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| Diana - development question? | |
| Posted by: theaterisok 05:28 pm EDT 10/02/21 | |
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| There is already a thread below with opinions on how utterly horrible this musical is. I wonder if anyone is able to detail the development of the show? I had a sense there was another version of the show intended, something very campy. But perhaps they took it all out and went for the earnest storytelling (which is in my opinion told with some of the worst lyrics ever written and music that makes no sense at all). Does anyone know the history of this debacle? | |
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| re: Diana - development question? | |
| Posted by: pecansforall 12:17 pm EDT 10/03/21 | |
| In reply to: Diana - development question? - theaterisok 05:28 pm EDT 10/02/21 | |
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| I feel like I just wasted 2 hours of my life watching "DIANA! The Schoolhouse Rock Musical". | |
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| re: Diana - development question? | |
| Posted by: showtunetrivia 11:14 am EDT 10/05/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Diana - development question? - pecansforall 12:17 pm EDT 10/03/21 | |
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| I don’t know about a waste of time. I’ve seen comedies where I didn’t laugh nearly so often. Usually, I find bad musicals interesting because I start analyzing how can they be fixed, if at all? But this is beyond redemption. Laura |
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| re: the score | |
| Posted by: kidmanboy 08:38 am EDT 10/03/21 | |
| In reply to: Diana - development question? - theaterisok 05:28 pm EDT 10/02/21 | |
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| Still haven't watched this yet - but unsurprised given the creative team's history with Memphis which remains, if not the worst musical I've ever seen produced on Broadway, certainly the worst that was nominate for best musical - never mind the fact that it somehow won! "Everybody Wants to Be Black on a Saturday Night" was horrific. | |
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| re: the score | |
| Posted by: Zelgo 09:17 am EDT 10/04/21 | |
| In reply to: re: the score - kidmanboy 08:38 am EDT 10/03/21 | |
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| I, too, detested Memphis, not only because the its awful book and score, but Chad Kimball's irritating performance. | |
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| re: the score | |
| Last Edit: Chromolume 09:15 pm EDT 10/04/21 | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 09:14 pm EDT 10/04/21 | |
| In reply to: re: the score - Zelgo 09:17 am EDT 10/04/21 | |
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| And that odd song about listening to "the bead." | |
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| re: the score | |
| Posted by: Delvino 09:25 am EDT 10/03/21 | |
| In reply to: re: the score - kidmanboy 08:38 am EDT 10/03/21 | |
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| Watched it over two nights, an act per. I couldn't detect a single standalone number, though someone will likely argue that some exist. It's a wash of recitatives and segues, a sung-through score without distinctive enough hooks as markers, too many moments upstaged by an aggressively intrusive chorus that always arrives with the same manic energy (which reminded me of Ghost's for some reason). It made me remember how shrewd and lean Prince's Evita staging was, allowing the set pieces to land. Of course Evita is a show with some of the most famous melodic lines written in the last 50 years. It begins with a hummable tune and builds on that earworm for two hours. Diana doesn't have a thematic motif we can hold onto, something to ground the show emotionally. Why do this story if the music doesn't create enhancements? It's hard to find a sequence heightened emotionally by the score, despite one of the best singing casts assembled. | |
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| re: Diana - development question? | |
| Posted by: BillEadie 10:12 pm EDT 10/02/21 | |
| In reply to: Diana - development question? - theaterisok 05:28 pm EDT 10/02/21 | |
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| As I wrote in my review of the La Jolla world premiere, the production was a great deal about fashion, including a number of pull-away dresses being paraded. Erin Davie had a chance to play a woman who knew the score, and Judy Kaye was a savvy Queen. There may have been workshops where other approaches were tried, but I never heard anything about them if there were. I was under the impression that lots was changed between La Jolla and Broadway, but from comments I’m reading it doesn’t look as though they were as substantial as I was led to believe. Haven’t seen the Netflix version yet. Perhaps I’ll change my mind when I do. Bill, in San Diego |
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| re: Diana - development question? | |
| Posted by: KingSpeed 12:32 am EDT 10/03/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Diana - development question? - BillEadie 10:12 pm EDT 10/02/21 | |
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| My brother and his wife are seasoned theater goers. They see everything in San Diego (Come From Away… Hands… Pink Robots…etc) and they loved Diana. Called me right after to tell me. | |
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| re: Diana - development question? | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 07:16 pm EDT 10/02/21 | |
| In reply to: Diana - development question? - theaterisok 05:28 pm EDT 10/02/21 | |
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| I mean, what else would we expect from a musical about Princess Diana from the people who made “Memphis”? I don’t know why folks on this board thought that one was so good and this was one is so bad, when they’re of similar quality. |
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| re: Diana - development question? | |
| Last Edit: Delvino 08:53 pm EDT 10/02/21 | |
| Posted by: Delvino 08:50 pm EDT 10/02/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Diana - development question? - Singapore/Fling 07:16 pm EDT 10/02/21 | |
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| Except, perhaps, the differences in subject matter might dictate prisms on the storytelling. The Royals need not be revered; yet having them sing puerile, well-known exposition and end up reduced to obstacles comes off as bad taste. In a show by American creatives (as two British reviewers noted.). Listen, Peter Morgan's speculative writing hardly whitewashes the House of Windsor. But he exploits its foibles and peccadilloes to dig, look for new answers. What Diana does, creepily, is treat its protagonist like a musical theater project, a collage -- part Eva, part Fantine, part ... to my ears and eyes ...Tommy. I just wish it dared to be subtle for 10 minutes. To look for a damned new angle. The show -- unlike Evita -- pretends we know zip about this woman, when in fact -- unlike the story of Eva Peron -- we know almost everything they're dramatizing. | |
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| re: Diana - development question? | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 02:05 am EDT 10/03/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Diana - development question? - Delvino 08:50 pm EDT 10/02/21 | |
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| I agree that's it 100. They should have just written a fictitious lowbrow-highbrow princess fairy tale Pygmalion-Pretty Woman fantasia, and then most of what they would have worked, or at least not been triggering to so many folks. The response to this show is maybe the most hyperbolic and pearl clutching I've seen since the Sam Gold "Menagerie", which was similarly a (semi-)failure of conception rather than craft, and inspired an equally outsize condemnation. | |
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