Deborah Ross

If it were any better, it would actually be a terrible pity: Diana – The Musical reviewed

Plus: another South Korean gem in which nothing happens and everything happens

Jeanna de Waal stars as a Diana who has been styled to look like Clare Balding. Image: © Netflix / Everett Collection / Alamy Stock Photo 
issue 09 October 2021

This week, an excellent film (Moving On) and a film that isn’t at all, but is entirely worth it as it’s one of the super bad ones that don’t come along too often. It’s the kind that, if it were any better, it would actually be a terrible pity. (See also: Cats.) It’s Diana: The Musical and it’s two hours of ‘whaaaaaat?’ and pinching yourself that this is really happening. (After two hours I was black and blue, with the pinching.) I don’t know what the best lyric is but ‘Harry, my ginger-haired son, you’ll always be second to none’ has to be up there. (Also: ‘It’s the Thrilla in Manila but with Diana and Camilla’ has to be in the game. The top spot is highly contested.)

It is wonderfully unfathomable on every level. It is the Broadway show filmed in an empty theatre last summer while the production was on pause due to the pandemic.

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