Auditions are underway for the play, and a premiere is scheduled for the La Jolla Playhouse in California for next February. According to HELLO! Online, the play will be set in 1981, the year that Diana married Prince Charles and became a member of the Royal Family. The musical will largely be focused on Diana in her twenties, and it will also explore her relationship with Prince Charles, as well as his affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles.
The official synopsis states:
It’s 1981 and the world is hungry for a royal wedding — but is the 20-year-old bride prepared for what comes after? Following her fairytale union, Princess Diana faces a distant husband, an unmovable monarchy and overwhelming media scrutiny. But her modern perspective and remarkable compassion galvanizes a nation, even as it threatens the royal family’s hold on England.
Last month, Page Six reported that there would be 23 songs with a showstopping tune called “A Pretty Girl in a Pretty Dress” about the day it became public that Prince Charles with having an affair with Camilla. We have 23 songs,” composer David Bryan told Playbill. “I gave them musical characters to differentiate: Diana is pop-rock, royalty is string quartet, we have paparazzi as punk guitars and we try to make all those roles live on top of each other.”
Diana as a powerful pop-rock princess? We’re all in.
“It’s about her self-empowerment and how she was in this terrible marriage, but still managed to do so much good for the world,” writer Joe DiPietro told Playbill.