Broadway, Coronavirus and the Great Shutdown of 2020: A Look Back at Theatre in a Pandemic

Quick note: This was not an easy piece for me to write. I started this article the day Broadway shut down and it was just going to be me stating how disappointed I was and telling people to wear masks and follow social distancing rules. Then I stopped writing it and I would come back to it in April, December of 2021 before finishing it and posting it right now. Here are just some thoughts I had throughout the pandemic.

Date: March 12, 2020

Katrina Lenk
Company

Time: 2:12pm
I am getting dressed to catch the train to New York City with my Father. We had tickets to see a performance of the Broadway revival of Company and I was super excited to see it. I pull out my phone to tweet my excitement and the first thing I see is a tweet from Playbill that announces that all Broadway theatres will close that day due to COVID-19. I am absolutely crushed (and to be quite honest extremely angry.) I had been looking forward to this show for months and it was my annual tradition to see a show on Broadway during spring break with one of my parents.

Date: April 13, 2020
Time: 12:28pm
The Broadway shut down was supposed to end today and now it is likely to continue until June. Theatres around the world have shut down including the U.K. and Australia. These closures are understandable because theatres are ground zero for spreading germs with the close proximity everyone is in. Many shows have been either postponed, cancelled or closed early and even the Tony's have been postponed.

Date: December 18, 2020

Time: 4:42pm

Coronavirus has lasted longer than anyone expected it to. We had all assumed we'd be back to our normal lives by May. Australia, Korea, Japan and several other countries have all reopened theatres or have begun to reopen theatres with social distancing measures or safety protocols in place. Meanwhile those of us in the U.S. must deal with bootlegs, filmed or virtual

Empty street with empty theatres

theatre events. Trust me, I get that it is not the same...

I miss live in person theatre.

I miss sitting in those seats for two hours.

I miss battling the person next to me for the right to use the arm rest.

I miss the stage door.

I miss the applause.

I miss the lights.

I miss going deaf from the ridiculously loud speakers.

I miss the people you meet.

I miss nearly getting hit by cars while walking through the parking lot after a show.

I miss that commute home where you might listen to the cast album on repeat.

I miss it.

Date: January 24, 2021

Time: 9:10pm

I'm now back at college and quarantining before my final semester of school. And I'll admit I have started feeling what so many other people are feeling. I feel a bit hopeless as if theatre will never return... I hate myself for feeling that way. Theatre is not gone. Theatre CAN NEVER BE GONE. I feel that as a society we have gotten into the mindset that theatre is a building, but it's not. Theatre is the subway performer. Theatre is reading a bedtime story to a child and using voices. Theatre is playing Dungeons and Dragons. Theatre is cosplaying. THEATRE IS WHATEVER YOU MAKE IT. The only thing you need is yourself. I am so sick and tired hearing people say, "I can't practice my art form." or "What are we going to do without theatre?" I absolutely hate that mentality because it's ignorant and stupid. If you say "Theatre is gone" okay then it is gone... for you. Not for everyone else. I repeat... THEATRE IS WHATEVER YOU MAKE IT! Last semester I took a course and one of the readings was titled "After COVID-19, What?" which had a variety of theatre professionals answering that exact question. I specifically want to talk about Fawzia Afzal-Khan (Playwright and current professor at Montclair University.) and the response she gave. Afzal-Khan believes that COVID-19 is a way for artists to grow and sees it as a way for artists to enhance theatre and allows for: 

More work that experiments with online performances, that connects with remote audiences will surely also emerge and become part of a new way of 'doing theatre' and music and other performances as a result of the social distancing imperatives that will stay with us for a long time to come.

A perfect example of these experimental works can be seen with The Virtual Stage Co. whose first project was back in August 2020 and it was a zoom production of Seussical titled Seussical: A Virtual Musical! which featured performances from a variety of stage performers. These performers created their own costumes and props. They cleverly recorded in various places around where they live. It also featured clips from the various original Dr. Seuss cartoons of the works featured in Seussical and was cleverly edited to have wacky, zany and

Company members of Seussical: A Virtual Musical

creative transitions in the style of Seuss that worked. What The Virtual Stage Co. did was theatre! The artists involved in this piece didn't say "Oh what are we gonna do?" They said "Okay, there is an obstacle how do we get past it?" (That is what a true artist, in my opinion, does. They don't sit around accepting defeat, they fight and continue to make art!) Virtual productions of shows are now becoming more and more common especially in academic settings.

