“All right, everyone! Gird your loins!”
Words by Chelsey Sanchez
Finally, some good news: The Devil Wears Prada will be adapted into a musical, and will premiere in Chicago in the summer of 2022.
The iconic 2006 film, based on the novel by the same name, has provided a generation with timeless entertainment, withering comebacks, and a buffet of Instagram captions (“I refuse to be sick. I’m wearing Valentino, for crying out loud.”). Now, expect to see the movie ascend from the silver screen to the stage. Here’s what we know about the upcoming musical adaptation of the film so far.
It’ll premiere in Chicago in the summer of 2022.
After multiple postponements, the production is now scheduled to hit the stage at the Nederlander Theatre in Chicago. The show will run for five weeks from July 19 before transitioning onto Broadway.
As Deadline previously reported, producer Kevin McCollum explained the reason for rescheduling the production. “We realized that we wanted more time to work on the show,” he said. “Our creative team members are in demand around the world with ridiculous schedules. The new dates mean that not only do we get an ideal theatre in Chicago, it also allows our New York landlord to confirm the Broadway venue, which means we have more time to coordinate our physical design, marketing and sales plans accordingly.”
The musical will be a “fabulously fresh makeover” of the original film.
Its official summary currently reads, “Andy, an ambitious young writer in New York City, lands a job at a prestigious magazine. Trying to survive under her stylish yet terrifying boss, she finds herself caught between the dreams she thought she wanted, and the cost of what that reality brings. A joyous, funny, and—of course—ultra-glamorous story about navigating life’s runway to discover where you’re meant to be, The Devil Wears Prada is a new musical that gives the hit film a fabulously fresh makeover.”
“We still see the good, bad, and ugly of what it is, but we also see people who are able to … stand up for themselves in a different way than they could prior to [the] Me Too movement, prior to 2020,” says Tiffany Mann—who plays Kayla—to NBC News.
The Devil Wears Prada
amazon.com
Elton John is involved with the music.
There are big shoes to fill for the adaptation’s creators, especially when the original cast of Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, and Stanley Tucci forged a cult following that’s still growing more than a decade after its release. But with Elton John at the helm of musical composition, it’s not a long shot to say that we can probably expect something truly groundbreaking.
The show will also feature lyrics by Shaina Taub, a book by Paul Rudnick, music supervision by Nadia DiGiallonardo, and direction by Tony Award winner Anna D. Shapiro. The full ensemble has yet to be announced.
Tony Award-winning Beth Leavel will play Miranda Priestly.
Beth Leavel, who won a Tony for her starring role in The Drowsy Chaperone, will fill Meryl Streep’s heels as pop culture’s favorite villain, Miranda Priestly.
Beth Leavel attends the 73rd Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on June 09, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
Additionally, Taylor Iman Jones, who has worked on Broadway productions like Groundhog Day and Head over Heels, will star as Miranda’s doe-eyed assistant Andy Sachs. The original film role was portrayed by Anne Hathaway.
Actress Taylor Iman Jones from the cast of Head Over Heels visits Build Studio on August 10, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
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This story originally appeared in harpersbazaar.com
