Elton John-scored ‘Devil Wears Prada, the Musical’ eviscerated by critics

The Elton John-scored musical adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada was eviscerated by critics after its opening performance in at the Nederlander Theatre in Chicago on Sunday.

The Devil Wears Prada, The Musical, is currently on its world premiere before a scheduled 2023 Broadway debut, but its best reviews say it is far from ready for the NYC stage.

The worst reviews have critics calling it an irredeemable fiasco, citing boring music, zero style, and flat characters.

‘Call the Fashion Police,’ wrote critic Johnny Oleksinski in The New York Post, ‘The alarmingly un-fun and sluggish show with a score by Elton John and Shaina Taub is a dud about duds, and the worst screen-to-stage move in recent memory.’

‘Every song is lousy, and there is nothing here worth fixing,’ he added. 

The show was adapted from Lauren Weisberger’s 2003 novel about less-than-stylish hopeful journalist Andy Sachs serving as assistant to major New York City fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly – well understood to be a stand-in for Anna Wintour – which itself was later turned into a the beloved film starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway.

Elton John pays a visit to the cast of The Devil Wears Prada, The Musical on August 3 in Chicago

The show pulled out all the stops in its production, hiring rocker and hit-tested Broadway songwriter Elton John to handle the score, and Tony award winner Beth Leavel to play Runway magazine editor Miranda. 

Despite its star power and glamorous subject, however, the musical seemed to do anything but shine on Sunday evening. 

”The Devil Wears Prada, The Musical’ runs the gamut from mildly diverting to mostly egregiously disappointing, the latter being its defining ethos,’ the Chicago Sun Times‘ Catey Sullivan wrote in her 1.5/4 star review of the musical.

Sullivan said the one of the shows fundamental problems was ‘its underwhelming sense of fashion,’ writing the costumes looked ‘under-budgeted and poorly finished.’

‘Frankly, you’ll see more creative silhouettes on any given season of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race,’ she wrote.

Sullivan also called the show’s music ‘dismal,’ characterizing the score as ‘mostly as flat as a newly ironed hem.’

She said the music did next to nothing to develop characters, move the story forward, or even give the actors a chance to show off their stuff.

‘Elton John wrote brilliant scores for ‘Billy Elliot’ and ‘Aida.’ Here, his music doesn’t further the story or deepen the characters. Worse, it doesn’t provide a single, memorable star-turn for the leads.’

The Devil Wears Prada, The Musical was eviscerated by critics after its opening performance in at the Nederlander Theatre in Chicago on Sunday.

The cast of the Devil Wears Prada, The Musical at the Nederlander Theatre in Chicago in August

Oleksinski wrote in The Post that one of the show’s prevailing problems was that it had done nothing to reinterpret the movie and book to compellingly utilize the medium of the stage.

‘Just about every plot point is identical to the 2006 film that was slick, sexy and satisfying and earned Meryl Streep a well-deserved Oscar nomination for Best Actress,’ he wrote. 

All the show did to bring the story current, Oleksinski wrote, was to cautiously and stupidly’ update it to an interpretation of Gen Z sensibilities.

‘Andy is now a progressive Gen Z striver and Miranda is, I dunno, Nancy Reagan?’ he wrote.

Olekinski gave the show one star out of four.

The musical was adapted from the 2006 movie of the same name starring Meryl Streep (right) an Anne Hathaway (left)

In one of its kinder reviews, Alexis Soloski wrote in The New York Times that the show needed a ‘tailoring’ before it makes its Broadway debut.

‘If it wants a life beyond Chicago, it could use some alterations,’ he wrote.

But Soloski also couldn’t pass up the opportunity to throw some jabs of his own.

‘Though the show takes place at a fashion magazine, its creative team doesn’t seem to have agreed on a style,’ he wrote, ‘This is a show that has tried on everything in its closet. Nothing fits.’