Date: December 14, 2021

Time: 1:08pm

I'm sitting here at my job (I'm on a break, calm down) and I was going through unpublished posts that I had on here. I found this post, which I honestly forgot. I was thinking about just deleting it, but I revisited it and said "No... This is perfect for what it is." This article is just a menagerie of feelings that I had randomly throughout the pandemic. Broadway is now open again, I recently saw The Phantom of the Opera and tours are touring again. However, I hate when I hear people say "Theatre is back" because theatre never left us. Theatre was always here. It wasn't in the medium we have gotten accustomed too, but it was there. There have been some truly brilliant works that have come out due to the pandemic. There have been truly creative works that pushed the boundaries as to what theatre can be. I don't know what the future holds in store for theatre. What I do know, is that theatre will never leave me. Theatre cannot leave me unless I tell it to. Whether that means I'm seeing a big budget Broadway mega musical, or if I'm just sitting in my room and making my goldfish talk to each other and create an entire 5 minute play. (Go ahead and judge me, I don't care.) Theatre is never gone. Theatre will preserve.

Run and Tell That: Annie Live!

Note: By now ya'll know that I'm a terrible editor. So be prepared for me to be editing this AFTER I upload it. Also, I'm not a professional reviewer nor do I try to be in these. I'm simply stating what I thought.

There was nothing that stood out it was generic and safe.

When I first heard that NBC was doing Annie Live! quite frankly I was less than pleased. I find Annie to be an annoyingly optimistic musical that is over done. However, I decided to give it a chance. Then, they started to announce the cast... I have no other way to describe it, but as an Instagram stan dream cast. The casting just seemed so generically bland and I truly did not understand why they chose who they chose. (Except for Megan Hilty who replaced an ill

Nicole Scherzinger and Ensemble

Jane Krakowski.) Before the show even started there were many cast changes. First, Jane Krakowski had to step away due to a positive COVID-19 test and was replaced by the wonderful Megan Hilty, who previously played the role at the Hollywood Bowl. Then, Andrea McArdle, the OG Annie, who was due to play Eleanor Roosevelt (A new role written for the show) backed out due to family matters that she had to attend to. But then, the video footage started to come out and I was less than impressed... All of the scenery looked like something you'd find in a prom catalogue. Even in spite of all of this, I said, "Paul, give it a chance... Not everything is going to be The Wiz Live!" and therefore, I stuck it out... Honestly, throughout the entire evening I was less than impressed. From the cheap looking sets, to the amount of times that someone WALKED IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA or the sloppy edits where you would see stage hands setting things up or you'd see another camera in the shot. Meanwhile, everyone on twitter was absolutely raving about the production and it left me asking myself, "Am I watching the right Annie Live?" The screenplay by Thomas Meehan was decent and for the most part faithful to the stage show. The script obviously cut out a few numbers, but it did manage to add two numbers from the 1982 film, "Sign" sung by Oliver Warbucks and Miss

Male Ensemble

Hannigan in a scene where Oliver is trying to adopt Annie and Hannigan is trying to seduce Warbucks. The second number they added was "We Got Annie" which was added to the 1982 film to show off Ann Reinking's dance ability. While "Sign" actually served a purpose, "We Got Annie" was nothing, but a glorified dance number. The direction by Lear Debessonet was stiff and boring. He did not push any boundaries and gave a very straight forward and safe approach to the material. I was confused by the dance troupe of young girls in modern clothing who appeared in the beginning (along with Annie and the other orphans also in modern clothing) as well as the end where they were completely out of place because everyone else was in period dress. What was the purpose of that? Other things that annoyed me was when actors would look directly into the camera or the fact that the camera would be facing the audience in some scenes. Debessonet failed to create a world that immersed me in this production. His direction almost felt stale in some scenes, specifically in "N.Y.C." where I found myself bored. The television direction by Alex Rudzinski was another very straight forward and bland approach. There was nothing spectacular and nothing dazzled me. The choreography by Sergio Trujillo was another case of very straight forward and bland. Yes, the choreography was beautiful as one would expect from Trujillo, but it did not push the boundaries in any way. It was very safe, from the "Oh,

