The Devil Wears Prada in the West End – all the details and an inside look at the new musical

Last month the eagerly anticipated UK premiere of The Devil Wears Prada: A New Musical was revealed in a glitzy London ceremony.

Based on the legendary film starring Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt, the show will open at Theatre Royal Plymouth for a special preview stint over summer 2024, ahead of a West End transfer to the Dominion Theatre next autumn (more details at the link below). For those living under a fashionable rock for the last 20 years, it tells the story of Andy, an aspiring journalist who lands an internship at the prestigious fashion mag Runway, overseen by the tyrannical Miranda Priestly.

It has music by Elton John (yes, THE Elton John), with lyrics by Shaina Taub and a book by Kate Wetherhead – and tickets are now on sale.

The show had a previous demo run on the other side of the Atlantic, but it seems that this new production is tearing up the old and bringing in the new. In the director’s chair for the UK premiere is none other than Jerry Mitchell (who has helped turn shows like Legally Blonde and Kinky Boots into bona fide bonanzas), who we sat down with a few weeks ago. For a venue that size, Mitchell told us to expect spectacle – and possibly even a runway inside the auditorium…

Mitchell also explained why John is the perfect composer for taking a film like Prada to the stage: “If you go to a Spotify playlist and type in fashion, you get so many different kinds of music. And Elton knows that – so audiences should definitely expect dance tracks, techno, classic rock, showtune tracks, everything will be represented in the show.”

A director like Mitchell also knows how to translate a movie to the stage – having worked on so many: “There’s a craft to bringing movies to the stage. You have to surround yourself with the right sort of creatives.” In this instance, the right creative for Mitchell is Wetherhead – who happened to originate the roles of Kate and Chutney in the Broadway production of Legally Blonde! Another creative team member is Tim Hatley – whose award-winning designs for Back to the Future are wowing audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.

And the all-important question – who will be stepping into the groundbreaking shoes of Miranda Priestly for the musical? We’ll just have to wait and see, co-producer Kevin McCollum explains: “The world’s available! There have been some quiet calls going out, but we’ll see what the world brings us…”