Someone Made a Musical About Prince Andrew—But Is It Too Soon To Satirize?

For such a serious allegation as sexual assault by a member of the royal family, there has been something horrifyingly entertaining about the very public fallout of Prince Andrew’s fall from grace. I remember it first changing from something purely horrific to a car crash of a PR disaster during his interview with renowned journalist Emily Maitlis. It’s no surprise, then, that this is the way the musical based on the events is kicking off.

Yes, that’s right. There’s a musical being made about Prince Andrew called (imaginatively) Prince Andrew The Musical. The satirical musical begins with the fateful interview with Maitlis, before flitting through the life of the disgraced prince and his time spent fighting in the Falklands.

For those who haven’t seen the interview, it’s well worth a watch. Maitlis hardly has to lift a finger as he slowly drowns in an ocean of lies and half-hearted statements that he clearly believed would carry much more weight than they did. It’s surely being used by Buckingham Palace’s press office now as an example of why interviews like this one are a rarity for the royals.

But back to Prince Andrew The Musical. While it’s easy to laugh at such a sad excuse for a man as Prince Andrew, making an entire musical based around events related to a sexual assault case doesn’t quite sit right with me. There are very real victims involved in this and the fact that it’s a member of the royal family who’s involved in some capacity doesn’t make it any less shocking and traumatizing. If anything, the public attention on the case would surely only worsen these aspects.

Nonetheless, I do understand the mentality of ‘if you can’t laugh, you’ll cry’. It’s very much the British way to satirize and poke fun at truly horrifying events, to make sense of them and move past them. However, when Prince Andrew himself has seen very few real repercussions for what he’s allegedly done, when he’s still supported and protected by an institution that’s financially supported by the British public, should we really be trying to move past that with humor?

Ultimately, I can’t make any sweeping statements about the musical itself until I’ve seen it. It certainly has a talented cast, with writer Kieran Hodgson in the lead role as Andrew, Emma Sidi as Maitlis, and Munya Chawawa as a pouting and exasperated then-Prince Charles. Prince Andrew The Musical airs on Channel 4 at 9pm in the UK.

(featured image: Channel 4)