The Broadway premiere of Princess Diana: The Musical, which has been critically criticized by the public almost two decades after its original opening date.
Jeanna De Waal (actress), who portrays Princess Diana, was the leader of the cast when they took to New York’s Longacre Theatre last evening.
Today, the New York Times has criticized the production again.
After a film version of the show’s stage premiered on Netflix last month, critics and viewers rated it poorly.
Diana bows! Jeanna de Waal gives a curtsy after Diana: The Musical on Broadway’s opening night. Following a break due to Covid, the show returned and was received with mixed reviews
The Royals are thrilled! After last night’s premier, Erin Davie and David Bryan joined Jeanna De Waal, Roe Hartrampf, Jeanna Del Waal, Roe Hartrampf, and Jeanna von Waal to form Diana: The Musical.
‘The Queen and Camilla’: The show, created by Joe DiPietro and David Bryan (Bon Jovi’s keyboardist), stars Judy Kaye as the Queen (left), and Erin Davie as Camilla (right)
Curtain call: Clutching a bouquet of flowers, Jeanna de Waal (Princess Diana) takes a bow
Its ‘hysterically terrible’ lyrics, and its extravagant production were criticized harshly.
The Evening Standard, The Times and the Chicago Tribune gave Diana: The Musical damning one-star reviews, while viewers on social media mocked the ridiculous songs – including a number where paparazzi sing ‘better than a Guinness, better than a w**k/snap a few pics, it’s money in the bank’.
Previous comments called upon Prince Harry (who has an estimated $100million contract with Netflix) to end ties with Netflix because of the way he depicts his mother and other royal family members.
MailOnline’s Dan Wooton stated that if he doesn’t speak up against such an awful depiction, then he’s tacitly supporting it.
Save grace: Many reviews mentioned Judy Kaye (pictured as Queen) was the best.
Beaming: Lead actress Jeanna de Waal is radiant as she celebrates a successful opening night
Regal: Actress Jeanna de Waal curtsied (left) before being presented with flowers on stage
Celebration! It was a celebration!
The show, created by Joe DiPietro and David Bryan (Bon Jovi’s keyboardist), stars Jeanna de Waal, as Princess Diana, Roe Hartrampf as Prince Charles, Judy Kaye as the Queen, and Erin Davie who ‘turns Camilla Parker Bowles into the Wicked Witch of the West’.
Diana sings at one point that she “wishes Charles were Elton John” before saying: “Alright, but I’m no intelligence/but maybe it’s a discotheque/where Prince can hear Prince and us all would get Funkadellic”
Later, she sings to her infant son: ‘Harry my ginger-haired son / You’ll always be second to none.’
A scene in which Diana crash-lands at Camilla’s party, and the scandalized guests sing about “Thrilla In Manilla with Diana & Camilla” is one of the most popular lyrics.
Revealed: Reviewers were shocked by the ’embarrassing lyrics’
Charles, cradling newborn: ‘Darling, I’m holding our son / So let me say, jolly well done.’
Chorus of onlookers at a party thrown by Camilla (Erin Davie), crashed by her romantic rival: ‘It’s the ‘Thrilla in Manilla’ / But with Diana and Camilla!’
Diana being chased by paparazzi who chant: ‘Better than a Guinness, better than a w**k / Snap a few pics, it’s money in the bank’
Diana, cradling Harry: ‘Harry, my ginger-haired son / You’ll always be second to none.’
A man dying of AIDS sings to Diana: ‘I may be unwell, but I’m handsome as hell.’
Diana laments: ‘Serves you right for marrying an Scorpio.
The miserable Diana sings: “I could use the prince to rescue me from my prince.”
Diana, at a concert alongside Prince Charles, says: “Alright. I’m not an intellect/but perhaps there’s some discotheque/where Prince can hear Prince and all of us would get Funkadellic.”
It’s shocking: This screenshot shows one of the most outrageous lines in Diana: The Musical
As Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson notes, the lyrics are not ‘meant to be silly and campy’, despite how they might read on paper. They are merely the awkwardly serious, stilted ramblings of an show with no real interest in human beings.
De Waal has stated that it’s a “huge privilege” to portray the princess. However, many have compared her performance to Kristen Stewart’s powerful take on the princess in the film Spencer.
Others have questioned the accuracy and tone of the musical, with Wootton writing: ‘Diana: The Musical is the most offensive and degrading portrayal of the late Princess of Wales in fiction since her death in 1997 – and in terms of accuracy it makes that other historically-derided Netflix series The Crown look like a royal encyclopaedia of truth.
‘The lies about Di’s life are egregious – from suggesting she used HIV patients for publicity to attacking Margaret Thatcher for her politics.’
Many viewers took to Twitter to criticize the musical and some even criticized the lyrics.
Viewers have echoed their criticisms and took to Twitter to ridicule the production.
One tweet: “I have just finished watching the 20 minute of Diana, the musical. I’m so tired that I believe I’m hallucinating. This is like a fever dream.
Another posted: ‘All you need to know about the Diana musical on Netflix is that it has a song that contains the lyrics “it’s a thrilla in Manila with Diana and Camilla”.’
A third added simply: ‘Whoever decided to create “Diana the Musical” on Netflix made a HORRIBLE mistake #DianaTheMusical.’
Tony Award-winner Christopher Ashley directed the musical. Other characters include Paul Burrell, a royal butler, and Andrew Morton, whereas James Hewitt portrays himself as a “bare-chested, sex God”.
