Diana on broadway. How will New York respond

[Theatrefanboy1]

Posted: 9/26/19 at 11:40pm

Just wondering how long people think Diana will last on broadway. I personally enjoyed it. But it seems to have been raked through the coals. Are we looking at a run comparable to Ghost. (Open in March close by August ). Honestly do you think its one of those shows that if I want to see it in New York I should go spring break or do you think itll have a year or more run.

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 9/27/19 at 12:28am

The creative team will have had a little less than a year to change it up after its San Diego run, so I'm curious to see what they do to it.  When I saw it I think my two main gripes were the music (which I found rather bland) and the storytelling (it really could've used a framing device, like keeping her older self around to comment on things happening, since we all know how everything is going to end).  I can see it being fairly popular based on the average Broadway audience (women in their 40s), but I don't really see it making it to a year on Broadway, though of course if something happens with the royal family that may help generate more interest.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 9/27/19 at 12:38am

I haven't seen any footage or heard any of the music so it's hard to speculate how it will fair on Broadway but I'm certainly curious to find out. The show seems like it would be similar to Evita in some respects and I have a hard time imagining how the creative team of Memphis would write a musical like Evita.

[JPeterman]

Posted: 9/27/19 at 1:43am

This show is going to tour no matter how badly it does on Broadway. I’m just going to wait to see it locally. Americans love this whole British Royalty thing, especially Diana. My mom has a bunch of William and Kate wedding memorabilia in her kitchen on display like they are her kids lol. My impression is that this show will do very, very well touring North America .... I don’t mean places like Chicago, LA, or Toronto ... it will do fine in big cities too, but I mean all of the 100,000-500,000 person cities in the Midwest, Deep South, etc.

Updated On: 9/27/19 at 01:43 AM

[BJR]

Posted: 9/27/19 at 7:04am

CATSNYrevival said: "The show seems like it would be similar to Evita in some respects and I have a hard time imagining how the creative team of Memphis would write a musical like Evita."

It's far sillier than Evita. And Evita had the tension of politics and class warfare that Hal Prince brought to the piece. This is a love triangle with dancing paparazzi.

[Tom5]

Posted: 9/27/19 at 7:58am

I know it doesn't matter but how good will the music/score be? Will there be any hits songs that people will be humming years to come? If not, I'll wait for the musical about Diana Rigg.

[joevitus]

Posted: 9/27/19 at 11:44am

BJR said: "CATSNYrevival said: "The show seems like it would be similar to Evita in some respects and I have a hard time imagining how the creative team of Memphis would write a musical like Evita."

It's far sillier than Evita. And Evita had the tension of politics and class warfare that Hal Prince brought to the piece. This is a love triangle with dancing paparazzi."

The tension of politics and class warfare was prominent in the material before Hal Prince ever got involved. 

[cryan71]

Posted: 9/27/19 at 12:14pm

There were a couple of decent songs in the score. And there were two cringeworthy production numbers ( the paparazzi one sticks out).

I thought it was in a good place in La Jolla.

Hopefully they did the work in fixing story issues and aren't taking a theater because one came available.

As for how long, who knows. Hopefully long enough to recoup. It hits two core Broadway audiences, women in their mid 40s to 60s, and gay men. You could survive for years with those.

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 9/27/19 at 12:55pm

Optimistically (for you) it runs as long as Pretty Woman. I've only heard one song but I don't have high hopes. As with every ticket buying decision, you have to make the ultimate call. Is it worth it to see it again or would you rather gamble and wait?

My opinion means nothing. I still don't understand what people see in Memphis and Come From Away and Diana feels like it's probably on that level.

cryan71 said: "It hits two core Broadway audiences, women in their mid 40s to 60s, and gay men."

I mean, that's more or less been the strategy for a while aside from targeting younger audiences (Moulin Rouge, Hadestown, Be More Chill, etc.) and families (Frozen). And to middling success. (The Cher Show, Tootsie, Summer, War Paint). 

[keen on kean]

Posted: 9/27/19 at 6:29pm

My response? Yawn.

[Gizmo6]

Posted: 9/28/19 at 4:45am

“It hits two core Broadway audiences, women in their mid 40s to 60s, and gay men. You could survive for years with those."

Famous Last Words says Cher! 

[BJR]

Posted: 9/28/19 at 9:24am

joevitus said: "The tension of politics and class warfare was prominent inthe material before Hal Prince ever got involved."

Fair point. Well, something that adult ain't in this.

[quizking101]

Posted: 9/28/19 at 9:50am

HamilHansen said: "

• cryan71 said: "Hopefully long enough to recoup. It hits two core Broadway audiences, women in their mid 40s to 60s, and gay men. You could survive for years with those."

The Cher Show didn’t."

This hurt me in my very gay soul

[gibsons2]

Posted: 9/28/19 at 10:46am

I responded by buying a ticket. I haven't heard much of positive or negative feedback about the musical, so I'll be going with an open mind.

[Olivia11]

Posted: 9/28/19 at 3:07pm

Saw this in La Jolla. Felt similarly to the way I felt when I saw Summer there previously. A lot of talent wasted on a poor book and, in this case, unremarkable score.

Unless there were a lot of upgrades to book and script, I wouldn’t recommend.

Updated On: 9/28/19 at 03:07 PM

[Robbie2]

Posted: 9/28/19 at 3:42pm

Olivia11 said: "Saw this in La Jolla. Felt similarly to the way I felt when I saw Summer there previously. A lot of talent wasted on a poor book and, in this case, unremarkablescore.

Unless there were a lot of upgrades to book and script, I wouldn’t recommend."

 

Exactly, that's what my agent friend said...he can't believe it's gonna be on BWAY this season

[Robbie2]

Posted: 9/28/19 at 3:42pm

Olivia11 said: "Saw this in La Jolla. Felt similarly to the way I felt when I saw Summer there previously. A lot of talent wasted on a poor book and, in this case, unremarkablescore.

Unless there were a lot of upgrades to book and script, I wouldn’t recommend."

 

Exactly, that's what my agent friend said...he can't believe it's gonna be on BWAY this season

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 12/9/19 at 2:59pm

They released a video of the song If from the production, which I believe was the finale number. https://youtu.be/7yZjS1DadLs
I still think it basically sounds like a rerendering of Don't Forget Me from Smash

[Clyde15]

Posted: 12/9/19 at 4:36pm

Oof is that really what they are trying to sell the show with? That was not good

[Highland Guy]

Posted: 12/9/19 at 4:58pm

My friends and I saw "Diana" in La Jolla and loved it.  I envy those of you who will see it on Broadway.  And "If" is a lovely song, beautifully sung.

 

 

[SouthernCakes]

Posted: 12/9/19 at 7:43pm

Where is the melody? But I hated the score for Memphis so, prob not just cup of tea.

[keen on kean]

Posted: 12/9/19 at 11:16pm

I cringed all the way through those lyrics.

[AADA81]

Posted: 12/9/19 at 11:48pm

This show would need to be remarkable to succeed, and that is not what has been described.  High concept plus low artistic merit equals disaster.

[Theatrefanboy1]

Posted: 12/10/19 at 12:12am

See I saw it in San Diego this year and originally I had been skeptical but after seeing the show I really did enjoy it. Of course I do go that they really do some work on it before hand. Because are moments of cringe. But really I thought of all the depictions of what happened. I think at its core it’s thw most honest on all accounts. And it really just was quite well done. And those costumes were beautiful

[ljay889]

Posted: 12/10/19 at 12:16am

Boy, that song was not good.

Updated On: 12/10/19 at 12:16 AM