264 posts
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Post by squidward on Oct 4, 2021 17:05:17 GMT
I actually quite like the full lyric to number 6. It's sung by the paparazzi: Better than a guinness, better than a w@ank, gotta take our pictures, money in the bank. It sums up sleazy paps quite nicely. 'Snap, Click' which that lyric is actually from, was one of the few sequences I thought worked ok, and I actually didn't mind the cringe lyrics for them haha! But why were all the journalists dressed like Dick Tracy? |
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Post by inthenose on Oct 4, 2021 17:07:30 GMT
How incredibly embarrassing for all involved. Imagine having to go on stage every night impersonating her. Mortifying.
I think if there was ever a time to go to the theatre completely smashed, wearing a pink feather boa and Elton John glasses, this show is it. It's like a parody of what people who hate musicals think musicals are.
Stuff like this takes some explaining to outsiders, in the same way old campy shows like Flower Drum Song or Mame do to young musical fans.
Absolutely shameless.
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Post by squidward on Oct 4, 2021 17:08:14 GMT
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Post by richey on Oct 4, 2021 18:40:42 GMT
Got as far as her meeting the people of Wales and as a proud Welshman almost switched off
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Post by mrbarnaby on Oct 4, 2021 20:52:05 GMT
So... I actually really liked this. The slaughtering by the UK press is uncalled for. It's really not that bad... I'd argue the opposite, even. Thought I was going to hate it, despite the decent reviews in the US. My jaw has dropped at this post. |
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Post by ncbears on Oct 4, 2021 23:23:59 GMT
They missed a chance at getting some product placement dollars. In the song Pretty Pretty Girl, they should have included the phrase "Pretty Pretty Princess" which is a board game here in the States. (And I will just ignore that the game wasn't available until 1990) Pretty Pretty Princess |
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Post by anthony on Oct 5, 2021 2:27:25 GMT
So... I actually really liked this. The slaughtering by the UK press is uncalled for. It's really not that bad... I'd argue the opposite, even. Thought I was going to hate it, despite the decent reviews in the US. My jaw has dropped at this post. It really isn't that bad. US critics don't think so, either. I'm too young to remember Diana or, to be honest, even care too much if I'm honest. I'm also a republican. So maybe this is why I don't get this "shameful" angle. |
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Post by ABr on Oct 5, 2021 7:39:38 GMT
'Snap, Click' which that lyric is actually from, was one of the few sequences I thought worked ok, and I actually didn't mind the cringe lyrics for them haha! But why were all the journalists dressed like Dick Tracy? Thats very true... haha, wait, our press don't look like that? |
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Post by fluxcapacitor on Oct 5, 2021 15:39:53 GMT
Got as far as her meeting the people of Wales and as a proud Welshman almost switched off As another proud Welshman, I HOWLED when they went to Wales. With that famous* 'WALES' sign in the background, and the huge outpouring of love the Welsh** people showed towards the royals. So wonderfully realistic and true to history  My husband and I watched this all the way through and were thoroughly entertained throughout, though as others have posted, probably not for the reasons intended. What a terrible example of Broadway musical theatre to put out to the world. I have many issues which other posters have mentioned, but my biggest overall gripe was the character development. Firstly, the assumed knowledge from the writers is insane - so we're never actually introduced to any characters or given their backstory. They're just... there. We're just expected to know who they all are from the get go. And although a few of the other characters hint at Diana having come from "nothing" (I believe she's called 'common' at one point  ) we never witness this in any way. When we meet her, she's already hob-nobbing with royalty. Sure, she drops a few lines about being shy but since she's plonked on stage a THE PRINCESS DIANA it really doesn't read that she's got anywhere to go, and as she plods towards her death she shows no flaws at all - she just gets on with all the stuff we know her from in the newspaper headlines. Where's her journey? Where's any character development? What exactly are we meant to care about here? * Non-existent. ** Though their accents placed them somewhere north of the M56 with a subtle hint of Australian. |
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Oct 5, 2021 15:56:32 GMT
Americans don’t understand what “commoner” means. There’s a podcast called Youre Wrong About in which a writer and a Huff Post journo look back at events in modern history where the general public were generally misled or duped. It’s highly entertaining but the 5 episodes covering Diana from courtship to death really do illustrate how even very well educated people in the states are completely nonplussed by the concept of British aristocracy. Worth a liste if you like Diana related stuff. www.buzzsprout.com/1112270 |
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Post by theatrefan77 on Oct 5, 2021 16:03:08 GMT
I didn't like this at all. Forced myself to watch it until the end to see if there were any redeeming feature, but I found the whole thing truly embarrassing
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2021 16:37:11 GMT
I'm not quite sure why they are calling her commoner or common. She was from a very established aristocratic family and called Lady Diana.
Just one of many inaccuracies.
