From "Maybe a Princess Diana Musical Wasn’t Such a Great Idea/Set to open on Broadway this fall, but already on Netflix, Diana could mean bad things for the whole Diana industry" (Vanity Fair).
Who can say when the hunger for all things Diana will end? I don't think one crappy musical will spoil it. And musicals always have people singing and dancing in ways that don't really fit the events the story depicts.
My problem with the musical Diana is right there in the photograph at the link. Diana looks cut off at the knees. In real life, Diana and Charles were the same height, 5'10", but in this show he's a head taller. Here, I made some tiny screen shots to show the difference in height (which just happen also to show a big difference in emotion):
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Jane Gross nailed it in the NYT in 1997 No. 1 Topic for Women in Therapy: Diana. A sample
She's a magnet for all their issues, a reflection of them writ large," said Steven Tuber, a clinical psychologist and director of the doctoral program in psychology at City University of New York. He was one of scores of therapists who called Diana -- at once frail and beautiful, flawed and grand -- a perfect transference symbol, a Rorschach test, a blank screen on which women could not resist projecting their fantasies and fears.
Even women who disdain the celebrity culture, who would never confess to reading People magazine or watching "Life Styles of the Rich and Famous," devoted entire 50-minute hours and hundreds of hard-earned dollars, to dissecting the parts of Diana's life that resonated for them. "She spoke to their woundedness and to their battle to be heard and to be loved," said Brenda Berger, a clinical psychologist in New York City and Larchmont.
Men didn't get it, both male and female therapists said, making the death of Diana yet another skirmish in America's gender wars, a new chapter in "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus." Dr. Edgar A. Levenson of the William Alanson White Institute for psychoanalytic training said male patients dismissed the event with a brusque, "It's too bad she got killed," while women considered her "a member of the family."
Other therapists said that the few men who raised the issue at all sympathized with the restrained Prince Charles, who was probably nagged to get in touch with his feelings, or mocked Diana for her foolish psychobabble and embarrassing intensity.
I think the whole 'Diana' thing will die off when our generation does the same. I have a friend, exactly my age. I have not spoken to her or her husband in a few years, but I remember just how obsessed she was with the wedding, then Diana's death. She had been obsessed with it when it happened and for years after it happened. And I suspect, any new Diana thing that comes out will be more balm for her Diana itch. I am sure there are many people of our generation who live for that, like others who can never get enough of the Kennedys. But- all of this will come to an end when we're gone.
The new generations will not care about Queens (other than the kind that read your kids happy hour books), or Kennedys. They will instead be mourning the loss of Pikachu. Someone- perhaps an older Lin-Manuel Miranda- will write a Tony Award winning play on the life of Pikachu. They'll honor him (her? Zir?) with the award before it ever reaches the stage- which could be years off as New York will still be under Mask and Vaccine Passport guidelines. Netflix will pick up the show and some future Althouse will post something about Netflix's version, correcting some grammar, linking to a similar production from Romania a few years earlier, and attaching a video clip- which by then will be a hologram.
Isn't looks one of those things you have to overlook in musical theatre? The right voice doesn't always come in the the right body.
If you put up pictures of Charles, Diana, and Camilla and asked which one does not belong, you’d have to pick Diana.
I've watched TV since I was a kid. I don't watch anymore. It's for women. Netflix proves it.
They probably would have problems finding a singer who's 5-10. Besides most actors/singers are shorties. IRC, Sinatra was 5/8, Bing Crosby, Lennon, McCarthy, Jagger all have to be 5-10 and under.
BTW, I didn't know Diana was such a Giraffe.
I wonder if Diana breaks out in a rendition of "Memories" during the scene that closes Act 1. That would be transcendental.
Who could resist a dancing Rottweiler?
Charles isn't 5'10". I once had some British acquaintances who used to joke about him being short. They seen him in person and claimed that he wore lifts when being photographed so he'd look closer in height to Prince Phillip, who was 6', and taller than Diana.
Watched a trailer for the very interesting Cyrano remake with Peter Dinklage. Was surprised to see that's a musical too.
There's a strong push to make musicals a thing again. Is this going to be like the 3D movie rage a decade ago, all the studios pushing it but no one really wanting it.
I am looking forward to the new Avengers musical, though. The song "Man of Iron, Heart of Gold" really sounds like it's going to be a winner.
Temujin: droll post, worthy of a Khan!
'Though it will finally make its bow on the Great White Way later this fall...'
That's some racist shit right there...
Not only is he a head taller, his ears don't look like satellite dishes.
I'm kind of surprised both actors aren't black.
>>Watched a trailer for the very interesting Cyrano remake with Peter Dinklage.
Me, too. Had a mixed reaction to the trailer. Dinklage seemed good, with an interesting twist on the, if you'll pardon the expression, deformity. Musical number so-so. I think I saw that Dinklage's wife was involved in writing the script.
--gpm
I watched the original in real time, and can't imagine enjoying seeing it again, even though it is shortened to a few hours and has singing.
Do they do the car wreck on stage at the end? And if so, are the occupants singing (the driver, drunkenly)?
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