Queen Of Hearts

By Richard Zoglin

How far we've come. A year and a half after her world-traumatizing death, Princess Diana is back as the heroine of a stage musical--and no one cares! To be sure, the unheralded off-Broadway show Queen of Hearts is too scrappy and simplistic to be very satisfying, even to connoisseurs of kitsch. Its Diana is an unnuanced saint whose key moment of insight comes when Princess Grace advises her, "Trust in yourself. Be who you are." Yet the musical boasts an appealing Diana in Paula Leggett Chase, who has the hairstyle and the gangly grace and (in songs like The Walls Are Closing In) makes a decent case for her emotional strength. In a more polished show, she might win a few hearts herself.

--By Richard Zoglin