Princess Diana musical to release on Netflix before taking Broadway

A new musical about Princess Diana will premiere on Netflix before a planned opening on Broadway in December, in an innovative move to promote the project, producers said on Tuesday.

In one of the first Broadway shows to announce a firm date following a pandemic-induced shutdown of more than a year, Diana: The Musical will have its opening night on stage on Dec. 16.

But it will be released ahead of that on Netflix on Oct. 1, the producers said, in what is thought to be the first such arrangement for a new stage show.

“The chance to share our show, first with Netflix’s global audience, and then welcoming a live audience back on Broadway, is something we’ve all been dreaming about for more than a year,” they said in a statement.

Broadway theaters shut down in mid-March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The closure now officially extends to June 2021 but the theatrical community in New York is eyeing September at the earliest for live musicals and plays to get back up and running.

Live theater, which thrives on close contacts between actors, requires backstage crews to work in cramped conditions and needs large audiences to survive financially, is expected to be the last cultural event to return after the pandemic.

Diana: The Musical, was in preview just before the Broadway shutdown but had not officially opened. The Netflix presentation was filmed in 2020 with the cast.

It tells the story of Diana from a young bride through her unhappy marriage to Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne. Diana died in a Paris car crash at the age of 36.

The music for the show was written by David Bryan, the keyboard player with the American rock band Bon Jovi.