Orphans

aren't I cool and modern for having the orphans do some form of modern dance in 'It's the Hard Knock Life'." To the leaping and gallivanting of the ensemble during "I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here." There was nothing that stood out it was generic and safe. What was truly abysmal though was the sets, or lack thereof. The production design by Jason Sherwood looked like something one would order out of a prom catalogue. It was cheap and because none of it covered the entire stage you could see people preparing to make their entrances or exits. The costumes by Emilio Sosa was yet again another straight forward approach. Some of the costumes were even direct rip offs of previous versions of Annie. A lot of Grace's wardrobe was inspired by the 1999 film (the blue suit and the purple dress) and one outfit from the 1982 film (the yellow dress). I wish I could say that the performers made up for the production side of things, but they didn't. So many of the performances felt passionless. It felt like I was watching a cast 5 years into their run and they were just going through the motions. I do want to give a shout out to Alex Wong though who is just a phenomenal dancer! I saw people raving about all the kids (some of whom were actually full grown adults) during "It's the Hard Knock Life", but I was unimpressed. There wasn't a lot of passion in it. I've seen much better versions of that

Taraji P. Henson and Tituss Burgess

number. Alan Toy as Franklin Delano Roosevelt was good and delivered a nice performance. Meanwhile Megan Hilty as Lily St. Regis was fabulous, as always, especially considering she was a last minute replacement. Her boyfriend, Rooster Hannigan played by Tituss Burgess was better than I expected him to be, but he still could have been better. (Granted now I don't think anyone will ever be able to top the incomparable Tim Curry, but that's another story.) Meanwhile, Nicole Scherzinger who portrayed Grace Farrell, Warbucks' Chief of Staff (A bump up from the original stage show where she was just his personal secretary). Scherzinger is a wonderful actress and you could see the wheels turning in her eyes, but Grace is simply not her part. She did not have that same natural softness or warmness that Ann Reinking and Audra McDonald had. You could also tell she was struggling voice wise trying to stay gentle and light and not just belt, this was especially evident in "I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here." A surprisingly disappointing performance was delivered by Taraji P. Henson as Miss Hannigan who was extremely lackluster. When Henson was cast I was expecting a completely obnoxious and over the top performance. I was expecting to say "Taraji could have reeled it in a little" I wasn't expecting to say "Taraji could have done

Harry Connick, Jr. and Celina Smith

more." I found her "Little Girls" to be extremely lackluster. I was expecting to be cackling or at least crack a smile, but none of that happened... Someone who surprised me was Harry Connick, Jr. who, to no surprise to anyone, has a stunning voice and while his acting was a bit stiff at times, he was a very pleasant Oliver Warbucks. When it comes to the role of Annie, NBC held a nationwide casting search to find the little girl who will play the optimistic orphan. After all this searching they chose Celina Smith and my question is... Was she really the best choice? While Smith has a charming voice, there was no dynamics in her singing. She just belted everything at top volume. Her acting was also very wooden and you could see her going "Okay, I need to be here. Now I have to be here." Nothing about her performance flowed. She had zero chemistry with anyone. I didn't believe she cared about little orphan Molly, Felice Kakaletris, or that she even liked Warbucks and Grace. Everything felt incredibly forced with Smith. Overall, Annie Live! was nothing special. To repeat an earlier statement, "There was nothing that stood out it was generic and safe." I'm glad that we are getting more live musical events after the disaster of Rent: Pre-Recorded, but NBC better step their game up for next year.

"The sun will come out, tomorrow. So ya gotta hang on 'til tomorrow!"

Dear Diary: December Episodes

Hello darlings!!!

The two months of waiting are finally over!!! New episodes of "Dear Diary" will release this Friday!!!

• Entry 6: Heels at the Law Firm with Cicily Daniels (December 3rd)
• Entry 7: Cat Improv with Anne Brummel (December 10th)
• No Episode on December 17th
• Entry 8: Christmas Eve with Christmas Eve with Ann Harada (December 24th)
• Entry 9: TBA with Carrie Compere (December 30th)

I also already have some guests for January! I cannot wait to announce those! Thank you all for bearing with me during this bumpy podcast ride. I'm hoping to be posting new episodes at least weekly until May, where we'll take another hiatus and start up again in October. Here is the link to the latest episode featuring Nikisha Williams!

Dear Diary Episodes: Update

Another podcast update. Unfortunately, I have had a lot going on these past two months (all good stuff) and so I have had to extend the hiatus for "Dear Diary". New episodes will now be released December 3rd, 2021. I have some extremely exciting guests coming up which I'll announce soon. Thanks ya'll for bearing with me. Below is the link to my first official episode with the wonderful Dan'yelle Williamson.

Run and Tell That: The Phantom of the Opera

Note: By now ya'll know that I'm a terrible editor. So be prepared for me to be editing this AFTER I upload it. Also, I'm not a professional reviewer nor do I try to be in these. I'm simply stating what I thought.

