(WARNING: THIS SHOW FEATURES UNAPOLOGETIC “CAMILLA BASHING”!)

Awkward Productions, the creative duo of Linus Karp and Joseph Martin, brought us the critically acclaimed and phenomenally funny Gwyneth Goes Skiing last year.  As part of the Fringe Encore Series, the pair have returned to New York City’s famous SoHo Playhouse to spotlight another willowy blonde who became a darling of pop culture and who managed to become a favorite of the gays in the process.  Yes, you DI-hard fans: The star of this fractured fairy tale is a bona fide princess.  It’s Diana Frances Spencer, AKA The People’s Princess, Lady Di, The Princess of Hearts, England’s Rose, and– as her friends and close family called her, “Duch”: short for “Duchess”. (Betcha didn’t know that!)   Like Gwyneth Goes Skiing, the equally hilarious Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story features over-the-top situations, larger-than-life performances, a queer sensibility that rivals a double feature of Can’t Stop The Music and Xanadu combined, and… the gimmick of common people audience members being pulled to do some impromptu acting. I mean, we wouldn’t want REAL stars competing with THIS princess, now would we?  That said, we do get an exclusive video appearance by a bona fide celebrity: Jeanna de Waal, the lovely actress who played our heroine in Diana the Musical on Broadway.  Speaking of music: I personally think that the show’s original banger D-I-A-N-A should be a worldwide #1 dance club hit,  with an ubergay video to match.

In this lively and more than slightly twisted exploration of the Diana lore, our Princess is (SPOILER ALERT) already dead, narrating from Heaven.  She is speaking to her admirers (AKA, the audience…) in between hanging out with Betty White,  Mother Teresa, and Jennifer Coolidge (?).  Via flashback, she tells her story. Born in 1961– as a fully grown woman, with perfect hair, makeup, and wardrobe, by the way– we follow Diana’s bittersweet journey through per privileged childhood, marriage,  motherhood, and that ugly divorce. Prince Charles, by the way, is played by a cardboard cutout– and just like Linus Karp as Diana, it’s perfect casting.  Along the way, the audience gets to gasp at all of Diana’s fabulous outfits, the apex being that famous wedding dress which inspired an infinite number of imitations.  The audience didn’t just “admire” that dress– they cheered, clapped, and swooned.   But there’s more to THIS Diana story than what you’ve read or seen in those omnipresent tabloids. Don’t say you weren’t warned…

Of course, every princess– Disney or otherwise– has her adversaries.  In this corner of the Diana-verse, one of them is The Queen (Geri Allen), who in THIS tale is most decidedly NOT a paragon of grace and virtue. She’s clearly jealous of Diana’s perfectly perfect perfection. But the absolute alpha villainess of this show, as you may have guessed by now, is Camilla, AKA The Slag of Death.  Camilla’s presence plagues Diana via X-rated dreams, until she finally appears as a giant creepy rag doll (animated by the hard-working Joseph Martin), with a voice that sounds as if Pazuzu from The Exorcist and the vengeful ghost from The Ring had a love child.  The showdown between Diana and “Camilla” alone is worth the price of admission  (and an airplane ticket too…).  In a nice piece of fantasy , the creators of the show re-create what would could have happened if it had not been for that fatal moment that dare not speak its name on August 31, 1997.  Would Diana win the Nobel Prize?  Become an actress?  Appear on RuPaul’s Drag Race?  Only God (Zina Badran) would ever know.

As mentioned before, Karp perfectly and hilariously captures our Diana’s overly mannered, prim-and-proper, and VERY British persona– although THIS Diana isn’t afraid to get down and dirty when needed.  Our princess may have been known for her humility, authenticity, and compassion… but Karp’s Diana also knows full well that she’s an international celebrity, fashion icon, and (lest we forget) LGBTQ ally.  She knows that modesty is overrated. At some angles, especially where I was sitting right side of the theater, the actor looked shockingly like the real Diana: so blonde, so tall, so slender, so pretty, so rich, so famous… Damn! Like The Queen, I stared to get jealous of her perfectly perfect perfection…

Awkward Productions’ Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story continues in Aspen, CO on January 17th and in L.A., CA on January 25th.  Visit here for tickets and more information.