Below is an overview of what critics thought…
THE EVENING STANDARD
Rating: 
Jessie Thompson writes: ‘The whole thing feels like the result of someone who read Tina Brown’s The Diana Chronicles on a sunlounger, semi-p****d on margaritas while listening to Aerosmith. This actually makes the whole thing sound pretty good…
‘Camilla (Erin Davie) hangs around every scene like a ghost at the feast; the show’s attitude to her and Charles is summed up in one hysterically unsubtle lyric – “he’s a third rate Henry VIII and she’s Godzilla”.
The shlocky lyrics made me feel as though I was being punched in the face with commemorative crockery.
They move from the lamentable (Feel that groove, even the royals have to move) – to the absurd (Hearts bend and break, burst, sever “…). It was hard to believe that I could hear the lyrics “Jaameshewitttt” being sung like Meatloaf.
CHICAGO TRUBUNE
Rating:
Michael Phillips writes: ‘Diana: The Musical is a hunk of Wensleydale cheese now streaming on Netflix, and in this case the “r” in “streaming” is optional…
Already, “Diana: The Musical”, is drawing slack jawed comparisons with the movie version of “Cats.” But “Cats” was different — dubious material handled badly, a compilation of misjudgments and digital fur. This one’s a matter of shoddy material staged efficiently and fluidly by director Christopher Ashley, aided by a solid cast of pros swimming upstream, trying hard not to mentally rewrite librettist and lyricist Joe DiPietro’s words with every stroke…
‘It’s tolerable, I suppose, if you don’t have to listen to it. Unfortunately it’s a musical so you have to listen to it.’
THE TIMES
Rating:
Clive Davis wrote:[It]It really is a way to explore new depths. DiPietro — whose new show, What’s New Pussycat, opens at Birmingham Rep this month — has said he did not aim to be “campy”. What else is there to say about a show that’s so outrageously outlandish?
‘Jeanna De Waal captures Diana’s shy glance, but there’s not much else she can do with a cardboard cut-out, while Judy Kaye’s portrayal of the Queen seems to be channelling Hyacinth Bucket. Roe Hartrampf is a simpering Charles, while Erin Davie transforms Camilla Parker Bowles in the Wicked Witch of the West.
‘When she and a vengeful Diana come face to face at a fancy dinner, you wouldn’t be at all surprised if DiPietro and Bryan staged a bout of mud-wrestling. They do however give us James Hewitt, who is a naked, jodphur-wearing, sex-god.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
Rating:
Marianka Swain writes: ‘”A fairy tale born in Hell.” That’s the nuanced take on Princess Diana’s marriage in this redundant soap opera-meets-rock opera, which would be in bad taste were it not so dull. It seems a bizarre choice for Netflix, which is premiering a filmed version of this new musical ahead of its Broadway opening in November – unless the intent is to make The Crown look even better by comparison.
Diana: The Musical is a far cry from the tense drama. She sprints from her marriage to her final days in just two hours.
‘There’s no time for thoughtful characterisation or dialogue; instead, everyone helpfully blurts out their current emotional state. It’s the mood ring school of writing.’
THE GUARDIAN
Rating:
Stuart Heritage wrote: “What a truly bizarre piece of art…You could stick a pin into almost all songs and pull out one line that makes it feel like the entire thing was created to be a berserk joke against the world.
‘My particular favourite is the moment when Diana looks into a crib and tenderly sings: “Harry, my ginger-haired son / You’ll always be second to none.”
‘But others might prefer the part when the Queen belts out a song about Prince Charles’s inability to keep it in his pants, or the song that appears to be called A Thriller in Manilla with Camilla.’
THE i
Rating: 
Andrzej Lukowski writes: ‘Really, it’s not bad at all. Ultimately the only thing I was left slightly struggling with was the exact point: DiPietro’s central thesis is to portray Diana in a positive, uplifting light as a woman who overcame adversity to find and better herself: “I choose happiness, I choose a fresh new start” she sighs, radiantly, near the end.
‘But if you’re somebody who struggles to find the British monarchy especially interesting, there’s maybe a sense of consequentiality missing here.
“Conversely, it’s possible to be surprised by her generally positive mood if she lived a short life. Still, it’s good-natured fun with a big heart, probably best enjoyed after a couple of white wine spritzers.’
VANITY FAIR
Richard Lawson wrote: “Diana” is a hollow lump made solely from cold money-minded cynicism.
“The Show” is a joint effort by Joe DiPietro (of Bon Jovi fame) and David Bryan (of Bon Jovi fame). It promises to be something unexpected and reveals the truth about what happened between Prince Charles and Diana Spencer. The show does not do anything of the kind. Anyone who has watched Netflix’s The Crown or, I don’t know, briefly skimmed a Wikipedia article will already know pretty much everything that’s clumsily explicated in the musical…
“The musical claims that it is telling the story to help us better understand Diana and to make her a human being, rather than an icon. However, the musical exists solely to capitalize on her legacy and run us through an endless list of fashion moments (and events) to earn more.
VARIETY
Peter Debruge writes: ‘The one-dimensionality of this portrayal reveals how little we truly understood about the woman’s inner world. Gaps left by tabloids were filled in part by Andrew Morton’s controversial biography, based largely on input from Diana herself — a process depicted here in the show’s catchiest song, “The Words Came Pouring Out.”
“But many secrets are still unknown, so speculation is the only way to find out. Diana’s divorce was considerably more complicated than Bryan and DiPietro make it out to be, and she dies abruptly one song later — not “Candle in the Wind,” alas.
“Diana” feels inadequate when she sees the musical in closeups. This is because de Waal can’t give a better performance.