We still have a month before Kristen Stewart’s take on Princess Diana in Spencer hits theaters, and presumably a small eternity before seeing Elizabeth Debicki succeed Emma Corrin as the late royal on the fifth season of The Crown. But there is another interpretation of Princess Diana—a singing, dancing, and constantly costume-changing Diana—available now on Netflix, courtesy of Jeanna de Waal in Diana: The Musical.
Diana: The Musical wasn’t originally supposed to stream online—but in 2020, the stage show’s previews were canceled when Broadway shut down due to the coronavirus. During the pandemic, Netflix filmed a full production of Diana: The Musical, with safety protocols in place and no audience, so that people can potentially see the show at home before venturing out to see it at the Longacre Theatre when it reopens in November. De Waal, who spent her pandemic teaching theater virtually through the Broadway Weekends startup she cofounded with her sister Dani, isn’t worried about performing eight shows a week again. But she is anxious about Diana reaching Netflix’s worldwide audience.
“I’m nervous,” de Waal tells Vanity Fair. “People are going to have opinions about my performance.”
Written by the Tony-winning team behind Memphis, Joe DiPietro and David Bryan (who is also Bon Jovi’s keyboardist), the musical tracks Diana’s rollercoaster life from age 19 to 36—fairy-tale wedding, nightmare marriage, children, affairs, and interactions with Queen Elizabeth included. The musical numbers are packed with royal references, and include titles like “Whatever Love Means Anyway” (a reference to Prince Charles’s cutting engagement-interview remark); “Here Comes James Hewitt” (the title character being Diana’s riding instructor turned lover), and the self-explanatory “Welcome to the Windsors.”
In addition to singing and dancing, de Waal executes a staggering 38 costume changes during the show. (The average leading lady in a musical wears five to 12 costumes a show, according to Playbill.) The incredible designs, created by Tony winner William Ivey Long, are a revolving door of Diana’s most iconic looks—including her confection of a wedding gown, her azure engagement suit, and her so-called revenge dress. “I think I did like 60 or 80 hours of fittings,” the actor says. “They have such an amazing effect—they’re as transportive as the sets in taking you back to those moments with Diana.”
The costume changes are so frequent and frenzied that de Waal says her “backstage traffic is actually as hectic, if not more hectic, than my onstage traffic.” Explaining the complicated choreography behind each costume change (which required its own rehearsals) de Waal says, “There are some costumes that I’m wearing for like, seven seconds. So I come offstage and I’m a bit like a race car driver. Someone literally sticks a bottle of water in my mouth while someone else rips my wig off and the next minute I’m pushed back on, and I’m in a new costume, you know? Sometimes those changes require five people.”
There’s a costume-related moment in the show that elicited consistent applause from audiences in previews. After Charles confesses to adultery and Diana nurses a broken heart, the princess rebounds—reappearing onstage looking confident, empowered, and refreshed in the aforementioned revenge dress.
“It’s the best feeling,” says de Waal of hearing the audience’s cheers. “The way that it’s staged, and obviously the costume is amazing—but it’s the best because it’s almost like the peak of her confidence. The audience and you are on this same journey together. So considering where she came from, it’s a fantastic feeling.”
“She’s a pretty challenging protagonist in a lot of ways because, for a long time, she wasn’t in charge of her own story,” adds de Waal. “And what makes her strong and interesting is that she’s kind and quiet and listens. And those are pretty challenging things to portray in a way that excites an audience and leads them out of their seat.”
In a dream world, de Waal would sit down with Kristen Stewart, Emma Corrin, and Elizabeth Debicki—the other actors who recently played Princess Diana—to have a sort of royal roundtable.
“In a way we all got the same homework assignment. And it’s now time to be like, ‘What did you do with the assignment?’” laughs de Waal. “I remember when I saw The Crown, I remember noticing how Emma placed her voice and stuff like that. I was like, ‘Oh, good. I’m on the right path.’ You can see the things you did similarly—and then you can also see the different choices they made and be like, ‘Oh, I wish I had thought of that. Wow, that was cool.’ It’s fun to see how you interpreted her differently.”
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