These Videos Will Make You Miss Broadway Like Crazy!

Covid took away many once-in-a-lifetime experiences from millions of people worldwide. I was content being locked away in my tower binging princess shows, but the one thing I missed the most this year was musical theater. The stage is a place for princesses to shine as they show off their stunning costumes, bell-like voices, and whimsical stories. Throughout the year, I learned about many new princess musicals that I would have loved to see if the theaters had not shut down. Streaming musicals has become more commonplace than ever, but watching a show on a screen simply cannot compare to the magic of seeing it live. While Hollywood continues to rehash old ideas, Broadway is giving us a fresh perspective on history with shows like Hamilton and Six. In the same way that Hamilton sets American history to contemporary music, Six takes the wives of Henry VIII and turns them into a pop band that performs Spice Girls-inspired numbers about their tragic lives from the middle ages.

I learned about Six right after I had finished Starz Network's The Spanish Princess, which tells the story of Catherine of Aragon. Catherine is featured in Six alongside Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymore, Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Cathrine Parr, the other five women Kng Henry VIII married in his obsessive attempts to gain a male heir. The color-coded costumes of the six ex-wives are a combination of old and new fashion with their puffy sleeves, short skirts, and way too many rhinestones. The show opens with a "Cell Block Tango" inspired number in which the former queens introduce themselves and what they were most famous for. Then each one performs a solo where she tries to argue that she should lead the group because her story is the most tragic. It all concludes with a message of female empowerment and a catchy theme song with choreography that would look incredible on stage.

"Only You, Lonely You" is the third song released from Andrew Lloyd Webber's upcoming Cinderella musical. It is the first look we get at Prince Sebastian, who will be played by Ivano Turco, the co-star to Carrie Hope Fletcher's Cinderella. It's so cool that both leads in the show have curly hair! Andrew Lloyd Webber insinuated on an Instagram post that Sebastian was not born as the crown prince. He is the brother of Prince Charming, who is absent for at least the first act of this show "doing daring deeds and probably slaying a few dragons." Due to his absence, Sebastian is the one who will now inherit the throne of Belleville. Andrew Lloyd Webber stated in another interview that Sebastian and Cinderella were childhood friends, and this song is about Sebastian's realization that he cares for her as more than a friend. I wonder how Cinderella was able to befriend a prince while she was stuck at home doing chores. It looks like this is Andrew Lloyd Webber's attempt to fix the common complaint that Cinderella doesn't spend enough time with the prince before she marries him.

The final new musical that couldn't make it through the pandemic is Diana: A True Musical Story, which tells the story of Diana, Princess of Wales, who was beloved by her people until her tragic death in 1997. Like Six, this show was rudely interrupted from its Broadway previews when the great white way went dark in March just before its official opening. This beautiful video portrays Jeanna de Waal performing the song "If," in which Diana sings about her innermost hopes and dreams for her new life as a princess. Diana has a leg up over the other two shows on this list because it has a professional recording ready to stream on Netflix in early 2021. The official website states that Netflix will stream the show before it is set to reopen on May 25, 2021. It's smart for them to have a backup plan after so many princess movies got rescheduled this year and wound up going direct to streaming anyway.

It took a long time for the cabin fever of 2020 to set in for me. I was pretty content staying home, reading, and playing games, but like many princesses, I love singing and musical theater. Learning about these musicals reminded me of the rush I got in college when I hop on a bus to Broadway and watch the lights dim as the stage came to life and transported me to another world of flashy costumes, energetic choreography, and passionate music. I eagerly await the day that these shows will return to theaters again so I can escape my tower and see them in person.