"It truly amazes me how the original production has held up after 33 years!"

Picture it: New Jersey 2021. I am sitting on my bed scrolling through Instagram, but suddenly, I see an announcement, The Phantom of the Opera announced that Emilie Kouatchou and Sara Esty would be the new Christine Daaé alternate and Meg Giry. Literally the first thing I

Corps de Ballet

thought was "Can't wait to see these white people" but when I swiped to see their pictures, I was stunningly surprised to see that both are women of color (Kouatchou is black and Esty is Latina). I was so excited that in one year Phantom had cast three black women as Christine. The first thing I did was look up Kouatchou on YouTube and she has an absolutely GORGEOUS voice. I knew right then and their I had to see her in the role. I was not planning to see Kouatchou's debut, but life had other plans for me. As soon as I heard about Kouatchou's debut, I immediately bought tickets and I planned my day. However, my day did not go as I planned. My car's battery decided to die so I had to get a Lyft to the train station and got to NYC thirty minutes later than I had planned. As I started walking up the stairs of Penn Station and saw the lights of the city, my heart was in my chest. It felt amazing to be back in the city and knowing I would be seeing a Broadway show. My entire walk to the theatre I was filled with ecstasy, I was so excited. The feeling inside the theatre was absolutely ELECTRIC. There was applause, whistling and cheering for everything! When the pre-show announcement came on, there was applause,

Raquel Suarez Groen and Carlton Moe

when the chandelier rose their was applause, for Carlotta's entrance there was applause, for Christine's entrance there was applause, it felt so great to be back in a theatre. As I am sure many of you have heard there were some changes made to the production. Don't be alarmed, it is still the same production, there was just a few lyrical changes and blocking changes. The first change that I noticed was during "Hannibal Rehearsal", specifically with the corps de ballet, Christine was not with them when they entered. At first, I did not like this change because it just felt like a weird change to make, but when Kouatchou she looked worried, concerned and a little shaken. I knew as soon as she entered she had just come from a singing lesson with the Phantom. Then I really enjoyed this small change because it added a lot of nuance to the role of Christine. There was also some lyrical changes which I really did not like, because I felt that the new lyrics did not enhance the story. (Except for the exchange during the end of "Angel of Music" where they removed, "Your

John Riddle and Maree Johnson

face Christine it's white" to adjust it so anybody no matter ethnicity could play the role.) While there were some changes, it truly amazes me how the original production has held up after 33 years! This accomplishment is a testament to the brilliance of the original creative team. Hal Prince's breathtaking direction still holds up and Gillian Lynne's choreograph is brilliant as always. The sets and costumes designed by Maria Björnson are utterly breathtaking and groundbreaking. The lighting design by Andrew Bridge perfectly compliments the production adding mystery and illusion to the show. Last, but not least Martin Levan and Mick Potter's wonderful sound design that echoes throughout the theatre. In addition to the stunning production, there was also some stunning performances. The ensemble was stunning and I want to give shout outs to Satomi Hoffman as the Confidante and Jeremy Stolle as Passarino. In addition, Sara Esty who joined the production along with Kouatchou delivered a wonderful Meg, Etsy is a beautiful dancer and has a great voice. Carlton Moe as Piangi delivered some stellar comedic moments with a gorgeous tenor voice to boot. Another stunning performance was given by Maree Johnson (Who happens to be a former Christine from Australia) as Madame Giry. She gives a haunting Madame Giry who is not only scared,

Emilie Kouatchou

but enamored by the Phantom. There were two moments that I really loved with Madame Giry, the first is during "Think of Me" when Christine begins to sing she gestures to Christine, reminding her of the things she has been taught by the Phantom. The second moment is during "Magical Lasso" when Giry enters she sees the Phantom bringing Christine back from his lair. The managers played by Craig Bennett, Firmin, and Bradley Dean, André, were absolutely hysterical. They worked so well together and played off each other nicely. They both created two very distinct characters who are complete foils of each other, but still manage to work together. Unfortunately, not all of the performances were stunning though... Raquel Suarez Groen was a huge let down. This was my second time seeing Groen as Carlotta Giudicelli and both times she was disappointing. Her voice was not as powerful as I like in my Carlotta's. While she did deliver some nice comedic moments, overall I found her acting to be weak. I like my Carlotta's to be these big caricatures of a woman and Groen just did not deliver in my eyes. John Riddle as Raoul was great. He has a gorgeous voice and was a wonderful actor. I especially loved his chemistry with Kouatchou during "All I Ask of You" their voices fit so well together. Onto the lady of the evening, Emilie Kouatchou who delivered a stunning debut performance of Christine Daaé. She delivered a strong performance with absolutely killer vocals. There were so many moments that I loved. I loved the difference in volume that Kouatchou had during "Think of Me" when she is very quiet and scared at first, but then gradually becomes more confidant and serves strong vocals. I also loved how in "I Remember.../Stranger Than You Dreamt It" Kouatchou's Christine was not scared of the Phantom's deformity, but was scared when he started yelling and chasing after her. Some other great moments were her Serafimo in "Il Muto" and her facial expressions and

