Theater evaluate
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA
Two and a half hours, with one intermission. On the Dominion Theatre in London.
LONDON — That’s all?
I want.
“The Devil Wears Prada,” Elton John’s horrid musical that crashed and burned two years in the past in Chicago, is giving it a second go in London.
However you realize the outdated phrase: If at first you don’t succeed… don’t succeed once more!
The completely new manufacturing on the Dominion Theatre, directed by Jerry Mitchell of “Kinky Boots,” is at the very least an enchancment from the prepare wreck I noticed in 2022. Now it’s extra of a fender bender.
Nonetheless, the clumsy couture of “Prada,” which has wholly misguided Broadway aspirations, ought to avoid New York. Preserve your distance, Tiny Dancer.
Predictably, we’re served one more forgettable and by-product rating from John, whose terrible “Tammy Faye” simply flopped on the Palace after 29 performances.
Each track right here, with lyrics by Shaina Taub and Mark Sonnenblick, is both the blandest membership beat you’ve ever heard or a public area cowl of “Gloria” by Laura Branigan. When not “nntz-nntz”-ing, all people natters on and on about being “seen.”
As an example, there may be an insufferably sappy quantity for Nigel, Stanley Tucci’s trend editor character hamhandedly performed by Matt Henry, referred to as “Seen, Suddenly, Seen.”
Certainly one of its imbecilic lyrics: “No longer hiding in closets, I curate them now.” Oy vey.
His different tune, “Dress Yourself Up,” is the closest John involves catchy right here.
The “Billy Elliot” composer’s present stays trend weak — barely an iota of the fabulous 2006 comedy movie starring Meryl Streep. Onstage it’s a musical comedy the place you don’t chuckle or nod your head. Possibly you nod off.
Vanessa Williams fares OK as ferocious Miranda Priestly, the ice-cold journal editrix who’s a stand-in for Anna Wintour. And whereas the actress radiates pure showbiz effervescence, she will be able to’t make Miranda into the gargantuan determine Streep so memorably was. She’s only a run-of-the-mill dangerous boss.
John and his co-writers don’t know what to do together with her, which is an issue when she’s the title character. It might be beneficiant to name Miranda’s songs afterthoughts.
She meets her match in dowdy Andy (often performed by Georgie Buckland, however Olivia Saunders once I went), a self-righteous journalism grad from Jersey Metropolis. “On the wrong side of the Hudson,” she sings.
Andy goes to work at Runway as Miranda’s second assistant, regardless of figuring out nothing about garments, will get bold, owns her type and rises the ranks. Suppose “How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” however dangerous.
Her chef boyfriend Nate (Rhys Whitfield), in the meantime, is peeved about her newly demanding schedule, and Andy 2.0 begins flirting with profitable author Christian (James Darch). The present is as clueless about each characters as it’s with all the things else.
The perfect components of Kate Wetherhead’s ebook, reminiscent of it’s, are cribbed phrase for phrase from the display model. The brand new materials, then, stands proud like an orange sweater.
How about first assistant Emily’s tasteless lyric, “Enjoy Paree. I hope an uncut Frenchman gives you HPV”?
Or the ensemble’s oft-repeated line, “Hell is a runway where the devil wears Prada.” What does that imply? Beats me.
Mitchell, to his credit score, has turned “Prada” from unwatchable (the Chicago manufacturing was directed by Anna D. Shapiro) to competent.
However the rating and ebook are what they’re. With a fundamental character like Miranda, who Streep made addictively fascinating by doing much less no more, the musical therapy simply doesn’t make sense.
Truly you get the distinct impression that Crew “Prada,” in whipping up this soulless mess, had been extra involved with making cents. One other cynical film adaptation.
And when you’ve come for the style, Greg Barnes’ designs are lackluster — neither camp nor runway prepared.
One night time in the past I noticed “Robin Hood,” the hysterical pantomime on the London Palladium. The nice comic Julian Clary walked onto the stage, elaborately dressed as an owl, and joked, “You don’t get this at the ‘The Devil Wears Prada.’”
The viewers howled.
