Vanessa Williams has been cast as the formidable fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly in Elton John’s new musical adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada.
The stage production is based on Lauren Weisberger’s bestselling 2003 novel and the 2006 film version, which starred Meryl Streep as Priestly and Anne Hathaway as her put-upon assistant. The show will run in the summer at Theatre Royal Plymouth before opening in October at London’s Dominion theatre, which has one of the biggest seating capacities in the capital.
It marks a return to UK theatre for Williams, who made her West End stage debut in the musical City of Angels which was curtailed by the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 and closed after only a few performances. The star, known for her singing career and TV roles in Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives, has appeared several times on Broadway including a Tony-nominated performance in Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods in 2002 and Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful in 2013.
The Devil Wears Prada has an original score by Elton John, lyrics by singer-songwriter Shaina Taub and a book by Kate Wetherhead. It is directed and choreographed by three-time Tony-winner Jerry Mitchell. Further casting is yet to be announced.
Williams said that “bringing Miranda Priestly to life in the West End is an absolute dream come true” and added “Gird your loins, folks” referencing the scene in the film where Priestly’s colleague, played by Stanley Tucci, warns the office of the elegantly fearsome editor’s imminent arrival.
The musical has been reimagined after a “developmental run” directed by Anna D Shapiro in Chicago in 2022, when Variety’s critic Steven Oxman wrote that it “provides some serviceable entertainment but needs a hefty dose of guilty, edgy fun to boost its mild pleasures”.
John has previously described his score as “very modern”, ranging across serious, tongue-in-cheek, romantic and frivolous songs. He had a hit at the Almeida theatre in London in 2022 with a musical about the televangelist Tammy Faye.
The Devil Wears Prada starts performances in Plymouth on 9 July and is at the Dominion from 24 October.
