UPDATE, with addition Elton John comment The Elton John-Shaina Taub stage musical adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada, which recently ended a five-week engagement in Chicago, is “not ready” for subsequent stagings, John said today, seeming to end speculation that a Broadway or West End production was in the immediate offing.
“Devil Wears Prada was in preview in Chicago, and it’s not ready,” John said in an interview with BBC Radio2’s Zoe Ball, who asked if the show was coming to London. “It’ll be ready in about another year. We can’t get our theater anyways.”
In a statement to Deadline, John added, “We learned a lot from our run in Chicago and look forward to continuing to work on the production and make the necessary changes. We have every intention of bringing the production to the stage again when we have the proper theater and the timing is right.”
In the meantime, the rock icon will focus on Tammy Faye, the musical he co-wrote with Jake Schears that opens this fall at London’s Almeida Theater.
Although John didn’t go into detail about what, exactly, isn’t working with Prada – he phoned into the radio show to plug his “Hold Me Closer” single with Britney Spears – reviews of the Chicago production, which ran July 19 – August 21 at the James M. Nederlander Theatre, weren’t so withholding. Sniped The New York Times, “Though the show takes place at a fashion magazine, its creative team doesn’t seem to have agreed on a style. Is this a sincere story of a young woman’s education — sentimental, professional, sartorial — or a Fashion Week party? An inquiry into toxic workplace culture or an excuse to put an Eiffel Tower (technically, two Eiffel Towers) onstage? This is a show that has tried on everything in its closet. Nothing fits.”
The musical had, and has, prompted considerable anticipation in the theater community, with star power both on stage and behind the scenes. Based on Lauren Weisberger’s best-selling 2003 novel (adapted into the hit 2006 film starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway), the musical features music by John, lyrics by Taub (who wrote the music and lyrics for the hit Public Theater adaptation of As You Like It and, more recently, the Public’s suffragist musical Suffs) with a book by Kate Wetherhead and direction by Tony winner Anna D. Shapiro.
In Chicago, Broadway favorite Beth Leavel (The Prom) played Miranda Priestly (Streep in the film) and Taylor Iman Jones took the Hathaway role of Andy Sachs. The cast also included Javier Muñoz.