Were critics on the side of the angels with The Devil Wears Prada reviews?

Did the musical dress to impress?

| London's West End |

6 December 2024

VaWe — Vanessa Williams, © Matt Crockett

The reviews have landed for The Devil Wears Prada in the West End – but what did the critics make of it? Was the musical devilishly successful or did it leave the critics feeling cerulean? We round up the responses below.

Miriam Sallon, WhatsOnStage
★★

The problem with reinterpreting a film like The Devil Wears Prada for stage is that they already hit the best marks the first time: how do you beat a power team of Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt? Well, you have to offer an entirely fresh take. Unfortunately, despite having Elton John on staff, the tunes are mostly lacklustre and the script in between is just a regurgitation of the film’s best-known lines. The title number, which one would presume would be the big catchy standard, sounds like a Christmas charity song, and there are way too many slow power ballads.

In the second act, we’re finally treated to something truly fabulous as the Eiffel Tower comes into sparkling view and an ominous, bass-heavy “Paris, City of Dreams” sets the tone for Andy’s final transformation to the delectable dark side of fashion.

Martin Robinson, The Standard

★★★★★

“For the OTT ball scene costumier Gregg Barnes creates a series of ravishing, demonic creations that distract from the fact that the accompanying title song is a rare misfire (partly because only “nada” rhymes with “Prada”). For a keystone fashion show, he puts the cast in gauzy chiffon, spotlit around the auditorium. Elsewhere designer Tim Hatley’s set leans heavily on the New York skyline and a series of feature walls.

“The show is now a period piece about the 2000s, before Karl Lagerfeld’s death and John Galliano’s disgrace: many of the real-life inspirations for the main characters have moved on or retired and magazine journalism ain’t what it was. The best numbers – “House of Miranda”, “How to Survive at Runway”, “Who’s She?” – celebrate a time when fashion and New York were both in their pomp and you could never be too rich, too thin or too demanding. Absolutely fabulous.”

Clive Davis, The Times
★★★

“If this turns out to be Elton John’s farewell to the West End (sadly, at last Sunday’s gala performance he announced that he is losing his sight) he is signing off with a typically proficient set. “In or Out” and “How to Survive at Runway” have plenty of energy, and the show is certainly more fun than his leering televangelist musical Tammy Faye, which just sank without trace on Broadway.

“Many of the numbers, though, are delivered at a thumping volume that makes it difficult to tease out Shaina Taub and Mark Sonnenblick’s lyrics. The disco flavour to the arrangements evokes the catwalk displays of couture but also results in a certain blandness. And Tim Hatley’s set offers up a generic view of midtown New York.”

The Devil Wears Prada 2 — Georgie Buckland and Amy Di Bartolomeo in The Devil Wears Prada, © Matt Crockett

Fiona Mountford, The i
★★★

“Elton John’s score starts promisingly with the catchy earworm “House of Miranda” (“Get a gift for Galliano/ Book the spa in Positano,” as Shaina Taub and Mark Sonnenblick’s lyrics have it). But thereafter the songs are generically pleasant rather than anything more, though at a narratively crucial moment, the appealing Buckland, making an eye-catching West End debut, belts out power ballad “What’s Right for Me?” with heft and conviction.”

Tim Bano, The Stage

★★

“The two best things about the production are Georgie Buckland playing Andy and Amy di Bartolomeo as Emily. It’s quite a West End debut from Buckland, dominating even when up against the star power of Vanessa Williams as Miranda. Di Bartolomeo turns Emily into the comic centre of the show, foal-like in the way she staggers in too-high heels and uncomfortable in the haute couture that she loves so much. Her voice is a wonder, too.”

“As the show, designed by Tim Hatley, gets grander – Met Gala, Paris Fashion Week – and Gregg Barnes’ costumes bigger, the production finds its purpose: to look good. But, as in the fashion world, thinness pervades, most evident in John’s score: rather than putting songs where they might actually contribute something, he wedges a bunch of “I want” numbers into gaps between scenes. Andy sings about her dreams. Emily sings about slightly different dreams, Nigel sings about being gay, and his dreams.”

Arifa Akbar, The Guardian

★★

“As it trots from one iconic scene to another, Kate Wetherhead’s book summarising the screenplay almost line by line, it resembles an android-like simulacrum. You find yourself asking: “Why?” How does this show add to the film, riff off it or bring the satire – and celebration – of the fashion industry up to date? The costumes designed by Gregg Barnes (with some by Pamella Roland) are variable: one red, gold and black fashion collection has the imperial bling of Versace and the theatrical edge of Alexander McQueen. But other ensembles look like they could be from the Christmas Autograph collection at M&S.”

Alice Saville, The Independent

★★

“The Devil Wears Prada movie was fascinating because it blew an exclusive, secretive world wide open. It let ordinary women peer into the lives of the magazine editors who told them they were too fat, too mundane, too frumpy to be part of their world, all the while selling it to them as part of a glossy package on every newsstand. This musical feels squarely aimed at the mass market, and it’s neither aspirational nor memorable enough to escape the sale rack.”

We’ll add more as they come in.