'Diana The Musical' Producer Explains Why the Show Debuted on Netflix Before Broadway
The new show Diana: The Musical will not have its official opening night on Broadway until November 17, but you can already watch the full show on Netflix from the comfort of your own home.
So, why did the producers of the show decide to release the show on streaming before its playing on Broadway?
Produce Frank Marshall, who is also behind the Jurassic World film franchise, is opening up about the unique plan they created for the show’s release.
Click inside to find out what he said…
“We were in previews,” Frank told THR about how the COVID-19 pandemic shut down Broadway. “We had done nine previews, and we were due to open in 10 days, but we shut down on the 12th. Of course, back then, we thought it was going to be for two weeks or something, not 18 months.”
Frank then came up with a new plan.
He said, “It seemed to me, as a movie producer, we’ve got the sets, and we’ve got the cast ready to go — everything was kind of in place at the theater. And it had just been announced that Hamilton [the filmed version for Disney+] had been moved up a year. I thought, ‘Maybe we could try to do this ourselves.’ So Beth [Williams, one of Marshall’s Broadway partners] and I called Chris Ashley, our director, and he said, ‘I’m in.’ And then I called Netflix.”
The filmed version of the show was created over four days in September 2020 and it is much different than the filmed versions of Hamilton and Come From Away.
“It really wasn’t what’s called ‘live capture,’ which Hamilton was, because we didn’t have an audience. We shot it much more like a film. We were able to put the camera in the right places and not have to shoot around the audience, and we didn’t have reaction shots, we didn’t have to wait for applause or anything, so Chris Ashley designed into the show cinematic transitions. It’s much more like a movie,” Frank said.
Frank doesn’t think the Netflix special will ruin ticket sales.
“This is a way to reach a broader audience with a Broadway show,” he said. “I don’t think it competes at all with the stage version; I think they actually help each other. We saw that with Hamilton and even, looking back, Chicago. The movie Chicago didn’t impede the Broadway production at all. It actually helped. And they also saw ticket sales on Hamilton go up after the Disney+ release. So I just think of it as another way to see things. Now, millions of people around the world get to see our show.”
Check out the trailer for the special now!