Ben Crawford and Emilie Kouatchou

varying degrees of emotion during "Masquerade". My favorite moment of hers was during "The Point of No Return" when she realized the Phantom was there in place of Piangi. Kouatchou delivered a strong performance and she has so much room to grow. If this was her debut performance I cannot wait to see her after a month or so in the role. I would not be at all surprised if after Meghan leaves Kouatchou takes over the role of full time. While I loved Kouatchou, I have to be quite honest, I was rather disappointed in Ben Crawford as the Phantom. I was not a fan of some of his acting choices, they felt rather silly at times. For example, during "I Remember.../Stranger Than You Dreamt It" when he was crawling on the floor it was this weird scooting thing that made several audience members laugh. I also did not like how his vocal tone kept changing throughout the performance. There would be times he would have a clear tone and it would then switch to this full/deep tone. It was kind of jarring. I much preferred his full/deep tone in the role because it worked well with Kouatchou's strong voice. The Phantom of the Opera is a stunning show and it has stood against the test of time. I definitely plan on seeing Kouatchou again sometime soon. I think she is stunning. I highly recommend you buy tickets and see her.

"Masquerade! Paper faces on parade... Masquerade! Hide your face, so the world will never find you!"

Dear Diary Episodes

Just a quick podcast update! There will not be new episodes for a while because I've currently got a lot going on (All good stuff!) and I am a bit behind on podcast episodes. There will be no new releases for rest of October. New episodes will start releasing on Friday November, 5th.

Run and Tell That: Diana The Musical

Note: By now ya'll know that I'm a terrible editor. So be prepared for me to be editing this AFTER I upload it. Also, I'm not a professional reviewer nor do I try to be in these. I'm simply stating what I thought.

Erin Davie as Camilla... is phenomenal. I found myself captivated by her performance.

"Sometimes though it's best to be underestimated." These are the final words spoken by Princess Diana, Jeanna de Waal, in the opening number of Diana The Musical. I find this line ironic because I underestimated this musical. When I first heard that Princess Diana was getting the bio musical treatment I rolled my eyes and said "UGH! Again? Does this really need to be made? We already have The Crown... and I don't need a musical version." I

Jeanna de Waal and Ensemble

honestly did not pay much attention to the musical afterwards and when Broadway closed down because of the pandemic, I truly expected this show to be one of the casualties. However, to my surprise, it not only announced it would be returning, but it would also be professionally recorded for Netflix. Flash forward to over a year later and I opened my Netflix account to a notification about Diana being available for streaming... So I figured "What the hell?" This brings me back to that line "Sometimes though it's best to be underestimated" because I was thoroughly surprised at how much I enjoyed watching the musical. Now just to be clear, Diana is by no means a perfect musical, but it does have its moments. Diana was stunningly captured by cinematographer, Declan Quinn, who didn't just hit record. Quinn made sure to capture it artistically and not just straight on. The rest of the creative team has a collective 17 Tony Awards with an additional 36 nominations to boot, but yet so much went wrong creative wise with Diana. The book scribed by, two time Tony winner for Memphis, Joe DiPietro is overall rather a mess at times, but it does get one thing right, and that is the portrayal of Diana. You see her struggle with her mental health and you fall for her because she is endearing and kind (Which is also due in no small part to actress Jeanna de Waal, but we'll talk about her later). This musical actually changed my perception of Diana because my first major introduction to her was in The Crown where she is written/portrayed as a conniving, manipulative and whiny little brat) you can actually root for Diana and want to support her in the musical. Unfortunately this is where my positive feedback for the book ends. The book is not only rushed, but also somehow slow all at

