You have to have a feeling for Sir Elton John. He’s had a miserable few weeks. On Sunday he shocked fans at the gala evening of the musical The Devil Wears Prada with the news that he had lost his sight.
This comes after it was announced last month that another of his musicals, Tammy Faye, would close on Broadway due to poor ticket sales.
I don’t like kicking a man when he’s on the ground. However, after seeing this soulless musical version of the Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway film, for which Elton wrote the score, I can offer little consolation.
While the film had style and swagger, this production from veteran Broadway director Jerry Mitchell – supposedly reworked since it was first tried in Chicago in 2022 and called a “haute mess” by the New York Post – still looks off as a cheap shot. -out.
Translating a racy film with glamorous locations and Hollywood A-listers to the stage was never going to be easy. Yet Kate Wetherhead’s book plods through the story of bright young fashion bypass Andy, who despite her cable-knit tights gets a job at the fictional fashion magazine Runway in New York.
Here she meets infamous editor Miranda Priestly, a wide-eyed fashion Nazi who goes through PAs like facial tissues.
But it’s also true that Sir Elton’s score, along with Shaina Taub and Mark Sonnenblick’s lyrics, fail to enhance the story.
It lacks humor, warmth or zest for life. And this from a composer whose greatest songs were about young people like Andy struggling to find their way in a hostile world – think Elton’s songs in Billy Elliot and The Lion King, not to mention albums like Goodbye Yellow Brick Road .
(L to R) Shaina Taub, Sir Elton John and David Furnish speak on stage at ‘The Devil Wears Prada Musical’ charity gala evening in support of the Elton John Aids Foundation at The Dominion Theater on December 1, 2024 in London, England
(L to R) Rhys Whitfield, Matt Henry, Vanessa Williams, Georgie Buckland and Amy Di Bartolomeo bow at the curtain call at ‘The Devil Wears Prada Musical’ charity gala evening
Rehearsal for The Devil Wears Prada: A New Musical in this undated handout image in London, Great Britain
But Prada could have been composed by AI. In addition to metronomic dance songs, it features a duet – I Only Love You For Your Body – between Andy (Georgie Buckland) and her juicy chef Nate (Rhys Whitfield) after he cooks her braised beef cheeks for dinner.
And Vanessa Williams as office despot Miranda is just as inscrutable as Melania Trump. She may be completely resistant to emotional expression – even by Sir Elton. At least her lines are coated with a thick layer of frost, and she serves well as a high-status vehicle for the Gucci sunglasses, earning her a roar of approval from the crowd as she rises through the floor in imitation of the real Vogue superhero. editor Anna Wintour.
However, Buckland struggles to revive her role as Andy, who has an almost total personality
shortage. Her big moment in the film – where she throws her phone into the Fontaine de la Concorde in Paris – is replaced by a moment where she simply drops it in a vase. Even her climactic outfit is… beige.
Yes, she can hold a note (and shake a leg) in melodies, including her hollow hymn of self-affirmation. What’s Right For Me? But it’s not enough. Like Emily Blunt in the film, Amy Di Bartolomeo is a running joke as the catty fashion-desperate Emily, and she almost amuses herself with her sarcastic farewell to Bon Voyage, when Andy gets to go to Paris instead of her.
Matt Henry offers a spark of warmth as Nigel, Andy’s confidante. Yet he also has the most ridiculous lyrics of the show in a supposedly profound ballad, in which he recalls his elite life in fashion that fit him ‘like a Lagerfeld glove’.
Tim Hatley’s set design has the appeal of an airport departure lounge, despite panoramic projections of Manhattan Island and central Paris. The best moment is a lumbering black staircase in a hellish Alexander McQueen-style costume parade at an ill-fated charity ball.
And Mitchell’s choreography? Well, it’s little more than synchronized pole dancing and cheerleading in haute couture.
While it’s true that the ticket prices (which range from around £50 to £250) are much cheaper than almost anything you can buy from Prada, it’s not unreasonable that we would have hoped for something more sensational.