Diana, Princess of Wales, punctuates my memories on occasion. Sporadically, but meaningfully.

Occasion 1 – one of my earliest memories is of a humble plastic flag. A Union Jack plastic little flag on a plastic white stick, provided to me in 1981 to fervently and obediently wave inside my childhood home. 2 and a few month year olds love a prop and I was no exception.

Occasion 2 – 12 years old and provided the homework task of writing an imagined diary entry of a famous person of a significant happening in their life. I don’t know why and without the internet I can only imagine there was some handily yet curiously available source material at home , but off I went to write a diary entry for 29 July 1981 and one Diana Spencer’s wedding day.

I feel it necessary at this juncture to point out that my parents were not royalists. No copies of the Daily Mail or Express to be found in my house – no siree.

Occasion 3 – and it’s Gen X’s very own version of where we you when Kennedy was shot. That fateful evening, August 1997, and in a taxi back to my family home from Blackpool in the early hours, listening to the breaking news on the radio. Waking my mum up from slumber, I felt it important to impart the latest happening within the zeitgeist of the day and we sat glued to the news. The next day, I was to go off to my weekend job on the tills at Kwik Save, looking disbelievingly at all the newspaper front covers, many of which were at that point unaware that Diana didn’t make it, stark images of a Paris underpass replacing what was once a woman sat in a blue bathing costume, dangling provocatively off a yacht in front of paparazzi.

Occasion 4 – a year on and I’m headed off on holiday, a revised edition of Andrew Morton’s Diana: her true story, reprinted to reflect that Diana was her own source into the salacious account of life with the royal family, purchased from the WH Smith at the airport.

Occasion 5 (and I suspect it’s getting tedious now but I’m getting to the show) and at Uni studying film and media, asked to prepare and presentation and speech on powerful and significant happenings and their depictions in the media. I mean come on – plus I had all those clippings under my bed saved because I gorge on a good happening…

Oh and I’ve been to the underpass because, me.

The point is (there is a point), the point is that, and as exclaimed at the end of last night’s show,

Diana would have f*cking loved a drag show based around her life

…Lady Diana Spencer was our Big Brother contestant, our Katie Price, our The Beckhams, the OG, before Mollie Mae was barely a twinkle in her father’s eye, and brought the drama, the glam, the tragedy that us pop culturists were OBSESSED with. And if there is going to be a drag show about her life, and of course, there without a doubt always and absolutely should have been, The Diana Mixtape was it.

WELCOME TO THE DIANA MIXTAPE. You are cordially invited to join our Di, the People’s Princess, for the gig of a lifetime…quite literally!
Telling the story of a humble commoner (who just happened to be a Lady) in a concert/musical/event like nothing you have experienced before, THE DIANA MIXTAPE is here to set the record straight with an all star cast, iconic fashion throwbacks and fierce choreography. 

Starting 20 minutes late because as the excellent creator and director, Christopher D Clegg announced on stage with an apology before curtain up,

We’re on drag time

.., it was more than worth the wait – for this fun, buoyant audience, there were no signs of dissent even before we knew what an epic 90 minutes we were in for.

As one, from our seats, we enjoyed a sterling line-up of Dianas from the drag superstars that are Courtney Act, Divina De Campo, Rosé, Kitty Scott-Claus, Priyanka.

With the fabulous Noel Sullivan (Prince Charles), Lucinda Lawrence (Camilla Parker Bowles) and Keala Settle (Queen Elizabeth II as you’ve never seen her before – miss you ma’am), and a stupendous group of backing dancers (‘these boys are dancing their t*ts off out here’), the ensemble brought it from beginning to end.

Here’s one of those lovely and efficient listicles, bringing you some of my favourite moments:

• The fashion. Oh my god some of those iconic looks that we all remember or indeed may have forgotten that we remember, but how quickly we remembered. The shy Di outfits, the royal blue hue of the engagement suit, that wedding dress (more on that…) and, most significantly and fully iconically, that REVENGE dress from the Vanity Fair party…they were all there and dragified most beautifully.
• The introduction of Camilla Parker Bowles. Howling as those infamous outward, sloaney flicks were revealed via silhouette, before CPB screamed out from the graphics behind, as Camilla, Charles’s ‘old friend’, sang and danced her way onto the stage, both cigarette and microphone sported like a pro.
• The wedding dress scene. I don’t know whether it was my hormones or just the underlying sombreness that lies deep within on a Tuesday, no matter how good a time you’re having, or that 1997 collective, shared sense of national grief popping back up to say hello, but I actually felt tearful as Diana’s full and iconic dress was realised, piece by piece, puff sleeve by puff sleeve, until her full skirt was ready to host a projection of footage from the actual day of a smiling Diana waving to the crowds. Camp.
• The music and soundtrack Without let-up and without pause, covered with artistic licence by our Dianas, with original tracks from Britney Spears, Dojo Cat, Lady Gaga and Kylie Minogue…
• The minor missteps handled in a way that can only be handled by a drag queen at the top of their game, from the mic playing catch-up, to the wardrobe malfunction.
• Noel Sullivan’s Prince Charles.

It truly was a love letter to Di, and with pun-tastic headlines flashing up from back in the day, providing a literal backdrop to scandals revisited, it was surprisingly moving and sympathetic. But always, always biting, funny, satirical and above all else – screamingly funny.

All it was missing was a dancefloor to make the experience more…3 Di-mensional (all the other Di puns were taken).

You lucky people in Salford, Manchester and surrounding areas have two more chances to see The Diana Mixtape at Lowry. On until this Thursday 21 August, head to https://thelowry.com/whats-on/the-diana-mixtape-1v3r for more details and tickets.

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The creative family in full force

Created / Directed / Written by Christopher D. Clegg

Musical Director / Tracks by Matthew Harvey

Choreography by Taz Hoesli

Costumes by River Smith

Lighting by Toby Darvill

Dramaturgy by Geri Allen

Video Design and Direction Christopher D. Clegg and Adam Nightingale