Musical based on life of Diana set for Broadway stage

Published on Saturday 5 April 2008 19:47

A MUSICAL based on the life and death of Diana, Princess of Wales could be heading for Broadway.

Diana biographer Tina Brown is said to be behind the proposal to write a stage show or opera based on the princess's colourful life.

US theatre sources say 54-year-old Brown's dream director is Stephen Daldry, who is bringing the musical version of Billy Elliot to Broadway later this year. Elton John wrote the music for Billy Elliot as well as The Lion King, Aida and Lestat.

British-born former Vanity Fair editor Brown's 2007 book, The Diana Chronicles, topped the best-seller charts, but a musical could hit a nerve with a public still raw from the harsh realities of the London inquest into Diana's death in a car crash in Paris in August 1997.

"The obvious choice to do the music is Elton John (perhaps too obvious), and his name is certainly being bandied about," wrote the New York Post's theatre correspondent, Michael Riedel. "The idea is certainly titillating and you can bet the press coverage of a Princess Diana musical would be intense. Still, Diana's story, well told by Brown, is compelling drama. Done tastefully, it could make one hell of a stage show."

One Broadway executive said there would be "very strong interest" in a Diana musical, both in London and New York.

Meanwhile, actor Keith Allen, who has made a documentary about the inquest into the deaths of Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed has revealed that he supports Mohamed Al Fayed's theory that the couple were killed in a murder plot engineered by the British establishment. He said: "To this day I absolutely believe that this wasn't an accident. I just know."

Allen, who is the father of singer Lily, is hoping to take his feature to the Cannes Film Festival in France.

The Diana, Princess of Wales inquest jury begins deliberating for a fourth day tomorrow.