Roe Hartrampf, Judy Kaye and Jeanna de Waal

the same time. They took a bit of time to explore the beginning of the relationship between Diana and Charles, but then as soon as the wedding came they rushed through her pregnancies giving them an "It's a boy!" moment, but then we don't hear about them for a while. Another thing about DiPietro's book is that he featured, in my opinion, some unnecessary characters such as Barbara Cartland, Judy Kaye (who pulls double duty as Queen Elizabeth II), the step-grandmother to Diana and Andrew Parker Bowles, Zach Adkins, the husband of Camilla. There is also an entire song in Act II dedicated to James Hewitt, Gareth Keegan, about Diana's brief affair with him. While we're on the topic of songs, let's talk about the score written by DiPietro and David Bryan, of Bon Jovi fame. The score is composed mostly of pop rock ballads and power songs featuring some high belting that makes the show come across as a cheap imitation of Evita. Even though there are some catchy tunes that might have you toe tapping in your seat, the generic sounding songs and rather messy lyrics do not leave an everlasting impression. The score sounds very generic and the lyrics are rather a mess at times. Some of the songs in the musical were just plain odd, "The Dress" and "This Is How Your People Dance" or featured obnoxiously expositional lyrics, "The Worst Job in England" and "Snap, Click". I also felt that the score was lacking by not giving Diana a heavy hitting solo. I was waiting for a "Don't Forget Me" or "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" moment from Diana, but I never got it. Meanwhile, at the helm of Diana is Tony Award winning director Christopher Ashley who is known for his extraordinary work on shows such as Come From Away and Memphis, but the work he did for Diana is uninspired and almost lazy compared to his previous work. The only part of his direction that I liked was how the show both began and ended with the flash of bulbs from a camera with Diana standing upstage center. I found this staging to be very significant with how much the paparazzi played a role in Diana's life. Meanwhile the choreography by Kelly Devine features some bold choices (not a compliment) and those choices do nothing to serve 

Erin Davie and Roe Hartrampf

or enhance the story being told. Instead the ensemble danced just to dance not because it was an extension of the story being told. While the book and score were disappointing I really enjoyed the set design by Tony Award winning David Zinn. The stage is surrounded by the gates of Buckingham Palace which I found to be metaphorical to how Diana becomes, essentially, trapped within the palace due to her royal duties and the rules she has to follow. The costumes by William Ivey Long  (#TimesUp) recreated some of Diana's most iconic outfits, but other than those select few they really were nothing special. The lighting design by Natasha Katz was stunning and vibrant and really aided the story telling by featuring different colors depending on the tone of the scene. She featured reds for the fight between Camilla and Diana, while dark blues were often featured in Diana's hardest moments and for the moment when Queen Elizabeth II grants Charles and Diana to have a divorce. The sound design by Gareth Owen is something that I really have no opinion on. I thought it was nice that's it really. Just like the creatives the actors are also a bit over the place. Bruce Dow plays Paul Burrell, who is the butler of Diana and acts as her confidante throughout the show. While Dow is a talented actor, his performance never rises above the likes of "Look at me, I'm the fat, funny, effeminate sidekick of the main character who sings one major song in the entire show." Meanwhile two time Tony Award winning Judy Kaye pulls double duty as both Queen Elizabeth II and Barbara Cartland. When it comes to Kaye as Queen Elizabeth II it is nicely acted, but nothing about her reads "Queen of England" I just get a very posh or

Jeanna de Waal

dignified elderly woman. However, when Kaye is Barbara Cartland she really comes to life, especially with her rowdy, sensual Act II opener "Here Comes James Hewitt". This number is thoroughly entertaining, even if it overall serves no purpose, but I found Kaye to be extremely funny and entertaining throughout the number. Meanwhile Erin Davie as Camilla Parker Bowles is truly phenomenal. I found myself captivated by her performance as Charles' mistress. Davie delivered a stunning rendition of "I Miss You Most on Sundays" that made me hate her only slightly less for the role she played in Diana's life. The male lead is none other than Prince Charles portrayed by the talented Roe Hartrampf. Hartrampf delivered a strong performance as Charles and attempted to add a few layers to this one dimensional character. The title role of Diana is portrayed by the underrated Jeanna de Waal. De Waal is a star and delivers an incredibly strong performance, even if she sounds nothing like Diana. With strong and brilliant acting choices and a stellar voice de Waal definitely has a Tony nomination in her future. Overall, Diana has its problems, but it's a fun musical (that your mom will definitely love) that is great if you just want a night out. You can currently watch Diana on Netflix, or you can watch it live at the Longacre theatre where it starts previews November 2 with an opening night of November 17. See ya'll next time!

My future's my design. My story's finally mine and I'll light the world. I'll light the world.