“Diana, the Musical,” which started its journey to Broadway at La Jolla Playhouse, is ending its run at the Longacre Theatre on Dec. 19, a little more than a month after it officially opened.
The announcement, made Friday evening, marks the end for the production that finally saw its opening night Nov. 17 after being shut down in March 2020 after only nine preview performances.
“We are extraordinarily proud of the ‘Diana’ company and of the show onstage at the Longacre,” the show’s producers — Beth Williams of Grove Entertainment, Frank Marshall and The Araca Group — said in a t statement.
“Our heartfelt thanks go out to the cast, crew and everyone involved in creating the show. And to the audiences who have shown their love and at every performance.”
The musical is directed by La Jolla Playhouse artistic director Christopher Ashley, who won a Tony in 2017 for another Playhouse-born musical, “Come from Away.” “Diana,” which chronicles the marriage between Prince Charles and Diana, the Princess of Wales, stars Jeanna de Waal as Diana, Roe Hartrampf as Prince Charles, Erin Davie as Camilla Parker Bowles and Judy Kaye as Queen Elizabeth. The show was choreographed by Kelly Devine and written by Joe DiPietro and Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan.
While Broadway was shut down for 18 months, the production’s cast and crew returned to the stage in the middle of the pandemic for a filmed version that made its debut on Netflix in October.
After the Netflix production was announced in August of 2020, the producers said: “We speak for the entire company when we say that we couldn’t be more excited to finally be able share our show with theater lovers everywhere. Though there is no substitute for the live theater, we are honored to be a part of the quality entertainment that Netflix provides its subscribers worldwide.”
When the streaming version made its debut, critics, for the most part, did not like what they saw, with one headline calling it “A chintzy jewel in Netflix’s royal content crown,” alluding to the streaming giant’s runaway hit, “The Crown.”
When the production finally returned to the stage, bad reviews continued to pour in, with The New York Times’ Jesse Green writing, “If you care about Diana as a human being, or dignity as a concept, you will find this treatment of her life both aesthetically and morally mortifying.”
Producers originally planned for “Diana” to have an open run. When it closes Sunday, it would have had 33 performances and 16 previews.
