Diana Previews Thread — Page 2

Jordan Catalano said: "Just got home from the show tonight. What an exciting show! Non stop talking! Bags of chips! Kids! A fight! And that was just the audience!

A fight ?!? Do tell

Jordan Catalano said: "The paparazzi stuff has got to go, though. That’s just pointless, overused and awful."

I kind of get it, since the paparazzi was always hounding her since the beginning, and I thought their "snap click" number was interesting, but starting off with them and having them just to reappear again and again while saying nothing new seemed exhausting to me (though one of my friends liked the energy of it a lot). I wish that if they had wanted to use the paparazzi to frame the story they would've made it more apparent, and showed a change when Diana started to take back the reins to use the paparazzi herself as well.

They did remove commentary around the wedding dress in the beginning, and outside of Underestimated, there's no meta commentary at all (a bit of a loss imo). The actual wedding scene is interesting in how it uses the dress but it looks a bit freaky for a sec.

As for the ending, I don't remember exactly how it ended after If in San Diego, but as it was when I saw it last night:

I went into this musical with pretty low expectations, and it lived up to them. This show is in the Pretty Woman slot for this season. It's not bad enough to get into the "so-bad-it's-good" category, but just sort of unoffensive and forgettable, which is almost worse. Jeanna de Waal has a lovely voice and does the best she can with the material she's given. That really applies to most of the cast as my issue is not with the performances but the writing. As a side note, Erin Davie was back in the show tonight and seemed to be in good voice. Glad she was able to recover quickly from her vocal injury. They've made Charles completely unsympathetic to the point where you don't understand why Diana doesn't just up and leave. Clearly they're not going to rewrite history, but it just wasn't dramatically satisfying. There were a couple good numbers, but they were few and far between. The score has a generic contemporary musical theatre sound. "Pretty, Pretty Girl" was a good Act I closer, and highlighted some iconic Diana outfits that looked great onstage. There are a few good moments where Diana decides to stick it to Charles. The best audience reaction was for "The Dress" which comes late in Act II. I won't spoil it, but the whole number is essentially one joke that they repeat for three minutes. They went for the low hanging fruit, but it's the only number I can quote from the show. This also had one of the worst endings I've ever seen.

SPOILERS AHEAD (not sure who wouldn't know what happens at the end of this story, but stranger things have happened) - Elizabeth, Charles, and Camilla step forward after Diana's death. They say some line about how she changed the world and it just ends. They should use this moment to say something, to make the audience feel something. The ending as it currently stands is a total waste. There is no emotional catharsis to speak of, and the audience seemed to be second guessing whether it was actually over.

BJR said: "Does the Queen still have a verse of The Dress? I thought that was such a sophomoric choice, and also undercut the weight she needs in the following scene with Charles and Di. Felt so obviously cheap."

Yes, she does. I completely agree with you. Seems like the creatives couldn't decide if they wanted Elizabeth to be the serious, steady matriarch or a silly caricature.

I saw it this weekend as well. I thought it was fun and entertaining. I like the sets and the costumes but nothing particularly wowed me. I wouldn't see it again, but it's not a terrible show or anything. The audience was mostly white people over 50, as expected for this production.

Jordan Catalano said: "I also want to point out how much I appreciated and enjoyed that the musical is a total throwback to the British shows of the 80s, with the synthesized music and rock songs/power ballads etc. I really loved that."

I have already planned to see it but this piqued my interest even more,

Oh, I didn't know this was an '80s rock musical. My interest level just went from zero to maaaaybe.

Ado Annie D'Ysquith said: "Not that it means anything, but I was just looking on Playbill and this show has a TON of producers."

That’s not unusual anymore.

Jordan, This is great news. I see the first preview on Tuesday, then leave for the airport on Thursday around 10 am. My hotel is right down the street from GMA. Do you know what time approximately the performance? From some clips, it doesn't look to be huge crowds. Not sure if you have to be allowed to stand outside and watch or just walk up and grab a spot.

Thank you. That is kind of what I thought when looking at some other clips.

Does this last until Christmas? Is this the first flop since Lightning Thief?