It is a musical that makes you realise why people hate musicals.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2021 17:21:00 GMT
"It is a musical that makes you realise why people hate musicals"
See also: The songs in Back To The Future
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Post by Peter on Oct 5, 2021 21:25:15 GMT
"It is a musical that makes you realise why people hate musicals" See also: The songs in Back To The Future The difference is that people who don’t like musicals might still actually enjoy BTTF, whereas Diana will just confirm their worst prejudices about ‘what a musical is’. Still, it could be worse, at least Diana is occasionally hilarious in it’s awfulness - did anyone see ‘Always’ in the late 1990s? A turgid and dreary take on the Edward VIII / Wallace Simpson story with a similarly simplified superficial take on events… |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2021 22:21:29 GMT
Still, it could be worse, at least Diana is occasionally hilarious in it’s awfulness - did anyone see ‘Always’ in the late 1990s? A turgid and dreary take on the Edward VIII / Wallace Simpson story with a similarly simplified superficial take on events… Peter In all the time i've been on this board, I think you are the only other person who saw 'Always'. Mind you, it did only last 6 weeks. I saw it 3 times and I actually rather enjoyed it - apart from the Sheila Ferguson numbers. Yes, it was very earnest, Edward was played like he had a stick up his backside and Wallis was presented in a very flattering light compared to how she's usually portrayed here, but i like alot of the score. It's not about to win any major awards for lyrics and I still listen to bits of now. It was Shani Wallis' big return to the West End and i love both her numbers! I'm not sure how but i have 2 copies of the CD..
It was ripped to shreds, rather unfairly i thought, but the cast referring to the show as Wallis and Vomit still makes me laugh
I could watch Always again, but not Diana.
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Post by scarpia on Oct 5, 2021 22:28:35 GMT
Got as far as her meeting the people of Wales and as a proud Welshman almost switched off As another proud Welshman, I HOWLED when they went to Wales. With that famous* 'WALES' sign in the background, and the huge outpouring of love the Welsh** people showed towards the royals. So wonderfully realistic and true to history I think the writer thought Wales was a town or something and read 'Prince of Wales' like 'Duke of Edinburgh'. Seriously impressive how he managed to do almost no research whatsoever to come up with these bizarre ideas, e.g. the idea that Diana was just an ordinary person who was plucked from obscurity to be a princess. And how unsurprising that they chose to go with the Saint Diana narrative rather than acknowledge that it's all very messy and she used the press for her own ends too. Standard American narrative of quirky outsider meets crusty old traditional institution. Zzzz. |
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Post by fluxcapacitor on Oct 6, 2021 6:33:02 GMT
As another proud Welshman, I HOWLED when they went to Wales. With that famous* 'WALES' sign in the background, and the huge outpouring of love the Welsh** people showed towards the royals. So wonderfully realistic and true to history I think the writer thought Wales was a town or something and read 'Prince of Wales' like 'Duke of Edinburgh'. Seriously impressive how he managed to do almost no research whatsoever to come up with these bizarre ideas, e.g. the idea that Diana was just an ordinary person who was plucked from obscurity to be a princess. And how unsurprising that they chose to go with the Saint Diana narrative rather than acknowledge that it's all very messy and she used the press for her own ends too. Standard American narrative of quirky outsider meets crusty old traditional institution. Zzzz. The Saint Diana narrative is probably the show’s biggest problem. She’s practically perfect (#in every waaaaaay#) and just wanders through life doing good deeds and trying to avoid the press, so they set up this “character” with no flaws, nothing to learn, nowhere to go. It’s very lazy storytelling. It reminds me of the Celebrity RuSicals from RuPaul’s Drag Race. Those are 20 minute or so musicals loosely telling the story of a celebrity through mini vignettes and scenes drawn in wide brushstrokes where each queen takes a turn to perform a short song based on the celebrity’s life (Madonna, Cher, RuPaul to name a few). The nature of those mini musicals mean they’re campy, bluntly straight to the point, two dimensional, and cheaply orchestrated. But they work because it’s all tongue in cheek. Diana has all those ingredients but takes itself deadly seriously. |
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Post by Someone in a tree on Oct 6, 2021 8:05:01 GMT
I want this to run in rep with ALW's Cinderella
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Post by steve10086 on Oct 6, 2021 8:31:46 GMT
I want this to run in rep with ALW's Cinderella That’s one way to make Diana look good! |
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Post by squidward on Oct 6, 2021 17:44:05 GMT
"It is a musical that makes you realise why people hate musicals" See also: The songs in Back To The Future The difference is that people who don’t like musicals might still actually enjoy BTTF, whereas Diana will just confirm their worst prejudices about ‘what a musical is’. Still, it could be worse, at least Diana is occasionally hilarious in it’s awfulness - did anyone see ‘Always’ in the late 1990s? A turgid and dreary take on the Edward VIII / Wallace Simpson story with a similarly simplified superficial take on events… Yes! I saw ‘Always’ too. In fact I think I still have the programme somewhere. My friend and I went to a virtually empty matinee and got upgraded to a box, which was just as well given how much we were trying to stifle our laughter. It was another case of book written by Wikipedia as I remember. I think the only other thing I’ve seen as shocking as Always and now Diana-The Musical was ‘Close to the Sun; a play with songs about Ernest Hemingway. I think Helen Dallimore ( the original Glinda in the UK production of Wicked,for reasons known only to the producers) was in it. All three of the above put me in mind of The National Theatre of Brent crossed with Star Stories but the fact that these musicals presumably weren’t intended to be funny makes the hilarity even greater. I wonder if Diana - The Musical will ever actually open. It seems very odd to release the show on Netflix before it has been on Broadway. Any audience it may have had will be vastly reduced by having a TV premiere I would have thought ( whether people liked it or otherwise). |
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Post by ThereWillBeSun on Oct 6, 2021 21:21:42 GMT
Shocking.
