Di. Ellis narrates as an older Diana, while Quansah-Breed plays the pre-princess Di — and while the musical is set in 1996, the timeline shifts around, with a generous sprinkling of '80s-inspired mega-hit show-tunes'.
While the stage show has been tweaked post-Broadway, the critics were seriously scathing about it when it came out on Netflix, with Christy Lemire on RogerEbert.com suggesting it was "something you may want to do only if you're a Diana completist" and the Los Angeles Times denouncing it as "theme-park schlock." So before committing to tickets you might want to give it a quick watch. Tbh, the trailer was enough for us.
