Netflix mocked the Diana musical before Broadway even opened it

Diana: The Musical, with music and lyrics by Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan and book writer Joe DiPietro, was meant to tell Princess Diana's story — the courtship, Charles's affair with Camilla, Diana's own affair with James Hewitt, the marriage's collapse — as a pop spectacle starring Jeanna de Waal. It was set for Broadway in 2020, until Broadway itself shut down.

The producers made an unusual call: film the show in an empty theater with no audience and release it on Netflix first. The filmed version landed on 1 October 2021 — six weeks before the stage premiere — and was torn apart: a 12% Rotten Tomatoes score, 'tawdry' and 'theme-park schlock' among the kinder verdicts, and eventually five Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Picture. Broadway audiences had already seen the reviews of a show that hadn't opened yet.

The stage version began previews on 2 November 2021 at the Longacre Theatre, opened on 17 November, and announced its closing on 10 December; the final performance was 19 December 2021. Sixteen previews and 33 regular performances, with the show grossing about $374,000 in its closing week. The musical became a rare thing: a Broadway production that arrived pre-mocked and left unmissed.