The worst thing I've ever watched.
Negative.
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Post by johartuk on Oct 6, 2021 22:22:35 GMT
Well, that was...er...interesting! By the end, I was expecting Diana to have single handedly found a cure for Cancer (after also finding a cure for HIV/AIDS), invented the internet, solved the pressing issue of world hunger and brought peace on earth and good will to all men! There was no real attempt to give her any light and shade...just light.
There really wasn't any real effort to do anything original with the story (which was the usual 'Diana as victim' tale), and Diana really didn't come across as particularly interesting or engaging. To the point where, when the Queen utters the line "Diana, stop whining!" I found myself agreeing wholeheartedly with her! It didn't help that the Charles/Camilla storyline was far more compelling (and better acted) - I felt invested in that, and thought it would have made for a much more interesting and original take on the whole story to see it through their eyes.
The people of Wales dressed in their best 1940s clothes was amusing, as were the paps, who had also visited the 1940s for their clothes! It's like whoever created the costumes had no idea how British people in the 80s/90s dressed!
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Post by distantcousin on Oct 11, 2021 20:29:43 GMT
I loved it!
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Post by WireHangers on Oct 11, 2021 22:38:25 GMT
The most surprising thing about the musical was how handsome Charles and Andrew Parker-Bowles are when in real life they’re not that handsome whatsoever.
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Post by distantcousin on Oct 12, 2021 21:11:29 GMT
Prince Charles should have been written as a baritone role. More similar to his speaking voice, and also emphasise he was over 10 years older. He reads as too boyish
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Post by amp09 on Oct 19, 2021 16:49:00 GMT
So bad, it’s good! I really enjoyed this for its utter cheesiness. Yes the lyrics are dire, yes the storyline goes nowhere and yes it is full of cliches but it’s good fun and has some really nice parts to it. Will never work in Britain though, how dare they put our Queen on a stage and make her sing!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2021 17:02:21 GMT
So bad, it’s good! I really enjoyed this for its utter cheesiness. Yes the lyrics are dire, yes the storyline goes nowhere and yes it is full of cliches but it’s good fun and has some really nice parts to it. Will never work in Britain though, how dare they put our Queen on a stage and make her sing! Don't think people would be all that bothered about the queen singing if she bore any resemblance to the real person or the character had any depth. |
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Post by richey on Oct 24, 2021 16:23:25 GMT
Just getting around to watching the second act and my jaw is dropping more and more with each song.
The James Hewitt song, the "thriller in Manilla with Diana and Camilla" and as for the suggestion that the gays agreed to pose for photos with her as she promised to bring them eyeliner... I'm lost for words
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Post by couldileaveyou on Oct 24, 2021 17:30:59 GMT
Just getting around to watching the second act and my jaw is dropping more and more with each song. The James Hewitt song, the "thriller in Manilla with Diana and Camilla" and as for the suggestion that the gays agreed to pose for photos with her as she promised to bring them eyeliner... I'm lost for words "I may be unwell, but I'm handsome as hell" captures the AIDS crisis with a depth that Tony Kushner can only dream of |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2021 2:11:59 GMT
I take it all back. I LOVE IT!!! I've watched it a few times now and have even bought the physical CD.
Yes, the choreography is awful, yes some of the lyrics are really bad, but somehow it works for me. There is never going to be a good show about Diana, people will always feel it's in bad taste, but this Diana The Musical is a real treat! Charles is such a villain, but the guy playing him has a fabulous voice and the voice and mannerisms down. Camilla doesn't come off as bad as she could and Erin Dilley is the most underated person in it and The ensemble never stop. Jeanna De Waal (pronounced Gina) belts her face off and has a great time playing Diana, and manages to not always make her seem the saint they think she is. As someone who loves a flop musical, this is really one of the best for me. And those costume changes? Fabulous. I have a playbill on its way to me for the collection
I think people a lot of people hated it simply because of what it's about and jumped on the bandwagon. Offended by the Welsh characters?? LOL
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) we never witness this in any way. When we meet her, she's already hob-nobbing with royalty. Sure, she drops a few lines about being shy but since she's plonked on stage a THE PRINCESS DIANA it really doesn't read that she's got anywhere to go, and as she plods towards her death she shows no flaws at all - she just gets on with all the stuff we know her from in the newspaper headlines. Where's her journey? Where's any character development? What exactly are we meant to care about here?
