Robert DuSold

Well, who knows? I made it through “Diana” the musical on Netflix. I was determined.

I have never uttered “Oh, my God” seriously and alternately chuckled while putting another wrinkle between my eyebrows while watching a musical. I think ever.

It’s a good thing that audiences are required to wear masks in the theater when this will evidently open on Broadway. They may help in more ways than one.

I didn’t watch this to laugh at it. I don’t think it rises to that level. Believe it or not, I’m not that cynical. I’ve sort of grown up in my career with many people involved in this show. Welcome to my limb.

But, it got me thinking. At least it got me thinking.

From the press stuff laid out about “Diana”, filming this musical was a first during the pandemic, with strict protocols and quarantines in New Jersey and Manhattan for all involved with extraordinary precautions in place…all to release it on Netflix first to start a frenzied ticket demand when Broadway would reopen.

It’s here.

The amount of money put into this effort is obscene given salaries paid by 2 unions to actors, crew and hotels and testing, sets, costumes, production fees, filming this and all of that jazz.

Money. We’ll get into that in a bit.

Ok, why not now?

Money is the root of all…Broadway. I’m happy when I’ve made money on Broadway or as a professional actor. I’m still way in the hole as a producer. I’m happy for everyone who makes money. Everybody….producers, ushers, bartenders you name it.

How this show got this amount of money perplexes me… and in the interim while Broadway has been comatose a lot has changed. It’s an interesting time capsule to see what’s changed in a year after this show was filmed.

The big reckoning happened. Happening? I’m not sure.

There’s Black Theater United and We See You White Theater People and inclusion and diversity initiatives that seem to pop up every day.

All to address the inequities in theater.

I know from experience, you have to be a master salesman to raise money for theater. It’s a very Harold Hill sorta thing. How did they raise money for this bill of goods?

The answer is… it’s the same producing teams that have been in place for decades …many of whom I know… and that ain’t changing any time soon. Those power peeps are ensconced and are trusted. As are the creative teams and casting companies.

There are a handful on Broadway.

After this, I’m not sure it will be as easy to raise this amount of money, especially for a hybrid filmed/live theater event. This show was capitalized before the pandemic …it may be the last of it’s kind.

All the money stuff aside.. because it’s really not a consideration of the inclusion brigades, what I found the most disturbing .. other than the show itself… is the character assassination not only of Diana, but all involved.

It’s a very cheap and lazy subject for a musical…to hijack people’s lives and their stories and make shit up about them in a musical. And then throw shitloads of money at it. None of them, none of them have a say in how they are portrayed. It’s really cruel.

Princess Diana has been killed all over again… she died once 30 years ago. Now she’s been unearthed and killed again, not by a car, but by a reckless, out of control amateurish musical.

Currently, New York theater has “conversations” taking place… the Pubic has postponed the opening of a new musical to “decentralize whiteness” in the record time of a week, while at the same time “Aladdin” has shuttered for a couple of weeks due to Covid infections and the demands are in to find the whitest people on creative teams and kick them off the island.

So my question is this… did anyone involved in this endeavor bother to address how brutally unfair this musical is to the dead princess and her very much alive family? If we are truly at an inflection point of understanding each other and speaking up for the marginalized.. how about the dead chick and her family?

“Diana” is profoundly disrespectful to not only her… but AIDS patients.. who are played by cute, healthy chorus boys… cancer patients and let me think.. pretty much humanity. And that’s not the byproduct of musicals .. it’s this one.

It’s also unbearably sexist… having the girls Diana and Camilla fight over their prince.. for an incessant two hours … while pretty much focusing on their clothes and “fuck you” 👗s and nothing much else.

I wondered if anyone in this show.. particular actors… bothered to not only address that but the obvious lack of craft throughout.

I’m guessing not. It’s a job… and I don’t fault anyone for having a job.

But I wonder while we all seem to be rewriting musicals to suit our demographic, why no one had the guts and empathy to look past the money and rewrite this one. Or better yet, not do it at all.

💰

Broadway has a lot of challenges at the moment… “Diana” was supposed to be the balm that a tired, pandemic riddled world needed to heal.

It seems to me it’s gonna leave us less than entertained.