The Princess Diana ‘Bon Jovi’ Musical Heads To Broadway

Princess Diana will return to the world stage Image by Getty Images
Update note: This story was published on December 24, 2017. It was updated to reflect new developments for the musical on August 14, 2019.
Britain’s royals now wear shorts, cry in public, and care about marginalized people. Now, a musical about Princess Diana’s wedding, written by the Jewish keyboardist for “Bon Jovi” is officially headed to Broadway, planning to alight at Broadway’s Longacre Theater in March 2020.
Broadway will moonwalk back in time to the 80s, thanks to “Diana: A New Musical,” from Joe DiPietro and David Bryan, the Tony-winning team for the 2012 musical “Memphis.” Bryan, who just happens to be one of our favorite members of the tribe, is the keyboardist and sometime songwriter of “Bon Jovi.” He and DiPietro are collaborating on the wedding-focused show, simply named “Diana,” with Christopher Ashley — director of Broadway’s recent hit “Come From Away” (apparently it wasn’t possible to locate any women who are capable of making a musical about a female icon’s wedding.)
Princess ‘Diana’ Musical Hits Broadway Next Spring https://t.co/ekC9LrxLzH pic.twitter.com/qouaPA9HKP
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) August 12, 2019
de Waal as Diana Spencer, with Roe Hartrampf as Prince Charles and Erin Davie as Camilla Parker Bowles
The musical, which stars Broadway actress Jeanna de Waal in the title role, had its world premiere in the 2017/2018 season of San Diego’s La Jolla Playhouse, the theater that catapulted the likes of “Thoroughly Modern Milly” and “Jersey Boys” to Broadway success. de Waal performs alongside Jewish Broadway star Judy Kaye, as Queen Elizabeth II.
Writing for the LA Times, theater critic Charles McNulty called the pop-rock heavy show, “as American as Applebee’s,” adding that it “has a generic quality that for all its efficient smoothness seems culturally misplaced.” Okay, but are there good shoulder pads? Ballads? Ballads about shoulder pads?
Doubt that a musical about 20 year-old Princess Diana on the eve of her wedding could succeed? Remember that some of the most stirring and popular pieces of musical theater in history have followed the stories of impoverished AIDS victims, dancing cowboys and cartoon lions — so just wait, David Bryan may prove you wrong.
Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Naftali Bennett is back: Former Israeli prime minister will make another run at Netanyahu
-
Fast Forward Citing post-Holocaust doctrine, Germany seeks to deport 4 pro-Palestinian protesters, including one American
-
Fast Forward Trump administration freezes research funding to Princeton amid antisemitism investigations
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.