A month ago, the New York Post ran a front-page story stating that a "multi-million dollar" Broadway musical about the late Princess Diana was in the offing. Playbill On-Line followed up on the piece but found no evidence at that time to suggest that such a show is currently on the drawing board.

Now the London Times has reported that a California writer sent producer Cameron Mackintosh a script of Diana: The Musical. Mackintosh's response was worry "that it would be rather bad taste to do it too soon."

Trevor Nunn, new artistic director of the Royal National Theatre, had told the London Times, "It's an interesting idea. Some might say we have a duty to bring the tragedy to life. Andrew Lloyd Webber would be perfect to compose it, but it would be too painful for him -- he was such a close friend of Diana's."

Otherwise, the closest the NY Post comes to any kind of concrete news of such a musical is a quote from TV composer Jonathan Segal, saying that "he's put some initial concepts together... It's a fabulous story for a musical."

Other theatre people interviewed noted that Di's story was a natural for the theatre but had no knowledge of a particular Diana project. Asked if they'd heard of any Di-related musicals being planned, both Chris Boneau and Adrian Bryan Brown, of the Boneau/Bryan-Brown press agency (which handles a goodly portion of commercial productions in New York) told Playbill On-Line (Sept. 16) they were unaware of such a property. The Post does note that any Broadway-bound, Diana musical would likely take years to mount.

-- By David Lefkowitz