Diana In Concert - Eventim Apollo

I saw this when it came on Netflix, it was absolutely hilarious.

It’s clearly a satire of bad musical theatre. They wrote intentionally appalling lyrics, half-rhymes and generic “showtunes”. The acting was intentionally ridiculous. I strongly expect Messrs Bialystock and Bloom are behind the curtain.

It’s much more enjoyable when viewing it this way. It’s legendarily bad, the ur-example of quite literally doing nothing right. And I love it.

My two abiding memories from watching it though were the hilarious impersonations of the royals, especially Charles, straight out of Spitting Image. Oh and the “f***ity, f***ity, f*** me dress (shoes?)”.

Probably the most I’ve ever laughed when watching a musical.

If you can’t create something good, create something memorable.

Tommy Wiseau’s “The Room” is widely considered one of the worst movies ever made, with terrible acting, nonsensical dialogue and a completely by the numbers story. Despite this, the movie has a huge cult following precisely because it is unique in cinema.

This musical was made as a meme generator, to get buzz - “surely it can’t be that bad”. A sort of freak show curio which gets people talking. They lean heavily into this, by making the performances dreadful and having some of the worst lyrics this side of “Too Close to the Sun”.

It’s my view they knew full well it was a turkey, so deliberately leaned into the camp and kitschy nature of what they had to try and salvage it as a pastiche. It’s the only way the show is watchable.

Others are also now listed on the Eventim website - Andy Coxon as Prince Charles, Jay Perry as James Hewitt and Aleyna Mohanraj as Sarah Spencer.

I’m looking forward to it!

I’d quite like to see it too now Andy Coxon’s been announced. Falls 2 days before my next trip to London though, which is probably for the best as I can’t stand Denise Welch. Hope to see him in something soon. Still a little annoyed the REx’s West Side Story never came back for its second run.

They said it was a full cast announcement, but no Paul Burrell cast.

I agree. However, neither is Jamie Campbell, yet since John McCrea/Luke Bayer left Everybody's Talking About Jamie, the title role has always been played by a person of colour. I'm sure there are other examples too.

I CAN’T WAIT FOR TONIGHT.

There are only a handful of random seats left on the website and it hasn't appeared on any if the papering websites and no reduced offers available either.

I'm super excited for tonight!

It says doors open at 7pm. Is that to get into the auditorium? Surely the venue will be open before then?

Hmmm, me too in a way. Particularly from those who hadn’t seen it on Netflix. (Because anyone who saw that and decided they wanted to see it again are obviously going to enjoy it, regardless of quality).

I still laugh when I think about it, the “****ity ****ity **** me shoes”. It’s a fantastic satire/parody and I hope they really play up how dreadful it is for laughs like they do on Netflix.

Well, even if it didn’t come from the director, the cast certainly know “what type of show” they’re in and are quite willing to have a bit of fun with it. Exactly as they should! Chance to let the hair down, like doing panto.

I’ve lost count of the number of missed lighting and mic cues, but it doesn’t matter - it’s a huge amount of fun. Kerry Ellis has the perfect voice for this, and Maiya Quansah-Breed brings great comic timing (plus some great vocal moments, too). Denise Welch has a terrible voice, but is still fantastic - very tongue-in-cheek.

Its tone is exactly as I hoped - not taking itself in any way seriously. And the audience is loving it!